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One Good Hustle
From award-winning writer Billie Livingston, an unsparing novel of loyalty and survival that is fierce, sharp and funny even when it's breaking your heart.
The child of two con artists, 16-year-old Sammie Bell always prided herself on knowing the score. But now she finds herself backed into a corner. After a hustle gone dangerously wrong, her mother, Marlene, is sliding into an abyss of alcoholic depression, spending her days fantasizing aloud about death—a goal Sammie is tempted to help her accomplish. Horrified by the appeal of this, Sammie packs a bag and leaves her mother to her own devices.
With her father missing in action, she has nowhere else to go but the home of a friend with two parents who seem to actually love their daughter and each other—and who awkwardly try to extend some semblance of family to Sammie. Throughout a long summer of crisis among the normals, Sammie is torn between her longing for the approval of the con-man father she was named for and her desire for the "weird, spearmint-fresh feeling" of life in the straight world. Sammie wants to be normal but fears that where she comes from makes that beyond the realm of possibility.
One Good Hustle chronicles two months in Sammie Bell's struggle with her dread that she is somehow doomed genetically to be just another hustler.
The child of two con artists, 16-year-old Sammie Bell always prided herself on knowing the score. But now she finds herself backed into a corner. After a hustle gone dangerously wrong, her mother, Marlene, is sliding into an abyss of alcoholic depression, spending her days fantasizing aloud about death—a goal Sammie is tempted to help her accomplish. Horrified by the appeal of this, Sammie packs a bag and leaves her mother to her own devices.
With her father missing in action, she has nowhere else to go but the home of a friend with two parents who seem to actually love their daughter and each other—and who awkwardly try to extend some semblance of family to Sammie. Throughout a long summer of crisis among the normals, Sammie is torn between her longing for the approval of the con-man father she was named for and her desire for the "weird, spearmint-fresh feeling" of life in the straight world. Sammie wants to be normal but fears that where she comes from makes that beyond the realm of possibility.
One Good Hustle chronicles two months in Sammie Bell's struggle with her dread that she is somehow doomed genetically to be just another hustler.
288 pages, Paperback
First published July 24, 2012
About the author
Billie Livingston
14 books63 followersBillie Livingston is a fiction writer, poet, and essayist. Born in Hamilton, Ontario, she grew up in Toronto and Vancouver, and has since lived in Tokyo, Hamburg, Munich, Los Angeles and London, England. Her first employment was filling the dairy coolers in a Macs Milk. She went on to work varying lengths of time as a file clerk, receptionist, cocktail waitress, model, actor, chocolate sampler, and booth host at a plumber’s convention.
Livingston's writing has been nominated for a National Magazine Award for journalism, the Journey Prize for fiction and the Pat Lowther Award for poetry. Greedy Little Eyes, a collection of short stories, was cited by The Globe and Mail and The Georgia Straight as one of the year's best books and the collection went on to win the CBC's Bookie Award as well as the Danuta Gleed Literary Award for Best Short Story Collection. Her 2012 novel, One Good Hustle, was long-listed for the Giller Prize and became a year’s best book selection for several publications including The Globe and Mail, Now Magazine and January Magazine. In 2014, her story, “Sitting on the Edge of Marlene,” was adapted to film by director, Ana Valine and starred Suzanne Clément, Paloma Kwiatkowski, and Callum Keith Rennie.
She lives in Vancouver, BC, with her husband, actor Tim Kelleher.
Livingston's writing has been nominated for a National Magazine Award for journalism, the Journey Prize for fiction and the Pat Lowther Award for poetry. Greedy Little Eyes, a collection of short stories, was cited by The Globe and Mail and The Georgia Straight as one of the year's best books and the collection went on to win the CBC's Bookie Award as well as the Danuta Gleed Literary Award for Best Short Story Collection. Her 2012 novel, One Good Hustle, was long-listed for the Giller Prize and became a year’s best book selection for several publications including The Globe and Mail, Now Magazine and January Magazine. In 2014, her story, “Sitting on the Edge of Marlene,” was adapted to film by director, Ana Valine and starred Suzanne Clément, Paloma Kwiatkowski, and Callum Keith Rennie.
She lives in Vancouver, BC, with her husband, actor Tim Kelleher.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 68 reviews
July 28, 2012
As the child of 2 hustlers, Sammie did not have it easy. Now that her dad has left, and her mother spends her days (and nights) drinking, she has no choice but to go live at her friend's house where she longs for… something. Her father? Normalcy? Love? One Good Hustle is the story of a young girl's struggle over her identity, over how her life is likely to turn out.
