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The Professional
Originally published in 1958, The Professional is the story of boxer Eddie Brown's quest for the middleweight championship of the world. But it is so much more. W. C. Heinz not only serves up a realistic depiction of the circus-like atmosphere around boxing with its assorted hangers-on, crooked promoters, and jaded journalists, but he gives us two memorable characters in Eddie Brown and in Brown's crusty trainer, Doc Carroll. They are at the heart of this poignant story as they bond together with their eye on the only prize that matters—the middleweight championship. The Professional is W. C. Heinz at the top of his game—the writer who covered the fights better than anyone else of his era, whose lean sentences, rough-and-ready dialogue, dry wit, and you-are-there style helped lay the foundation for the New Journalism of Jimmy Breslin, Gay Talese, and Tom Wolfe. And all the trademark qualities of W. C. Heinz are on ample display in this novel that Pete Hamill described as "one of the five best sports novels ever written."
334 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1958
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March 20, 2022
Some of the best writing that I have ever had the pleasure of reading was about the subject of sports. However, practically all of it is nonfiction. Writing fiction about sports must be difficult for writers, since there is so little of it that can be classified as great. The same goes for sports movies, although there seems to have been an improvement in that area in recent years.
There are exceptions, of course. For example, there is the series of novels that Mark Harris wrote about Henry Wiggen, a major league pitcher who threw left handed and thought outside the box. The best of these, which was also successfully adapted for the screen, was Bang the Drum Slowly.
When I look at my virtual bookshelf I see that I have spent much more time reading books -- fictional and nonfictional -- about baseball than any other sport; basketball and football to a lesser degree; and practically none on the subjects of horse racing and boxing. In fact, I don't even have a shelf for boxing and though I have one for horses, there isn't a specific one for horse racing. There are only five books on that shelf and just two of them deal with the sport, one fiction and one nonfiction. The latter is Laura Hillenbrand's Seabiscuit: An American Legend.
W.C. Heinz (1915-2008) wrote about many sports, but is best known as being the best sports journalist of his generation writing about horse racing and boxing. Already a notable sports columnist, in 1958 he published his first book, The Professional, a novel about boxing.
All great books about sports -- fiction and nonfiction -- are always about more than sports, which is certainly true of both Bang the Drum Slowly and Seabiscuit. It is also true of The Professional, the story of boxer Eddie Brown and his quest to become the middleweight boxing champion. It is also the story of his manager and trainer, Doc Carroll, who has as much invested in the effort as his fighter.
----------
"[Writing is] like building a stone wall without mortar. You place words one at a time, fit them, take them apart and refit them until they're balanced and solid." -- W.C. Heinz
----------
Heinz was very much an advocate of showing and not telling. He worked hard to keep from imposing himself between the characters and the reader. Therefore, there are long stretches of authentic sounding dialogue that advances the plot without resorting to any intervention on the part of the narrator.
Writing in the LA Times, John Schulian called it "a flinty-eyed yet profoundly compassionate story....The ending is so sad that [Heinz] had to spend a day walking the woods around his Vermont home to gather the courage to write it."
Elmore Leonard wrote in the introduction to my copy of the novel: "The way I remember it, I read The Professional when it came out in January 1958, and for the first and only time in my life wrote to the author to tell him how much I liked the book."
Leonard wasn't the only writer who liked it. Ernest Hemingway wrote that it is "the only good novel I've ever read about a fighter." Pete Hamil wrote that it is "one of the five best sports novels ever written." According to Mike Lupica, "Heinz is not just one of the great sportswriters the country has produced, he is one of the great American writers."
There are exceptions, of course. For example, there is the series of novels that Mark Harris wrote about Henry Wiggen, a major league pitcher who threw left handed and thought outside the box. The best of these, which was also successfully adapted for the screen, was Bang the Drum Slowly.
When I look at my virtual bookshelf I see that I have spent much more time reading books -- fictional and nonfictional -- about baseball than any other sport; basketball and football to a lesser degree; and practically none on the subjects of horse racing and boxing. In fact, I don't even have a shelf for boxing and though I have one for horses, there isn't a specific one for horse racing. There are only five books on that shelf and just two of them deal with the sport, one fiction and one nonfiction. The latter is Laura Hillenbrand's Seabiscuit: An American Legend.
W.C. Heinz (1915-2008) wrote about many sports, but is best known as being the best sports journalist of his generation writing about horse racing and boxing. Already a notable sports columnist, in 1958 he published his first book, The Professional, a novel about boxing.
All great books about sports -- fiction and nonfiction -- are always about more than sports, which is certainly true of both Bang the Drum Slowly and Seabiscuit. It is also true of The Professional, the story of boxer Eddie Brown and his quest to become the middleweight boxing champion. It is also the story of his manager and trainer, Doc Carroll, who has as much invested in the effort as his fighter.
----------
"[Writing is] like building a stone wall without mortar. You place words one at a time, fit them, take them apart and refit them until they're balanced and solid." -- W.C. Heinz
----------
Heinz was very much an advocate of showing and not telling. He worked hard to keep from imposing himself between the characters and the reader. Therefore, there are long stretches of authentic sounding dialogue that advances the plot without resorting to any intervention on the part of the narrator.
Writing in the LA Times, John Schulian called it "a flinty-eyed yet profoundly compassionate story....The ending is so sad that [Heinz] had to spend a day walking the woods around his Vermont home to gather the courage to write it."
Elmore Leonard wrote in the introduction to my copy of the novel: "The way I remember it, I read The Professional when it came out in January 1958, and for the first and only time in my life wrote to the author to tell him how much I liked the book."
Leonard wasn't the only writer who liked it. Ernest Hemingway wrote that it is "the only good novel I've ever read about a fighter." Pete Hamil wrote that it is "one of the five best sports novels ever written." According to Mike Lupica, "Heinz is not just one of the great sportswriters the country has produced, he is one of the great American writers."
