Readers who come to The Good Hand previously uninterested in moving equipment — which is, well, everyone — will also find a memoir padded in front, bumpy in Smith’s self-portrayal as both a quiet watcher and an 'adrenaline freak' and short of the redemptive transformation sold by the book’s subtitle.

The Good Hand is in part a meditation on how central oil is to our lives, but it is just as much about the gruesome work of actually extracting that oil.

... ambitious.

... celebrating the lives of both Williston’s townspeople and the men who worked the derricks, laying out the relentlessly perilous nature of the trade they plied, centering its importance in serving the world’s energy demands, and tracking Smith’s transformation from city slicker to “trained-up” professional. Those notes also deliver a deceptively affecting snapshot of blue-collar America in a singular place and time..

Part social commentary, part memoir, this is a sprawling, uneven book. At times it reads like the coming-of-age story of a man grappling with memories of a tragic, supremely dysfunctional youth. At other times it reads as a history primer, with brief biological sketches of historical figures who have also spent time in North Dakota. In still other moments, there is a nearly journalistic recounting of conversations and events that occur during his time in Williston, creating a vivid image of a cast of characters that seems primed for depiction in film or television.

... remarkable.

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