As this is a chronicle, it's a bit different from my typical contemporary reads. Instead of a front to back story, it's essentially a simple, and thoroughly engrossing, depiction of Sammie's life as a hustler's daughter. From as far as she can remember, her parents have involved her in scams. Making her a part of their hustles and showing her the ropes. Due to her upbringing, one might expect Sammie to be this broken criminal with no sense of right and wrong. Instead, Sammie is a well-rounded, disciplined teenager who, even though she has done her share of cons, is in her right mind. She's simply afraid that she's doomed to end up like her parents. I found her personality very realistic for her situation. Even through all her mother's faults, she stays a loyal and loving daughter. Never failing to have her back, even when she knows what people are saying is true. I loved her cleverness and spunky attitude throughout which makes the narration especially engaging.
Billie Livingston does not shy away from harsh situations and tough love in this novel. She shows us the nitty gritty of such a lifestyle and its consequences. Frequent flashbacks send us into Sammie's childhood where we get instances of what it was like for her during a hustle, and, eventually, to the events that left her on her friend's doorstep with a missing father and a drunk mother. When she's taken in by her friend Jill's family, she finally gets a glimpse of normalcy; getting to experience the other side of the coin. Consequently making her yearn, even more so, for a normal life. If I had one word to describe this story, it would be dirty. It's rough, it's jagged, and it's a life that is not sugarcoated. I think it's even listed as an adult novel despite being a teenager's story. So don't go in this expecting fluffiness and rainbows. There's swearing, and cheats, and let downs, but there's a little romance, humor, and wit to light up the grit, some.
Dark and riveting, Billie Livingston combines a dangerous atypical lifestyle with an insightful narrative of a teenager born on the wrong path. Don't expect an action-packed, edge of your seat novel, though. It's a chronicle of Sammie tackling what life has given her, rather than an action adventure. All in all, One Good Hustle is a brilliantly told and brutally honest story of one person's struggles.
--
For more of my reviews, visit my blog at Xpresso Reads
As this is a chronicle, it's a bit different from my typical contemporary reads. Instead of a front to back story, it's essentially a simple, and thoroughly engrossing, depiction of Sammie's life as a hustler's daughter. From as far as she can remember, her parents have involved her in scams. Making her a part of their hustles and showing her the ropes. Due to her upbringing, one might expect Sammie to be this broken criminal with no sense of right and wrong. Instead, Sammie is a well-rounded, disciplined teenager who, even though she has done her share of cons, is in her right mind. She's simply afraid that she's doomed to end up like her parents. I found her personality very realistic for her situation. Even through all her mother's faults, she stays a loyal and loving daughter. Never failing to have her back, even when she knows what people are saying is true. I loved her cleverness and spunky attitude throughout which makes the narration especially engaging.
Billie Livingston does not shy away from harsh situations and tough love in this novel. She shows us the nitty gritty of such a lifestyle and its consequences. Frequent flashbacks send us into Sammie's childhood where we get instances of what it was like for her during a hustle, and, eventually, to the events that left her on her friend's doorstep with a missing father and a drunk mother. When she's taken in by her friend Jill's family, she finally gets a glimpse of normalcy; getting to experience the other side of the coin. Consequently making her yearn, even more so, for a normal life. If I had one word to describe this story, it would be dirty. It's rough, it's jagged, and it's a life that is not sugarcoated. I think it's even listed as an adult novel despite being a teenager's story. So don't go in this expecting fluffiness and rainbows. There's swearing, and cheats, and let downs, but there's a little romance, humor, and wit to light up the grit, some.
Dark and riveting, Billie Livingston combines a dangerous atypical lifestyle with an insightful narrative of a teenager born on the wrong path. Don't expect an action-packed, edge of your seat novel, though. It's a chronicle of Sammie tackling what life has given her, rather than an action adventure. All in all, One Good Hustle is a brilliantly told and brutally honest story of one person's struggles.
--
For more of my reviews, visit my blog at Xpresso Reads
August 7, 2012
I loved One Good Hustle.
Clean writing, simple, yet sophisticated, with characters so familiar as to feel neighbourly, with all that neighbours bring.
Sammie, Livingston's young protagonist, is written with such a confident stroke, I don't think I caught one misstep. She's heartbreaking in the toughest, truest sense, in part because she's one of those pained youths cursed with self-awareness that isn't yet paired with autonomy.
And while the circumstances of Sammie's upbringing are entertaining—hustling—(you'll find yourself wanting to take notes)–and provide a smart backdrop to the rest of Livingston's tale, the story itself doesn't hinge on those circumstances, a good thing. Instead, it stands firm, stubbornly so, on the two tiny legs of a precocious teen.