November 24, 2016
The Professional always ends up on lists of the best sports books ever written and both Elmore Leonard and Ernest Hemingway were fans of the book. Unlike a few “classics” that I’ve read, this book actually merits it’s reputation. The author, W. C. Heinz, was an American sportswriter and he knew and loved his subject matter, he also wrote an engrossing novel that even a non-boxing fan can enjoy.
The book’s plot is deceptively simple. In the novel, sportswriter Frank Hughes spends a month at a boxing camp in the Catskills as middleweight fighter, Eddie Brown, and his manager, Doc Carroll, prepare for a championship bout. Brown is at the peak of his career and the fight represents his best chance of winning a title. After 40 years in the business, Carroll sees the fight as his last chance to have one of his fighters become a world champion. The day-to-day training regimen in the camp is chronicled and tension slowly starts to build as the day of the championship fight approaches. Heinz uses the story to ruminate on what makes a champion. Brown is a professional, with both the talent and heart to succeed, and he’s compared throughout the novel to the amateurs and mediocre boxers that surround him. The fledgling TV industry takes quite a few hits as Heinz shows how it turns mediocrities into celebrities:
“Do you know that you may be sitting at the table right now with the last of the real professional fighters, because my business isn’t like your business where they tear a piece of bark off a tree and the first thing that crawls out they make into a – what do you call it?”
“I’m sure I don’t know what you mean”
“A television personality”, I said
“That’s right,” Doc said. “A television personality. The first thing that crawls out they make into a television personality”
Heinz’s prose is strong and definitely owes a debt to Hemingway (who greatly admired the book). His greatest strength is dialogue. Heinz has a good ear for the natural rhythm of conversation and writes dialogue that rings true. He uses dialogue throughout the book to develop his characters and each has his own voice and manner of speaking.
Even though the book was written almost 60 years ago, it has held up well. There’s a certain “Leave it To Beaver – the husband is the breadwinner/the wife is the homemaker” attitude that crops up now and then, but for the most part, the book doesn’t feel dated. The African American characters are referred to as “colored”, but they are well drawn and sympathetic. All in all, this is a great book about boxing and about sports in general. I particularly liked this passage about the tension that surrounded the title fight:
“When we stepped out of the cab onto the curb I could feel the surface tension that held the crowd, Invisible, untouchable, nowhere but everywhere, fragile but all-imprisoning, I have felt it hold an infantry company before an attack, the witnesses before an execution, a courtroom before a verdict, a family before the moment of death. Now it held the crowd, the moving bodies milling on the sidewalk and the still bodies and the turning faces, both black and white, in the balcony line. It held the mounted cop and the horse walking the gutter and confined the low murmur, rent only by the police whistles and the car horns, that is distinctive of fight mobs. Inside the Garden and within two hours, a little more or less, something would happen and then this thinnest unseen film of oneness would burst and it would all come out”
The book’s plot is deceptively simple. In the novel, sportswriter Frank Hughes spends a month at a boxing camp in the Catskills as middleweight fighter, Eddie Brown, and his manager, Doc Carroll, prepare for a championship bout. Brown is at the peak of his career and the fight represents his best chance of winning a title. After 40 years in the business, Carroll sees the fight as his last chance to have one of his fighters become a world champion. The day-to-day training regimen in the camp is chronicled and tension slowly starts to build as the day of the championship fight approaches. Heinz uses the story to ruminate on what makes a champion. Brown is a professional, with both the talent and heart to succeed, and he’s compared throughout the novel to the amateurs and mediocre boxers that surround him. The fledgling TV industry takes quite a few hits as Heinz shows how it turns mediocrities into celebrities:
“Do you know that you may be sitting at the table right now with the last of the real professional fighters, because my business isn’t like your business where they tear a piece of bark off a tree and the first thing that crawls out they make into a – what do you call it?”
“I’m sure I don’t know what you mean”
“A television personality”, I said
“That’s right,” Doc said. “A television personality. The first thing that crawls out they make into a television personality”
Heinz’s prose is strong and definitely owes a debt to Hemingway (who greatly admired the book). His greatest strength is dialogue. Heinz has a good ear for the natural rhythm of conversation and writes dialogue that rings true. He uses dialogue throughout the book to develop his characters and each has his own voice and manner of speaking.
Even though the book was written almost 60 years ago, it has held up well. There’s a certain “Leave it To Beaver – the husband is the breadwinner/the wife is the homemaker” attitude that crops up now and then, but for the most part, the book doesn’t feel dated. The African American characters are referred to as “colored”, but they are well drawn and sympathetic. All in all, this is a great book about boxing and about sports in general. I particularly liked this passage about the tension that surrounded the title fight:
“When we stepped out of the cab onto the curb I could feel the surface tension that held the crowd, Invisible, untouchable, nowhere but everywhere, fragile but all-imprisoning, I have felt it hold an infantry company before an attack, the witnesses before an execution, a courtroom before a verdict, a family before the moment of death. Now it held the crowd, the moving bodies milling on the sidewalk and the still bodies and the turning faces, both black and white, in the balcony line. It held the mounted cop and the horse walking the gutter and confined the low murmur, rent only by the police whistles and the car horns, that is distinctive of fight mobs. Inside the Garden and within two hours, a little more or less, something would happen and then this thinnest unseen film of oneness would burst and it would all come out”
January 2, 2011
Being a boxing writer myself for many years, I can now totally appreciate it when people told me for years that “The Professional” by W.C. Heinz was the best boxing book ever written and one of the greatest novels of all time. There's even an introduction by iconic Elmore Leonard, where he credits Heinz as being one of his mentors.
