Editing The Hustler (novel) (section)

== Critical reception ==
''[[The New York Times|New York Times]]'' critic Rex Lardner called the book "a tense, jolting trip to the tough, dusty, smoky, ball-clackety, money-filled world of the pool shark," and wrote that Tevis "writes like a streak, making straight pool as exciting as a [[Stanley Ketchel]]l fight. This is a fine, swift, wanton, offbeat novel."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Lardner |first=Rex |date=January 11, 1959 |title=Conning the Marks; ''The Hustler''. By Walter Tevis |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1959/01/11/archives/conning-the-marks-the-hustler-by-walter-tevis-214-pp-new-york.html |access-date=August 27, 2023 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=August 27, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230827171416/https://www.nytimes.com/1959/01/11/archives/conning-the-marks-the-hustler-by-walter-tevis-214-pp-new-york.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

An unsigned review in [[Time (magazine)|''Time'']] said that ''The Hustler'' "has its faults as a novel, but opens the door on a world that books have not yet made commonplace". It went on to say that: "The moral of ''The Hustler'' is obviously sententious, the love story is a cliche, and author Tevis' writing is sometimes too painfully exact. What remains is a succession of scenes in which a smoky, seedy world becomes sharply alive, and where crises are intense even though the scene is grubby and the game is only pool."<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,937115,00.html |title=The Eight Ball |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |date=January 12, 1959 |volume=73 |issue=2 |pages=89–90|access-date=October 8, 2023}}</ref>

''[[Kirkus Reviews]]'' called it a "compact, tidy novel", and said: "Through a language of casual statement which does not disguise the seriousness of its intent, this exploration of moral experience is a pithy and competent performance."<ref>{{Cite web |title=''The Hustler'' by Walter Tevis |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/a/walter-tevis/the-hustler/ |access-date=August 27, 2023 |website=[[Kirkus Reviews]] |archive-date=August 27, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230827165255/https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/a/walter-tevis/the-hustler/ |url-status=live }}</ref>