You can't quite call this a coming-of-age tale; it's just life. And some kids get thrown in at the deep end.
If you've ever watched from afar, or close up, as an adolescent struggles to find his or her way in the world, you should read One Good Hustle. You'll be at once wrecked and relieved.
Ps. It's possible to read this in one day, if you're looking to be completely immersed in something.
Clean writing, simple, yet sophisticated, with characters so familiar as to feel neighbourly, with all that neighbours bring.
Sammie, Livingston's young protagonist, is written with such a confident stroke, I don't think I caught one misstep. She's heartbreaking in the toughest, truest sense, in part because she's one of those pained youths cursed with self-awareness that isn't yet paired with autonomy.
And while the circumstances of Sammie's upbringing are entertaining—hustling—(you'll find yourself wanting to take notes)–and provide a smart backdrop to the rest of Livingston's tale, the story itself doesn't hinge on those circumstances, a good thing. Instead, it stands firm, stubbornly so, on the two tiny legs of a precocious teen.
You can't quite call this a coming-of-age tale; it's just life. And some kids get thrown in at the deep end.
If you've ever watched from afar, or close up, as an adolescent struggles to find his or her way in the world, you should read One Good Hustle. You'll be at once wrecked and relieved.
Ps. It's possible to read this in one day, if you're looking to be completely immersed in something.
November 5, 2012
One of the most valuable things about fiction is that it encourages empathy. People who have grown up in "good homes" or people whose experience with the seedier side of life is, thankfully, limited, will find a character to empathize with. As readers, we ache with Sammie's vulnerability to her to father, to her mother, and to her foster family. We want to shout affirmations to her from outside the pages of the book but we know she can't hear us.
Having grown up in Greater Vancouver, I can identify with Sammie on a more personal level. In fact, I find it difficult to review this book with an "objective" point of view. For instance when Sammie bristles with indignation over Aunt Jemima's fake maple syrup and the way she feels that people look down on her as a welfare case--I get that. Also when the kids at the bush party are getting drunk and Sammie thinks "If you act like Marlene, you'll end up like Marlene"--I get that too.
But as a lover of good writing, I can say that Billie Livingston has really impressed me with this novel. There are some startling images that astonished me. "The sun is smashed open on the blue water like a broken piggy bank" is not only a knock-your-socks-off image of English Bay but it is also totally integral to the mood of the book. The way Sammie is confused about love: family love, "Jesusy" love, and boy-girl love--it makes my eyes sting and my stomach ache.
I am reminded of Heather O'Neill's Lullabies for Little Criminals, which I loved as well.
One Good Hustle is beautifully written and completely believable in it's harshness. Until now, Sammie's story has never been told--not with this tender and brilliant care. I only wish I could write a review that would convince everyone to listen to pay attention to her, to surround her and help me try to communicate to her that she's smart, she's loveable, and that, with a little distance from her childhood, she'll be ok one day.
Thank you, thank you Ms. Livingston.
Having grown up in Greater Vancouver, I can identify with Sammie on a more personal level. In fact, I find it difficult to review this book with an "objective" point of view. For instance when Sammie bristles with indignation over Aunt Jemima's fake maple syrup and the way she feels that people look down on her as a welfare case--I get that. Also when the kids at the bush party are getting drunk and Sammie thinks "If you act like Marlene, you'll end up like Marlene"--I get that too.
But as a lover of good writing, I can say that Billie Livingston has really impressed me with this novel. There are some startling images that astonished me. "The sun is smashed open on the blue water like a broken piggy bank" is not only a knock-your-socks-off image of English Bay but it is also totally integral to the mood of the book. The way Sammie is confused about love: family love, "Jesusy" love, and boy-girl love--it makes my eyes sting and my stomach ache.
I am reminded of Heather O'Neill's Lullabies for Little Criminals, which I loved as well.
One Good Hustle is beautifully written and completely believable in it's harshness. Until now, Sammie's story has never been told--not with this tender and brilliant care. I only wish I could write a review that would convince everyone to listen to pay attention to her, to surround her and help me try to communicate to her that she's smart, she's loveable, and that, with a little distance from her childhood, she'll be ok one day.
Thank you, thank you Ms. Livingston.
December 10, 2015
As a child of two very cunning and clever people, Samantha feels trapped as she embraces the difficulty of raising her mother while trying to graduate high school. This novel is funny, interesting, confusing and intriguing at the same time which is rather strange as I got upset with Samantha as she made life decisions and acted things in ways that I would never do. This was a very intriguing because the character is the same age as me but making some decisions that I won’t ever be making. The identity crisis that Samantha faces are to be seen world over as a lot of young people, teenagers and young adults alike, struggle to figure out who they are or what they want to be. This is exactly what Samantha fought as she with herself and her need to always seek her father’s approval or his recognition as she always questions whether he would like her to do it not before doing a task.