The book, written in 1958, is basically the life in the training camp of a fighter named Eddie Brown, who after a long boxing career, is finally getting a shot at a world's title. His crusty manager Doc Carroll has been around boxing forever, but Eddie Brown is Doc's last shot at achieving immortality in a sport Doc so obviously detests. Eddie seems to like everyone and Doc trusts no one, which makes for some interesting discourses concerning the inner workings of a sport that has been run by crooks and thieves since the start of the 20th Century.
The book is written from the third person view point of sportswriter Frank Hughes, who accompanies Eddie to training camp, trying to grasp the essence of a boxer's life while he's preparing for the biggest moment in his life. Frank is no more than a fly on the wall, trying to help out Eddie and Doc, but at the same time keeping a detachment that will make his magazine article impartial and true.
The professional is a must read for boxing fans, but those who don't really care for the sport can enjoy this book too, firm in the knowledge that W.C. Heinz is right on the mark with his observations about a slimy sport that has not changed much from when this book was written 52 years ago.
The book, written in 1958, is basically the life in the training camp of a fighter named Eddie Brown, who after a long boxing career, is finally getting a shot at a world's title. His crusty manager Doc Carroll has been around boxing forever, but Eddie Brown is Doc's last shot at achieving immortality in a sport Doc so obviously detests. Eddie seems to like everyone and Doc trusts no one, which makes for some interesting discourses concerning the inner workings of a sport that has been run by crooks and thieves since the start of the 20th Century.
The book is written from the third person view point of sportswriter Frank Hughes, who accompanies Eddie to training camp, trying to grasp the essence of a boxer's life while he's preparing for the biggest moment in his life. Frank is no more than a fly on the wall, trying to help out Eddie and Doc, but at the same time keeping a detachment that will make his magazine article impartial and true.
The professional is a must read for boxing fans, but those who don't really care for the sport can enjoy this book too, firm in the knowledge that W.C. Heinz is right on the mark with his observations about a slimy sport that has not changed much from when this book was written 52 years ago.
March 24, 2008
A few weeks ago I read an obituary in the NYTimes for W.C. Heinz, an author. I'd never heard of him.
He was a sportswriter for a NYC daily, and during WW II was a war correspondent. For some reason, I resonated to the guy's life and attitude toward living. NYTimes obits are good at conveying the person and not merely the dry fact about his or her life.
In addition to war writing and sports coverage, Heinz wrote three novels and was a "with" writer of an autobiography. The autobio was "Run for Daylight," with Vince Lombardi, which I was familiar with, but had never read. As for the novels, one was about a professional boxer ("The Professional"), one was about a surgeon ("The Surgeon") and the third one he wrote with a chap who'd been an army doctor in the Korean Conflict in the early 1950s. The latter the two of them wrote under a joint pseudonym and the title was "M*A*S*H."
This review is of the novel "The Professional."
The book was published in the early 1958 but in the later printing that I read there was an intro by Elmore Leonard in which E.L. gave credit to Heinz for much of his fictional technique, particularly dialogue. Leonard said that Heinz set him on the track of giving each character an individual voice, a distinctive way of thinking and conveying his thoughts. Part vocabulary, part personality, part world view, part artful use of language.
I had this in mind when I read "The Professional," and the experience was enriching.
The story was a simple one as far as plot was concerned, reminding me of John Hawkes and Marilyne Robinson -- just describing life as it is. Yet, the interplay among the characters made the book hard to put down.
And at the end, a championship fight, my heart was pounding so loudly for the last 10 or 15 pages that I was afraid it's beating would awake Carol, who'd fallen asleep next to me.
The book it out of print and not in the MCPL. I found my copy in the Evansville Public Library.
A book so good that I'm sure I'll read it again some day.
I liked it so much I went on to read other Heinz books, and reviews of those to follow.
--Paul
He was a sportswriter for a NYC daily, and during WW II was a war correspondent. For some reason, I resonated to the guy's life and attitude toward living. NYTimes obits are good at conveying the person and not merely the dry fact about his or her life.
In addition to war writing and sports coverage, Heinz wrote three novels and was a "with" writer of an autobiography. The autobio was "Run for Daylight," with Vince Lombardi, which I was familiar with, but had never read. As for the novels, one was about a professional boxer ("The Professional"), one was about a surgeon ("The Surgeon") and the third one he wrote with a chap who'd been an army doctor in the Korean Conflict in the early 1950s. The latter the two of them wrote under a joint pseudonym and the title was "M*A*S*H."
This review is of the novel "The Professional."
The book was published in the early 1958 but in the later printing that I read there was an intro by Elmore Leonard in which E.L. gave credit to Heinz for much of his fictional technique, particularly dialogue. Leonard said that Heinz set him on the track of giving each character an individual voice, a distinctive way of thinking and conveying his thoughts. Part vocabulary, part personality, part world view, part artful use of language.
I had this in mind when I read "The Professional," and the experience was enriching.
The story was a simple one as far as plot was concerned, reminding me of John Hawkes and Marilyne Robinson -- just describing life as it is. Yet, the interplay among the characters made the book hard to put down.
And at the end, a championship fight, my heart was pounding so loudly for the last 10 or 15 pages that I was afraid it's beating would awake Carol, who'd fallen asleep next to me.
The book it out of print and not in the MCPL. I found my copy in the Evansville Public Library.
A book so good that I'm sure I'll read it again some day.
I liked it so much I went on to read other Heinz books, and reviews of those to follow.
--Paul
May 9, 2013
Not so much of a boxing aficionado, but I enjoyed this book. Yes, the ending is sad but it has to be because this isn't a book about a boxer, its a book about the deterioration of our culture. Brilliantly, Heinz uses the ugly sport of boxing to make his point.
Doc’s insights on the sad changes happening to American culture as a result of television were eye opening. For example, he is talking with a cab driver who asks his opinion of a tv boxing announcer. Doc is taken aback. He has never met the announcer, why would he have an opinion? The concept that people would feel like they had a personal connection to someone that the only knew through tv was crazy to him. Today, I know a lot of people feel like David Letterman is a crazy uncle of theirs.
