- Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: Ecco (Sep 6 2001)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0060938382
- ISBN-13: 978-0060938383
- Product Dimensions: 20.4 x 13.6 x 1.7 cm
- Shipping Weight: 209 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #453,699 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
The story of the 69-year-old author of this astonishing first fiction collection is a salutary one; he wrote between gigs tending boxers in their corners as a "cut man" (who stanches the blood flow and allows fights to continue), finally got a story published by a small literary magazine, was spotted by a keen-eyed agent and achieved book publication. It's amazing it took so long, because Irish-born Toole, now living and working in Los Angeles, is a natural. His knowledge of the bizarre world of professional boxing is encyclopedic and utterly persuasive, his prose is as tight as a well-laced pair of gloves and his protagonists, in this collection of five stories and a novella, are mythically heroic (and occasionally evil) but convincing archetypes. "The Money Look" is an exquisite turning-the-tables yarn at the expense of a cynical crook of a fighter; "Black Jew" is a telling tale of humble ambition woven with the lure of big money. A lacerating account of a courageous, deeply endearing hillbilly woman fighter and her sad fate, "Million $$$ Baby," is arguably the best story in the book. "Fightin' in Philly" is an almost equally moving tale of the toll the ambition to be a title fighter takes on a man. Another innocent torn up by the fight game is portrayed in "Frozen Water." Only the title novella, "Rope Burns," falls somewhat behind the sterling standard set by the other stories, with their firm authority and dead-on dialogue. It is more ambitious, even operatic, in its pitting of an almost superhumanly noble Olympic contender against a low-life East Los Angeles gang member at the time of the Rodney King riots. Like all of Toole's stories, it's breathlessly readable, even though the climactic bloodshed feels forced, as if Toole's cool narrative style cannot bear so much melodramatic freight. But make no mistake, the man is a heavyweight fiction contender. Agent, Nat Sobel. 6-city author tour. (Sept.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
A boxing cut man uses swabs, pressure, ice, and home-mixed salve to stop his fighter's bleeding between rounds. Toole, 70, whose experience as a cut man inspired this hard-boiled debut collection of contemporary fight stories, writes with blunt authority about this world. His strongest tales feature old trainers or cut men like himself, wisely noble holdovers from boxing's Hibernian age. Toole's old-fashioned modern stories often deal in broad ethnic typesDhillbillies and homeboys, "4-dollar whores," Irish trainers exclaiming "Jaysus!"Dbut the real fight world is littered with such contrasts. His coldly plotted novella "Million $$$ Baby" begins like the most familiar old pulp story of the grumpy veteran trainer and the eager would-be student; then Toole freshens the clich by making the boxer an innocent young woman from the Ozarks. Here and there, though, Toole's authenticity breaks down, as in the unconvincing stories that lean heavily on black street dialog, "Frozen Water" and "Black Jew." Overall, his tales distinguish themselves by staying in the heartbreaking thick of it, never using boxing na vely as a savage metaphor for life (some life!). As a storyteller, Toole is both sentimental as a bar song and as cruelly precise as the sport he chronicles. Recommended for large fiction collections.DNathan Ward, "Library Journal"
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
In my mid and late forties I came to boxing by choice and by chance. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
In my mid and late forties I came to boxing by choice and by chance. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Perfect condition, ships quickly,
This review is from: Rope Burns: Stories from the Corner (Hardcover)
I needed the book for a gift on short notice, I'd made a several item order that day from Amazon as well as this retailer, I was worried that the book wouldn't arrive on time but everything came as part of the same order 3 or 4 days later.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fascinating,
By
This review is from: Million Dollar Baby: Stories from the Corner (Paperback)
I had borrowed this book in Cuba when I became short of reading material. I did not think I would be interested in a book about boxing but once I started reading it I could not put it down. How interesting to find out what goes on behind the scenes and also about the heartbreak. How hard they try to be the best,the manipulation the boxers face on the sidelines. I found all the stories very emotional for the anger they caused for the boxers treatment and the sadness of them all. i ordered the book when I came home as I would like my sons to read it and I would like to read it again as well.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent!,
By A Customer
This review is from: Rope Burns (Paperback)
I'm not sure what's not to like about this series of short stories. Those who don't like F.X. Toole seem to fall into two categories. Either his characters are stereotypes or he's not literary enough. I found some genuinely interesting characters and stories with a point that are a refreshing change from the dusty introspective work that comes out of so many university creative writing departments these days. Toole was a careful observer of the craft of boxing and probably an ardent reader of Hemingway. His writing is traditional, and he's a wonderful storyteller.If you like boxing novels like "The Professional" or "The Harder They Fall" but found reading "Fat City" to be a pointless chore, then this book is for you.
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