As a teenager myself, it was always gets real when a character such as Samantha is so relatable to. Not that its unacceptable to see others in similar situations as you, but to see that some authors can make characters so relatable and life like, that you grow close with them. This was the case in this book as I, myself, always sought after the approval of those whom I look up to. This resulted in me doing things that I sometimes wouldn’t like just because I know that it is that my “idol” would do/want. This is a problem that really affects us as sometimes those idols no longer are a part of your life, but you still seek that approval that you may never get due to circumstances presented. This is where like Samantha, a lot of people realize that the life we live is ours and we make the final shots once the training wheels are off and we can no longer be lenient on our parents. I would recommend this book to anyone who may still not know what to do other than that what is told them to do, and those that want to take control of situations. This book is a fantastic read.
As a teenager myself, it was always gets real when a character such as Samantha is so relatable to. Not that its unacceptable to see others in similar situations as you, but to see that some authors can make characters so relatable and life like, that you grow close with them. This was the case in this book as I, myself, always sought after the approval of those whom I look up to. This resulted in me doing things that I sometimes wouldn’t like just because I know that it is that my “idol” would do/want. This is a problem that really affects us as sometimes those idols no longer are a part of your life, but you still seek that approval that you may never get due to circumstances presented. This is where like Samantha, a lot of people realize that the life we live is ours and we make the final shots once the training wheels are off and we can no longer be lenient on our parents. I would recommend this book to anyone who may still not know what to do other than that what is told them to do, and those that want to take control of situations. This book is a fantastic read.
August 3, 2012
Billie Livingston returns! One Good Hustle is classic Livingston. Teen Sammie has given up trying to help her mom, Marlene, whether by helping her live, or helping her die. She escapes to the home of well-meaning, semi-Christian, slightly judge-y parents of new friend Jill. From there, Sammie tries to figure out who she's going to be, and where she'll be it from. On one side there's the well-meaning "straight" world, and on the other side, hustlers.
You can take the girl out of the con, but you ... you know.
The hustles are fun and educational and should probably come with a "do not try this at home," disclaimer (unless you want to try this at home, and if you do let me know which ones worked, because these could be AWESOME), but the best part of the book is the flawed, fucked up, deep, and loyal relationship between mother and daughter. Shrunk to normal size, they could be anyone of us.
This is my new favourite Livingston novel--at least until the next one. If you want to know how it ends, send me $5 through my pay pal account and I'll let you know ;-)
You can take the girl out of the con, but you ... you know.
The hustles are fun and educational and should probably come with a "do not try this at home," disclaimer (unless you want to try this at home, and if you do let me know which ones worked, because these could be AWESOME), but the best part of the book is the flawed, fucked up, deep, and loyal relationship between mother and daughter. Shrunk to normal size, they could be anyone of us.
This is my new favourite Livingston novel--at least until the next one. If you want to know how it ends, send me $5 through my pay pal account and I'll let you know ;-)
September 29, 2012
Meet sixteen-year-old Sammie Bell. She’s the teenage daughter of two con artists. Her father Sam is a rounder, an expert card player who travels the country in search of high stakes games that he can fix. Her mother Marlene is a hustler out to make a buck or die trying. Their colorful list of acquaintances includes Peggy the booster (shoplifter) and Freddy the fence (purchaser and seller of stolen goods).
Growing up surrounded by criminals, Sammie considers herself to be nothing like them. Believing that she isn’t worthy of the family trade she labels herself “a gold plated sucker.” Her parents split when she was younger and she believes that it’s her fault that her father disappeared, abandoning her to be raised by her somewhat unstable mother. Things weren’t perfect for the pair, but they were moving along fine up until this summer when Marlene began a downward slide into alcohol and drug addiction and began having suicidal thoughts.
READ MORE:
http://www.typographicalera.com/one-g...
Growing up surrounded by criminals, Sammie considers herself to be nothing like them. Believing that she isn’t worthy of the family trade she labels herself “a gold plated sucker.” Her parents split when she was younger and she believes that it’s her fault that her father disappeared, abandoning her to be raised by her somewhat unstable mother. Things weren’t perfect for the pair, but they were moving along fine up until this summer when Marlene began a downward slide into alcohol and drug addiction and began having suicidal thoughts.
READ MORE:
http://www.typographicalera.com/one-g...