Another change was to the economics of the sport as people stopped paying to go see fights at their local gym, preferring to watch bigger fights on tv for free. This also impacts how people fought as trainers learn to figure ways of getting their guy sellable for tv crowds.
After the loss, the narrator proclaims that everyone lost the fight that night. He did. Doc did. The crowd. Even the other fighter. The more talented and technically trained athlete lost to the puff-ball champion and only the afionados know it. Doc's ways of training: careful, thoughtful and disciplined has been swept away in our culture by a wave of ignorance and hunger for flash. "Dreadful", as Doc would say.
I also enjoyed his portrayal of 1950’s New York blue collar culture. In particular, I enjoyed the male banter. Funny stuff!
Doc’s insights on the sad changes happening to American culture as a result of television were eye opening. For example, he is talking with a cab driver who asks his opinion of a tv boxing announcer. Doc is taken aback. He has never met the announcer, why would he have an opinion? The concept that people would feel like they had a personal connection to someone that the only knew through tv was crazy to him. Today, I know a lot of people feel like David Letterman is a crazy uncle of theirs.
Another change was to the economics of the sport as people stopped paying to go see fights at their local gym, preferring to watch bigger fights on tv for free. This also impacts how people fought as trainers learn to figure ways of getting their guy sellable for tv crowds.
After the loss, the narrator proclaims that everyone lost the fight that night. He did. Doc did. The crowd. Even the other fighter. The more talented and technically trained athlete lost to the puff-ball champion and only the afionados know it. Doc's ways of training: careful, thoughtful and disciplined has been swept away in our culture by a wave of ignorance and hunger for flash. "Dreadful", as Doc would say.
I also enjoyed his portrayal of 1950’s New York blue collar culture. In particular, I enjoyed the male banter. Funny stuff!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 19, 2016
After a ruinous right hand to the face, Eddie Brown stands before the press:
"Got to go."
"Go. Go where? Go where, Eddie?"
"Go? Go to the Garden. Fight."
"You have to go to the Garden, Eddie? Where are you now?"
"Time," Eddie said.
"Time? What time?"
"Time," Eddie said, and then he pointed, staring. He pointed over the heads of the kneeling and the standing. He pointed with his right arm, his hand wavering a little. As he did we all turned in the hot, silent room, and looked where he was pointing, high on the opposite wall.
There was no clock on the wall. There was nothing on the wall. The wall was bare."
This precise jewel of a novel works its way, diligently, patiently, and painstakingly (just as Eddie's training), towards this devastating payload... on page 332 of 334.
Dialogues are masterful. Doc Carroll's character... I seethe with envy. Such economy, a novel so bare, so exact. A novel for novelists.
"Got to go."
"Go. Go where? Go where, Eddie?"
"Go? Go to the Garden. Fight."
"You have to go to the Garden, Eddie? Where are you now?"
"Time," Eddie said.
"Time? What time?"
"Time," Eddie said, and then he pointed, staring. He pointed over the heads of the kneeling and the standing. He pointed with his right arm, his hand wavering a little. As he did we all turned in the hot, silent room, and looked where he was pointing, high on the opposite wall.
There was no clock on the wall. There was nothing on the wall. The wall was bare."
This precise jewel of a novel works its way, diligently, patiently, and painstakingly (just as Eddie's training), towards this devastating payload... on page 332 of 334.
Dialogues are masterful. Doc Carroll's character... I seethe with envy. Such economy, a novel so bare, so exact. A novel for novelists.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 10, 2020
This book was outside my norm. But from the day I picked up till the day I finished it. I loved these characters. Amazing story cant wait to talk to people about this novel.
November 11, 2014
Echoing an Amazon reviewer: don't read the forward until you've read the book. Though it's good and informative, it's too informative. Elmore Leonard gives the ending away. Cheeze!
Five stars, according to Goodreads, means, "It was amazing," and amazing it was on a number of levels. It's a look at life in a championship bout training camp, every character is complete, even those for whom we only get sketches, and the three leads (Eddie - the contender with 9 years in the ring, 90 fights and 87 wins; Doc - his trainer, with this bout as his last hurrah and first title shot; Frank - the journalist and narrator, a little cynical, but savvy and loyal) are fantastically written, and it's a terrific narrative. The veracity is there, it's atmospheric, and you learn about the culture, and even some moves and strategies. But, from a technical standpoint, what makes it really amazing is that most of the book is in dialogue that creates the characters, and moves the action. There's no shorthand to this book, every character is unique, and each has a style, rhythm, and vernacular that is true. By the end of the book I felt like I had spent time on a barstool next to every one of them, and knew them as well as anyone with whom I'd ever shared whiskey and steak dinners. That means well enough to have an opinion of, and some well enough to like.
The Professional takes place in a man's world. The women are necessary in that 1950's way, and a bother - also in that 1950's, (but for the genre, probably timeless) way.
The Professional is a good read, especially good if you like boxing, but it's also right up there from any other perspective.
Five stars, according to Goodreads, means, "It was amazing," and amazing it was on a number of levels. It's a look at life in a championship bout training camp, every character is complete, even those for whom we only get sketches, and the three leads (Eddie - the contender with 9 years in the ring, 90 fights and 87 wins; Doc - his trainer, with this bout as his last hurrah and first title shot; Frank - the journalist and narrator, a little cynical, but savvy and loyal) are fantastically written, and it's a terrific narrative. The veracity is there, it's atmospheric, and you learn about the culture, and even some moves and strategies. But, from a technical standpoint, what makes it really amazing is that most of the book is in dialogue that creates the characters, and moves the action. There's no shorthand to this book, every character is unique, and each has a style, rhythm, and vernacular that is true. By the end of the book I felt like I had spent time on a barstool next to every one of them, and knew them as well as anyone with whom I'd ever shared whiskey and steak dinners. That means well enough to have an opinion of, and some well enough to like.
