The Good Hand

A Memoir of Work, Brotherhood, and Transformation in an American Boomtown

By: Michael Patrick F. Smith

Narrated by: Michael Patrick F. Smith

"Remarkable . . . this is the book that Hillbilly Elegy should have been." --Kirkus Reviews

A vivid window into the world of working class men set during the Bakken fracking boom in North Dakota

Like thousands of restless men left unmoored in the wake of the 2008 economic crash, Michael Patrick Smith arrived in the fracking boomtown of Williston, North Dakota five years later homeless, unemployed, and desperate for a job. Renting a mattress on a dirty flophouse floor, he slept boot to beard with migrant men who came from all across America and as far away as Jamaica, Africa and the Philippines. They ate together, drank together, argued like crows and searched for jobs they couldn't get back home. Smith's goal was to find the hardest work he could do--to find out if he could do it. He hired on in the oil patch where he toiled fourteen hour shifts from summer's 100 degree dog days to deep into winter's bracing whiteouts, all the while wrestling with the demons of a turbulent past, his broken relationships with women, and the haunted memories of a family riven by violence.

The Good Hand is a saga of fear, danger, exhaustion, suffering, loneliness, and grit that explores the struggles of America's marginalized boomtown workers--the rough-hewn, castoff, seemingly disposable men who do an indispensable job that few would exalt: oil field hands who, in the age of climate change, put the gas in our tanks and the food in our homes. Smith, who had pursued theater and played guitar in New York, observes this world with a critical eye; yet he comes to love his coworkers, forming close bonds with Huck, a goofy giant of a young man whose lead foot and quick fists get him into trouble with the law, and The Wildebeest, a foul-mouthed, dip-spitting truck driver who torments him but also trains him up, and helps Smith "make a hand."

The Good Hand is ultimately a book about transformation--a classic American story of one man's attempt to burn himself clean through hard work, to reconcile himself to himself, to find community, and to become whole.


* This audiobook edition includes an original score and seven songs performed by The Good Hand.

much better than I thought

great story, well read and told, with interesting characters and insights from the author. highly recommended

Good story

After 1 year you’re only starting to figure that part of the oilfield out. Great book overall but feel like his main reason for going was to write a book about it but honestly appreciated that a liberal went out and experienced the life rather than writing a book about the horrors of the oilfield without actually experiencing it first hand. Thank you for that.

Good story but weak ending

It was a fascinating story. The intertwining of the author’s life and background with that of so many oil field workers was interesting given the varied backgrounds everyone came from. However after the build up of so many months of working in the oil fields it just became a “time to go home. The end” sort of ending. I was looking for a little more insight and introspection than I received.

Well done.

I enjoyed this book. I have family members who have worked on rigs, albeit not in winter in North Dakota. Hats off to these guys.

An extraordinary story

This book is extraordinary experiences of good and bad, shared by the author. No one else could have relayed the emotion any better. I felt like I was in every space Michael Patrick F. Smith described. He weaves his experiences well. This is the first book I’ve listened that made me want another one just like it. The Good Hand is full of relatable experiences like hard work and hard choices. The ups and downs of a family you can’t choose and the friends you do and the consequences of both.