May 22, 2012
A friend was kind enough to lend me her advanced reading copy of this novel. She said it was a must-read for me. I'm already a fan of Livingston's writing but I wasn't sure what to expect with this one. I loved it. It's about a young woman, the daughter of two con-artists who takes off on her own and tries to sort out whether she's somehow biologically destined to be just like her family. It's blunt and funny and ruthless in its observations. While at the same it has a kind of beautiful poetry to it. In some ways it reminded me of "Lullabies for Little Criminals" but the writing was much more lean and hard-edged -- more along the lines of the story, "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner" by a British author, Alan Sillitoe.
December 23, 2012
The protagonist for One Good Hustle is Sammie, the daughter of two con artists. Her dad has been out of the picture for some time now and she is barely surviving with her alcoholic mother. Sammie ends up moving in with a friend's family for the summer, experiencing a slice of normalcy. This book is about loyalities and love. Despite her parents' shortfallings, Sammie longs to be with them again even while she understands that may not be the best solution for her.
Billie Livingston's writing is real. You can imagine these conversations actually happened. She aptly demonstrates the poignancy of Sammie's situation without once drowning in emotion. This is a lovely book.
Billie Livingston's writing is real. You can imagine these conversations actually happened. She aptly demonstrates the poignancy of Sammie's situation without once drowning in emotion. This is a lovely book.
December 7, 2012
Thank you Billie Livingston for writing such an incredibly enjoyable story. I really loved One Good Hustle and Sammie is an amazing character! She's got 'spunk'. As a member of the 80s teenage brigade, I really enjoyed taking a few strolls down memory lane. Big, hair, overdone makeup, I had a friend that was Jill to a 'T'.
I also related to the softer side of Sammie's relationship with her mother, Marlene. *****
I also related to the softer side of Sammie's relationship with her mother, Marlene. *****
November 1, 2012
You can't help but be drawn into the world Billie Livingston has created for 16-year-old Sammie Bell. The daughter of two hustlers - an addict mother and an absent father who's a con - Sammie's got their smarts and is afraid she'll turn out to be just like them. Her struggles to carve our her own existence and win out over her demons is raw and vividly drawn. Unputdownable.
December 5, 2012
A straight-up story with a wise and tender heart.
July 30, 2012
This review and others can be found on Cozy Up With A Good Read
I have been eagerly expecting this book since I heard about it from Random House, the idea of a child of two con-artists trying to live a normal life was a really interesting and inspiring idea, I had to get my hands on it.
I really loved that everything was from Sammie's point of view, Livingston does a beautiful job showing the issues that Sammie has had to deal with throughout her life. I fell in love with Sammie, watching her struggle through everything and just wanting to be loved by her father, who is never around for her. As a reader you get an amazing view into Sammie's life. I found the way Livingston combines Sammie's past and present throughout the book was really interesting. We slowly learn how Sammie and her family came to the position they are currently in.
The one major thing I was not a big fan of in the book was Jill and her family. I felt that they were a little more self-righteous than needed to be for the story. In Sammie's eyes they are a normal family and that's why she chooses to stay with them in the book. I did enjoy that though it was an awkward situation this is a family that opens their home to Sammie so easily.
The other thing that left me a little disappointed was the ending. There were so many questions left unanswered for me about Sammie and her life with her family and her friends. Despite these questions this was a beautifully written book, that was very heartfelt. You will fall in love with Sammie from the beginning and you will not want this book to end.
I have been eagerly expecting this book since I heard about it from Random House, the idea of a child of two con-artists trying to live a normal life was a really interesting and inspiring idea, I had to get my hands on it.
I really loved that everything was from Sammie's point of view, Livingston does a beautiful job showing the issues that Sammie has had to deal with throughout her life. I fell in love with Sammie, watching her struggle through everything and just wanting to be loved by her father, who is never around for her. As a reader you get an amazing view into Sammie's life. I found the way Livingston combines Sammie's past and present throughout the book was really interesting. We slowly learn how Sammie and her family came to the position they are currently in.
The one major thing I was not a big fan of in the book was Jill and her family. I felt that they were a little more self-righteous than needed to be for the story. In Sammie's eyes they are a normal family and that's why she chooses to stay with them in the book. I did enjoy that though it was an awkward situation this is a family that opens their home to Sammie so easily.
The other thing that left me a little disappointed was the ending. There were so many questions left unanswered for me about Sammie and her life with her family and her friends. Despite these questions this was a beautifully written book, that was very heartfelt. You will fall in love with Sammie from the beginning and you will not want this book to end.
March 31, 2013
I read this book as the book of the month for discussion on CBC Books Group here on Goodreads.