The Professional takes place in a man's world. The women are necessary in that 1950's way, and a bother - also in that 1950's, (but for the genre, probably timeless) way.
The Professional is a good read, especially good if you like boxing, but it's also right up there from any other perspective.
May 12, 2017
What does it mean to be a professional? Who is a professional, and who isn't? Can we tell? Does it matter? What does it take to become one? Does it pay? Is it worth it?
You hear the characters talk about these again and again throughout the book and at one point you think you know the answers. You think you know who the professional is, it's so obvious, and you know what it takes to become one and you know it's worth it, you're sure, damned sure. But when you finish the last sentence you aren't so sure anymore. You close the book and lie on bed and feel cheated - not by the book, but by life, because the book is life, it's that real. A powerful book.
You hear the characters talk about these again and again throughout the book and at one point you think you know the answers. You think you know who the professional is, it's so obvious, and you know what it takes to become one and you know it's worth it, you're sure, damned sure. But when you finish the last sentence you aren't so sure anymore. You close the book and lie on bed and feel cheated - not by the book, but by life, because the book is life, it's that real. A powerful book.
October 3, 2019
Dicono di non giudicare mai un libro dalla copertina, ma se sulla copertina compaiono i nomi di Elmore Leonard e Ernest Hemingway allora forse un piccolo giudizio lo si può già azzardare prima ancora di aprirlo quel libro.
Il professionista è un libro che racconta il pugilato e la vita in maniera grandiosa, è tutto quello che un appassionato di sport vorrebbe leggere ed è, pure, uno dei principali motivi che ha spinto Elmore Leonard a diventare lo scrittore che è stato.
Magistrale.
Il professionista è un libro che racconta il pugilato e la vita in maniera grandiosa, è tutto quello che un appassionato di sport vorrebbe leggere ed è, pure, uno dei principali motivi che ha spinto Elmore Leonard a diventare lo scrittore che è stato.
Magistrale.
February 2, 2010
Old school boxing is my new thing. I did some research and found this bad boy. A novel about a Bronx fighter in the 50's or 60's. I think there is so much potential in the subject matter for vivid settings and interesting characters and I just don't think this book delivered at all. It made me wish that the material found its way into the hands of a seasoned novelist.
October 16, 2017
Great passages from an overlooked book about boxing:
I think that if he had worn a burlap sack he would have looked good in it, but perhaps that is merely the way Eddie seemed to me. I mean that the perfect proportions of that body and the skills trained into it would still, in my mind's eye, have been there behind anything, the way the art of one or two great writers I have worshiped has made even what were called their bad books seem, to me, for that same reason, good.
He was Doc's fighter. It is what a painter does in his paintings so that you would know them, even without his signature, and what the writer does in his writings, if he is enough of a writer, so you know that no one in the whole world but he could have been the writer.
Because every fight is in front of an audience. You don't think a painter has to perform that way...a painter picks out a tough one for himself, and if it doesn't go and he looks bad in it, he hides it. It never gets shown. Nobody looks at it and says: 'He's a bum. He can't paint.' Painters-great painters-have attics full of stuff they never show."
Every man's in a fight, Eddie, no matter what business he's in.
Well, somebody wins and somebody loses. There's as much of a story in a fighter losing as in a fighter winning, maybe more.
...a victim of the literary crime...cinema, slick-paper, twenty-one inch tube portrayal of the husband-wife relationship...husband comes home and divorces his work and remarries his wife every night.
all (fighters) have patterns...I don't care who they are," (Doc)
Then fighters are like writers, (Dave)
I wanted us once more to have all that time.
It was the last of the quiet days.
I think that if he had worn a burlap sack he would have looked good in it, but perhaps that is merely the way Eddie seemed to me. I mean that the perfect proportions of that body and the skills trained into it would still, in my mind's eye, have been there behind anything, the way the art of one or two great writers I have worshiped has made even what were called their bad books seem, to me, for that same reason, good.
He was Doc's fighter. It is what a painter does in his paintings so that you would know them, even without his signature, and what the writer does in his writings, if he is enough of a writer, so you know that no one in the whole world but he could have been the writer.
Because every fight is in front of an audience. You don't think a painter has to perform that way...a painter picks out a tough one for himself, and if it doesn't go and he looks bad in it, he hides it. It never gets shown. Nobody looks at it and says: 'He's a bum. He can't paint.' Painters-great painters-have attics full of stuff they never show."
Every man's in a fight, Eddie, no matter what business he's in.
Well, somebody wins and somebody loses. There's as much of a story in a fighter losing as in a fighter winning, maybe more.
...a victim of the literary crime...cinema, slick-paper, twenty-one inch tube portrayal of the husband-wife relationship...husband comes home and divorces his work and remarries his wife every night.
all (fighters) have patterns...I don't care who they are," (Doc)
Then fighters are like writers, (Dave)
I wanted us once more to have all that time.
It was the last of the quiet days.
January 6, 2021
Very innovative
April 27, 2024
“Look at this, all of you, I was thinking. See it. Eddie Brown is building beautifully. He is building slowly, perfectly, the firm foundation. Please see this.”
March 21, 2020
This is a classic novel about the lives of boxers in the 1950s—particularly about a middleweight contender named Eddie Brown.
While the plot is mostly straightforward, W.C. Heinz investigates what it means to be a champion prize fighter—both in and out of the ring.
Elmore Leonard and Ernest Hemingway praised this work for a reason. “The Professional” masterfully brings characters to life with realism and sincerity and dialogue.