As I was reading this book, I realized a few things...
1 - I think I was expecting something different while reading the book... Once I got past my initial thoughts about what I would have liked to see (oh... half way through), the book became much better for me.
2 - Once the story got going for me, I identified more with the characters and could understand where they were coming from.
3 - This book would make a very interesting movie...
4 - Will there be a second book? I would really be interested.
I will have to revisit this book after a while now that I know the book is different than what I expected out of it. I'm giving the book 4* since it did catch me once I got through my original thinking.
As I was reading this book, I realized a few things...
1 - I think I was expecting something different while reading the book... Once I got past my initial thoughts about what I would have liked to see (oh... half way through), the book became much better for me.
2 - Once the story got going for me, I identified more with the characters and could understand where they were coming from.
3 - This book would make a very interesting movie...
4 - Will there be a second book? I would really be interested.
I will have to revisit this book after a while now that I know the book is different than what I expected out of it. I'm giving the book 4* since it did catch me once I got through my original thinking.
July 27, 2012
I just finished this book and I'm stunned. I've read everything this author has written and this may be the best one yet. Billie Livingston is a writer who often looks at those living on the edge but this story really takes it to a whole new level. Though the narrator is a teenager this one is definitely no kids book. Raw, tough, and very funny, it's the story of Sammie, a young would-be con artist as she tries to make her way in the world, struggling to determine who and what she is. Is it nature or nurture? Are you stuck in the situation you're born into?
Sammie is a character I won't forget -- she's pure and jaded at once, she's angry and optimistic, she's funny and enough-to-make-you-cry. I loved the flashbacks to the hustles her parents involved her in as a kid and the small cons she pulls herself as a teenager. The dialog is so perfect too, you feel as though you are right there, a fly on the wall, watching the whole thing. The pictures are so vivid in my head that after reading the book, it's as though I saw it as a movie.
Sammie is a character I won't forget -- she's pure and jaded at once, she's angry and optimistic, she's funny and enough-to-make-you-cry. I loved the flashbacks to the hustles her parents involved her in as a kid and the small cons she pulls herself as a teenager. The dialog is so perfect too, you feel as though you are right there, a fly on the wall, watching the whole thing. The pictures are so vivid in my head that after reading the book, it's as though I saw it as a movie.
May 1, 2014
I really enjoyed this book, I thought it would be about hustles and the life they live. As I got into reading it I found out it wasn't, it was more into depth in the girls life and I liked that. I found it funny something different to read. It's very different from what I have read in the past. I liked Sammie's personality and the things she would think in her head and not say. Her thoughts got me entertained throughout the book. Her reactions to things and when she would pull of hustles with her parents, how try would involve her. I liked when she would remains about her life before and how she got where she was.
The book was gripping and made me want to read more I never wanted it to end.
I liked how easy it was to read the writing was clean and very easy to follow. I would put my headphones in tune out the world and delve into the world of Sammie and the problems she would face in her day to day life.
The wanting to reading more come all the time when I put it down but I needed to sleep so when I wasn't sleeping I was reading the book it was so good.
The book was gripping and made me want to read more I never wanted it to end.
I liked how easy it was to read the writing was clean and very easy to follow. I would put my headphones in tune out the world and delve into the world of Sammie and the problems she would face in her day to day life.
The wanting to reading more come all the time when I put it down but I needed to sleep so when I wasn't sleeping I was reading the book it was so good.
September 22, 2012
16-year-old Sammie is the child of two con artists. Her mom is falling apart due to mental illness and substance abuse and Sammie takes off and moves in with family friends. Yet she struggles, trying to determine who she is and if her upbringing as a con artist means that she will be one too.
I really liked the setting and the narrative voice in this book. I am a big fan of Billie Livingston, and she's great at capturing complex relationships and creating characters who are wonderfully nuanced.
This book is long-listed for the Giller and it's nice to see it on the list.
I really liked the setting and the narrative voice in this book. I am a big fan of Billie Livingston, and she's great at capturing complex relationships and creating characters who are wonderfully nuanced.
This book is long-listed for the Giller and it's nice to see it on the list.
September 26, 2012
LOVED this one. I've read the author's other books and I thought they were very good too but none affected me quite like this. At the end of the book, I put the book down on my chest and lay there crying for 20 minutes. I found the ending so beautiful. It's interesting to me that some people here are bothered by it. I thought it was beautiful. All about facing that point of self-determination. Really facing that point is a complete butt-kicking moment whether your 16 or 60.
March 28, 2013
Sammie has got it rough, her mom wants to kill herself and she has little interaction with her father - both are con artists, which has left an imprint on Sammie and her outlook on life and its expectations (or the lack there of). Loved the character development, as well as, the landscape of Burnaby/Vancouver with Sammie's trapsings. Take in how Sammie deals with her relationships with her mom/dad and how she wants to fit in and be normal with her foster family. Enjoyed!
January 15, 2013
I don't think I've read Billie Livingston before. I wonder why. I really enjoyed this book. Her protagonist is authentic and likable. While we often bemoan the fact that there is no instruction book for raising kids and no license needed, this book made me realize that neither do kids get to trade in their parents for new models. You get what you get and you're going to have to make that do.
September 23, 2012
liked it very much. immensely real vulneable character, that Sammie!
September 15, 2012
Could have easily been published as YA. Glad to see it recognized on the Giller Longlist.
September 26, 2012
Fantastic! Absolutely fantastic. Sammie is such a real character... all of the characters feel real: complex, with bad points and good points and lots in between.
Read
November 27, 2012Just when I thought Sammie was going to take responsibility for making her own, better choices, the book ended very abruptly. Very disappointing.
February 3, 2013
Really well written and readable, but once again I didn't like the non-ending.
July 22, 2025
Fringe life is a drag. In Billie Livingston’s latest novel, One Good Hustle, our protagonist is a perpetually crestfallen waif with housing issues, a teenage depressive for whom poverty is a constant companion and positive parenting is a thing not known. Sixteen-year-old Sammy is of course immersed in a personal struggle to maintain sanity—not to mention sobriety and virginity—amid a tossed salad of a life. And then there’s relationships with others; generally negative among the peer group, humiliating with anybody who has a positive opinion about themselves. Self esteem is acidic in this milieu.
Set during one summer in the mid-1980’s, the book has a clever structure, with present-tense narrative seamlessly interspersed with happenings from the past. Much thus unfolds extensively over a short period of time, events unroll haphazardly as a teenage phone conversation. Essentially plot-less, this is a journey through character via dialogue and memory.
Despite the suggestion of the title, One Good Hustle is not a caper story, nor is it action packed; we are essentially reader-voyeurs, following Sammy as she attempts to forge an independent life at a tender age, all the while recalling instances when she was compelled to abet her conniving parents at their underhanded schemes. She helps Mom do a hotel hustle and Dad with an elaborate break and enter. These sequences are vividly drawn, and enhance the readability of what is essentially a private teenage rant.
Much of the fascination of the book and its main character is in the casual way everyday life is interspersed with the wild side. Amid the criminal activity, Sammy passes Grade Eleven. She seethes with familial disappointment. She waitresses. She churns at a society which does little to protect the offspring of moral weaklings. She goes to driving school. This is normalcy, as close as she can make it.
Throughout, the writing is deftly observational. A Toronto crash pad …looked a little beat up, the way a place does when everyone’s moved out and you’re the last one left. Sent to a ‘Jesus Camp’ one summer, Sammy opines: The Welfare paid for it. Most of the camps Welfare pays for are Jesus camps. It’s like they think that poor kids must all be morally bankrupt too.
Ms. Livingston has a talent for the defining element in a particular scene. Dad finds Sammy at the residence of Mom’s latest boyfriend and the loaded moment is sadly neutered: 'He got out of his spotless Cadillac and called up to the porch. A passing streetcar clanged through his words.'
A close-quartered sense of charged ennui greatly contributes to the novel’s sombre tone. Though dissimilar in prose style, One Good Hustle’s overall affect has some relationship with the sustained shout of Elizabeth Smart’s 'By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept', and thematically shares that novel’s penetrating delve into inner angst.
Veteran of two previous novels, Billie Livingston is deservedly one of Canada’s most prominent writers. Her Danuta Gleed Award winning short fiction collection 'Greedy Little Eyes', with it’s masterfully wrought Southern Gothic-style conceits, is a distinctly different fictional animal from 'One Good Hustle', despite the general commonality of the themes. Though a wondrous tour-de-force of teenage dissention, in its sometimes languorous pace the novel perhaps leaves one thirsting for a little of the steel sculpted constructions of the Greedy collection. But that’s just individual taste. As a penetration into the loneliness of the neglected teen, 'One Good Hustle' warrants a wide readership.
Set during one summer in the mid-1980’s, the book has a clever structure, with present-tense narrative seamlessly interspersed with happenings from the past. Much thus unfolds extensively over a short period of time, events unroll haphazardly as a teenage phone conversation. Essentially plot-less, this is a journey through character via dialogue and memory.