Heinz’s naturalistic dialogue reveals the elements that make up a fighter’s life. Surviving in the streets of New York City, swinging from undisciplined anger and for reputation. Building a career into nearly a hundred bouts, matches scattered in smoky clubs and bars and arenas. Sparring partners who abuse themselves to help out in camp, concussed but not knowing another way to make a living. Cornermen wiping down sweat, icing red swells of flesh, and shouting instructions.
Trainers dedicating years to building up professionals out of nothing, only to watch them step under the uncertainty of the lights. Managers exploiting the talents of the promising for money. Casual fans screaming for slugfests in the stands. Families uncertain about a lifestyle they cannot understand.
Then there is the deep urge within every fighter, before skill or reflex or physical prowess, which moves them beyond all exhaustion, beyond any doubt or fear in time, to become a champion.
To be a fighter is to sacrifice all of one’s life to fight. To wake early, eat healthy, run, shadowbox, spar, cut weight, day after year, beaten and bruised, hated, neglected, alone, utterly alone, with a readiness to die in the ring, all for the chance of executing the right moves under extraordinary pressure, in only seconds, after blood and aching, after sweat and fear.
Then a few seconds passes and it’s all over.
While the plot is mostly straightforward, W.C. Heinz investigates what it means to be a champion prize fighter—both in and out of the ring.
Elmore Leonard and Ernest Hemingway praised this work for a reason. “The Professional” masterfully brings characters to life with realism and sincerity and dialogue.
Heinz’s naturalistic dialogue reveals the elements that make up a fighter’s life. Surviving in the streets of New York City, swinging from undisciplined anger and for reputation. Building a career into nearly a hundred bouts, matches scattered in smoky clubs and bars and arenas. Sparring partners who abuse themselves to help out in camp, concussed but not knowing another way to make a living. Cornermen wiping down sweat, icing red swells of flesh, and shouting instructions.
Trainers dedicating years to building up professionals out of nothing, only to watch them step under the uncertainty of the lights. Managers exploiting the talents of the promising for money. Casual fans screaming for slugfests in the stands. Families uncertain about a lifestyle they cannot understand.
Then there is the deep urge within every fighter, before skill or reflex or physical prowess, which moves them beyond all exhaustion, beyond any doubt or fear in time, to become a champion.
To be a fighter is to sacrifice all of one’s life to fight. To wake early, eat healthy, run, shadowbox, spar, cut weight, day after year, beaten and bruised, hated, neglected, alone, utterly alone, with a readiness to die in the ring, all for the chance of executing the right moves under extraordinary pressure, in only seconds, after blood and aching, after sweat and fear.
Then a few seconds passes and it’s all over.
July 23, 2015
This is pure minimalist writing in the true Hemingway tradition complete with the Hemingway Bro Code and grace under fire. I really enjoyed this book right up until the last couple of incomprehensible pages. I assume the narrator was implying that Eddie Brown had sunk back down into the anonymous mass of nameless men who had failed to achieve the greatness that they were more than capable and deserving of achieving. But why would the elevator operator think that Smith, Jones or Brown were "odd" names? Odd man out? I don't know. It surprises me that Heinz's emphasis on dialogue was considered cutting edge in 1958. I could tell he was pushing the envelop at times and hadn't quite figured out the right balance between realistic speech and naturalistic speech. There was way too much repetition of phrases, almost like echoes, especially by Penna. Occasionally, the dialogue included too much fluff and could have been tightened up (by today's standards). Also, there were a few scenes with multiple people speaking which became confusing and would have been better tackled with narrative summary. If the scene would work better on screen than on the page, I think there's something missing: inner dialogue. This will be an excellent book to parse with the writing professors. There's a lot of style and substance to study while enjoying a great story.
February 5, 2017
I first read this in June 2011. I think, at the time, I was reading both a lot of boxing writing and a lot of Elmore Leonard, who wrote the Intro for this edition.
Upon rereading for my "The Sport of Fiction," I loved it just as much this go-round. It's super tight and clean prose -- you can tell he was influenced by Hemingway, and then Elmore Leonard feels a bit like the natural continuation of that thread.
My students enjoyed it, I think. Were a little unsure what to do with the almost total lack of conflict. The entire book is a month of training at an upstate New York summer resort, prizefighter Eddie Brown training for his world championship bout. It reminded me a bit of Migos' Quavo in the third episode of Atlanta:
"What's happening?"
"You know. Busy, busy."
"What you mean? Trappin' borin as fuck."
I loved spending the boring month of training with Eddie.
Upon rereading for my "The Sport of Fiction," I loved it just as much this go-round. It's super tight and clean prose -- you can tell he was influenced by Hemingway, and then Elmore Leonard feels a bit like the natural continuation of that thread.
My students enjoyed it, I think. Were a little unsure what to do with the almost total lack of conflict. The entire book is a month of training at an upstate New York summer resort, prizefighter Eddie Brown training for his world championship bout. It reminded me a bit of Migos' Quavo in the third episode of Atlanta:
"What's happening?"
"You know. Busy, busy."
"What you mean? Trappin' borin as fuck."
I loved spending the boring month of training with Eddie.
August 13, 2009
I didn't like this book as much as I thought I would. It's a book about training boxers told from the point of view of a sportswriter. Heinz would know a lot about this since he was a sportswriter covering the boxing beat. The best parts of the novel include the detailed accounts of the work that goes into training, the gruel of the daily life of a boxer. It had some great moments that will stick with you. The writing is precise and lean. But in the same way that I've never been a huge fan of Hemingway, although I can appreciate his mastery of the craft, I never developed a passion for the book.
February 15, 2013
Heinz is a contemporary of Nelson Algren's (both were highly regarded by Hemingway), and this book's themes are vaguely reminiscent of Algren: a boxer pulls himself out of society's lower class, gets a title shot and loses everything on one tiny, impulsive mistake. The narrative portions of this novel are extremely well-written, but ultimately the book bogs down from unnecessary or misplaced dialogue.
February 26, 2020
Je viens tout juste de le finir et c'est "à chaud" que j'écris ces quelques lignes. Ce que cela coûte est un bouquin énorme, tant du point de vue de son contenu que de l'objet livre en lui-même.
L'histoire raconte la préparation d'un boxeur avant un combat pour le titre de champion du monde. À mi-chemin entre le journalisme et la fiction, W.C Heinz nous plonge au beau milieu d'une cour bien étrange : l'entourage d'un combattant réfugié dans un petit hôtel au bord d'un lac avec son entraîneur, une poignée d'autres boxeurs, l'un ou l'autre assistant et le journaliste qui chronique l'aventure. Heinz nous fait goûter à tout : les entraînements, les rituels et les histoires personnelles de ces types isolés pour un long mois de sueur et de coups.
J'ai aimé les détails, les informations sur cet univers de la boxe que je ne connaissais pas (mais qui m'attire). J'ai pensé à Taxi Driver pour l'époque, une certaine forme de noirceur et un côté contemplatif mais aussi à Shining pour le côté isolé loin de tout dans une pension qui a fait son temps (même si le fond n'a absolument rien à voir), à Snatch (beaucoup) pour les persos bien trempés qui forment comme une famille dans laquelle il est difficile d'être accepté et, enfin, un peu à Mad Men pour l'approche écosystème fermé régis par des codes et un business tout puissant qui règne au final sur les bons sentiments.
Pourquoi faire référence à tant de films alors qu'il s'agit d'un livre ? Sans doute à cause de l'approche journalistique qui donne clairement à voir tout ce qui se passe. Ça faisait bigrement longtemps qu'un bouquin ne m'avait pas happé à ce point là.
L'objet livre pour finir. La version française de ce titre a été éditée par Monsieur Toussaint Louverture, une maison d'édition qui accorde énormément d'importance aux détails. On lui doit notamment une version de un jardin de sable à la cover imprimée à l'ancienne dans un style graphique ultra puissant. Ce que cela coûte est du même acabit, le livre ressemble au carnet de notes d'un journaliste old-school, la mise en page est élégante, l'ensemble du volume est arrondi pour un confort extrême et la reliure est cousue ! Dernier détail (pour vous dire le degré de réflexion), le papier utilisé pour la couverture contient 25% de particule de cuire, comme de la peau. Autrement dit, tu lis la boxe mais, d'une certaine manière, tu la touche aussi.
Franchement, de tout les points de vue, Ce que cela coûte est un grand bouquin à ne pas manquer.
L'histoire raconte la préparation d'un boxeur avant un combat pour le titre de champion du monde. À mi-chemin entre le journalisme et la fiction, W.C Heinz nous plonge au beau milieu d'une cour bien étrange : l'entourage d'un combattant réfugié dans un petit hôtel au bord d'un lac avec son entraîneur, une poignée d'autres boxeurs, l'un ou l'autre assistant et le journaliste qui chronique l'aventure. Heinz nous fait goûter à tout : les entraînements, les rituels et les histoires personnelles de ces types isolés pour un long mois de sueur et de coups.
J'ai aimé les détails, les informations sur cet univers de la boxe que je ne connaissais pas (mais qui m'attire). J'ai pensé à Taxi Driver pour l'époque, une certaine forme de noirceur et un côté contemplatif mais aussi à Shining pour le côté isolé loin de tout dans une pension qui a fait son temps (même si le fond n'a absolument rien à voir), à Snatch (beaucoup) pour les persos bien trempés qui forment comme une famille dans laquelle il est difficile d'être accepté et, enfin, un peu à Mad Men pour l'approche écosystème fermé régis par des codes et un business tout puissant qui règne au final sur les bons sentiments.
Pourquoi faire référence à tant de films alors qu'il s'agit d'un livre ? Sans doute à cause de l'approche journalistique qui donne clairement à voir tout ce qui se passe. Ça faisait bigrement longtemps qu'un bouquin ne m'avait pas happé à ce point là.
L'objet livre pour finir. La version française de ce titre a été éditée par Monsieur Toussaint Louverture, une maison d'édition qui accorde énormément d'importance aux détails. On lui doit notamment une version de un jardin de sable à la cover imprimée à l'ancienne dans un style graphique ultra puissant. Ce que cela coûte est du même acabit, le livre ressemble au carnet de notes d'un journaliste old-school, la mise en page est élégante, l'ensemble du volume est arrondi pour un confort extrême et la reliure est cousue ! Dernier détail (pour vous dire le degré de réflexion), le papier utilisé pour la couverture contient 25% de particule de cuire, comme de la peau. Autrement dit, tu lis la boxe mais, d'une certaine manière, tu la touche aussi.
Franchement, de tout les points de vue, Ce que cela coûte est un grand bouquin à ne pas manquer.
April 20, 2018
Part of me hates myself for giving this book only three stars. The rational part of my brain tells me that it's an excellent work of art. There are so many quotable lines in it, and so many life lessons to be learned through reading this book.
I think it's the ending that really makes me unhappy with it, because as I read through this book, chapter by chapter, I was firmly convinced that Eddie Brown was going to to win and become the middleweight champion of the world. I believed it with everything that I had in me, just like Frank Hughes believed it, just like Doc Caroll believed it, just like all his sparring partners and personal friends believed it. When the title fight finally came, and Eddie not only lost, but was knocked out in the very first round, it was like a devastating gut punch. The wind was knocked out of me. It's not lost on me of course, that THAT is exactly how W.C. Heinz wanted the reader to feel. Because I'm sure that's exactly how all the characters would have felt as well. Again, the rational part of me feels I should appreciate all that, despite the incredibly unsatisfying conclusion. In the end, as much as I hate to admit it, I guess I am guilty (to some degree) of just wanting that predictable, wrapped-in-a-bow, happy ending, and I'll never get that with this book. Maybe after some reflection I'll be able to raise this rating up a star or two, but for now I'll just wallow and wonder what might have been.