Despite the suggestion of the title, One Good Hustle is not a caper story, nor is it action packed; we are essentially reader-voyeurs, following Sammy as she attempts to forge an independent life at a tender age, all the while recalling instances when she was compelled to abet her conniving parents at their underhanded schemes. She helps Mom do a hotel hustle and Dad with an elaborate break and enter. These sequences are vividly drawn, and enhance the readability of what is essentially a private teenage rant.
Much of the fascination of the book and its main character is in the casual way everyday life is interspersed with the wild side. Amid the criminal activity, Sammy passes Grade Eleven. She seethes with familial disappointment. She waitresses. She churns at a society which does little to protect the offspring of moral weaklings. She goes to driving school. This is normalcy, as close as she can make it.
Throughout, the writing is deftly observational. A Toronto crash pad …looked a little beat up, the way a place does when everyone’s moved out and you’re the last one left. Sent to a ‘Jesus Camp’ one summer, Sammy opines: The Welfare paid for it. Most of the camps Welfare pays for are Jesus camps. It’s like they think that poor kids must all be morally bankrupt too.
Ms. Livingston has a talent for the defining element in a particular scene. Dad finds Sammy at the residence of Mom’s latest boyfriend and the loaded moment is sadly neutered: 'He got out of his spotless Cadillac and called up to the porch. A passing streetcar clanged through his words.'
A close-quartered sense of charged ennui greatly contributes to the novel’s sombre tone. Though dissimilar in prose style, One Good Hustle’s overall affect has some relationship with the sustained shout of Elizabeth Smart’s 'By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept', and thematically shares that novel’s penetrating delve into inner angst.
Veteran of two previous novels, Billie Livingston is deservedly one of Canada’s most prominent writers. Her Danuta Gleed Award winning short fiction collection 'Greedy Little Eyes', with it’s masterfully wrought Southern Gothic-style conceits, is a distinctly different fictional animal from 'One Good Hustle', despite the general commonality of the themes. Though a wondrous tour-de-force of teenage dissention, in its sometimes languorous pace the novel perhaps leaves one thirsting for a little of the steel sculpted constructions of the Greedy collection. But that’s just individual taste. As a penetration into the loneliness of the neglected teen, 'One Good Hustle' warrants a wide readership.
July 22, 2020
In the two books I've read by Billie Livingston - this one and Going Down Swinging - she writes about young women trying to live a decent life with the crappy cards they've been dealt. Not a genre I'd normally read, in fact I think I picked up Going Down Swinging years ago because I liked the cover, however, Livingston is a good writer. Her characters really draw you in. Enjoying, easy reads. This one ended perhaps a little abruptly, but that could just be me surprised when I flipped from the end of one chapter into the Acknowledgement. With e-books, sometimes it's hard to tell you are nearing the end, you get lazy as a reader, and you are less likely to pick up on denouement clues. Moral of the story: Life...this life... is a good hustle.
July 6, 2021
We've all known parents so wrapped up in their own lives they treat their children as personal possessions, to be used or abused, taken-up or discarded at whim. The parents in this novel are self-absorbed grifters who drag their daughter, Sammie, into the dangerous world of the hustle. They use her to advance their elaborate schemes to steal and defraud others and eventually they use her as a pawn in their crumbling marriage. After Sammie's father moves on without them and her mother becomes suicidal in a downward spiral of substance abuse, Sammie cannot take a minute more. She flees to go live with her friend's family for the summer and becomes exposed to an entirely different way families operate & care for each other.
April 3, 2018
Sammie is the daughter of hustlers - father Sam who has disappeared to Toronto and mother Marlene with whom she lives in Burnaby, BC. Marlene has taken to some self-destructive behavior - drinking too much and running dangerous scams - and Sammie is trying to figure a way to survive - sometimes at the homes of friends and sometimes on the street. When Marlene is beaten in a scam gone wrong Sammie is taken in by the parents of a friend who had a previous history of fostering disadvantaged kids. She struggles with peer relationships and her dysfunctional family as she uses the methods she has been taught to try and solve the problems of her life. This is a good read.
November 17, 2019
This book was very interesting, from her mom wanting to commit suicide to the story of sisterhood between Sammie and Jill I found it hard to put the book down. It did seem like Billie was setting up the book for the full first half which I found got old very fast. I loved the story of each hustle they did and the great detail of Sammie's perspective as well. The story of Sammie wanting her father back and also being mad that he left was written brilliantly and I was able to understand each emotion that came with that. I wouldn't read this book again but I definitely would recommend it to people it's a relatively fast read and an interesting one at that.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 26, 2021
This novel can be a little slow at times, however it's charm lays in the character's unique life and perspective. You end up deeply caring for the main character.
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