I think it's the ending that really makes me unhappy with it, because as I read through this book, chapter by chapter, I was firmly convinced that Eddie Brown was going to to win and become the middleweight champion of the world. I believed it with everything that I had in me, just like Frank Hughes believed it, just like Doc Caroll believed it, just like all his sparring partners and personal friends believed it. When the title fight finally came, and Eddie not only lost, but was knocked out in the very first round, it was like a devastating gut punch. The wind was knocked out of me. It's not lost on me of course, that THAT is exactly how W.C. Heinz wanted the reader to feel. Because I'm sure that's exactly how all the characters would have felt as well. Again, the rational part of me feels I should appreciate all that, despite the incredibly unsatisfying conclusion. In the end, as much as I hate to admit it, I guess I am guilty (to some degree) of just wanting that predictable, wrapped-in-a-bow, happy ending, and I'll never get that with this book. Maybe after some reflection I'll be able to raise this rating up a star or two, but for now I'll just wallow and wonder what might have been.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 5, 2021
This was recommended to me by a friend; I wasn't familiar with Heinz and so didn't know he was a famous sports journalist dating back to the 1940s who wrote a ton of famous stuff, including Vince Lombardi's biography. Anyway - this is historical fiction set in what was probably Heinz' favorite sporting arena - boxing. It was written in the last 50s, and follows a fighter named Eddie Brown as he trains and then fights for the middleweight championship of the world.
The prose is incredibly spare - no coincidence Hemingway called it the only good novel he'd ever read about boxing, it reads quite a bit like one of his books. There are three central characters, and unfortunately I didn't really care for any of them. Eddie is a nice guy but just sort of a mindless dope, and his trainer Doc (who maybe was the inspiration for the Mickey character in Rocky?) is an impossible asshole, and a gigantic misogynist to boot. The narrator, who is embedded in Eddie's camp for a month leading up to the fight in order to write a magazine piece on him and is basically a fictional version of Heinz himself, is a total cipher. Any time anyone he talks to expresses an opinion, he knowingly agrees with them, even if he just agreed with someone who said the opposite a few pages back.
Anyway, this book is exactly as advertised, and if the description sounds appealing to you, you should read it, you'll likely enjoy it. 3.5 stars, as I enjoyed the ending quite a bit.
The prose is incredibly spare - no coincidence Hemingway called it the only good novel he'd ever read about boxing, it reads quite a bit like one of his books. There are three central characters, and unfortunately I didn't really care for any of them. Eddie is a nice guy but just sort of a mindless dope, and his trainer Doc (who maybe was the inspiration for the Mickey character in Rocky?) is an impossible asshole, and a gigantic misogynist to boot. The narrator, who is embedded in Eddie's camp for a month leading up to the fight in order to write a magazine piece on him and is basically a fictional version of Heinz himself, is a total cipher. Any time anyone he talks to expresses an opinion, he knowingly agrees with them, even if he just agreed with someone who said the opposite a few pages back.
Anyway, this book is exactly as advertised, and if the description sounds appealing to you, you should read it, you'll likely enjoy it. 3.5 stars, as I enjoyed the ending quite a bit.
June 18, 2019
I came to this book, like many, from Elmore Leonard who wrote the marvellous introduction in which he described WC Heinz as the step between Hemingway and the writer that Leonard would become. And it’s clear to see why – the lean prose, the deceptively simple writing, the dialogue and repartee, the characters. It’s the story of a contender to the world middleweight boxing crown, of the fighter’s relationship to his manager, and of the other character’s they share the training camp with. That’s pretty much it. But it’s brilliant in a quiet and subtle way. There’s great insight into the world of boxing, or at least the way that world once was, and there are passages and observations that are just stunning in their simplicity and truthfulness. It’s got a lovely arc to it, too, building nicely in intensity to the big fight. I really recommend this book, although if you’re into non-stop action you’ll probably not thank me for the recommendation.
As an aside, I liked the style so much I invested in three other Heinz books – two collections of his sports writing, and another on columns he wrote from the front in WW2. I’ve only read the war pieces so far, but they don’t disappoint either. He’s a great writer, a great observer, and a very insightful reporter. I’m glad that, thanks to Mr Leonard, I was finally led to WC Heinz.
As an aside, I liked the style so much I invested in three other Heinz books – two collections of his sports writing, and another on columns he wrote from the front in WW2. I’ve only read the war pieces so far, but they don’t disappoint either. He’s a great writer, a great observer, and a very insightful reporter. I’m glad that, thanks to Mr Leonard, I was finally led to WC Heinz.
February 18, 2019
Spoiler....
A long and detailed story which follows the training camp of a middle weight boxing title contender and his hard luck manager. Much, much, much is written about the managers unheralded expertise in boxing training. And much about how Eddie, the fighter was adept at utilizing the expertise and was the far superior fighter to the champion. A bit too much build up that foreshadows, to me anyway, the upcoming and sudden loss in the fight. I knew he would lose but the way Heinz had it happen did not fit with what was laboriously stressed throughout the book. Eddie forgets his training and the patience he showed in the other 90 fights and allows himself to be knocked out basically with one punch. I fully expected Eddie to lose but figured it would be a bad decision or injury of some kind. I found the ending quite a disappointment. The narrator then, after all of this apparent admiration and affection for Eddie and Doc all through the book, forgets about his good friends as shown by a brief final chapter.
This book is terribly dated, which I can't really hold against it. The fight game is different nowadays.
A long and detailed story which follows the training camp of a middle weight boxing title contender and his hard luck manager. Much, much, much is written about the managers unheralded expertise in boxing training. And much about how Eddie, the fighter was adept at utilizing the expertise and was the far superior fighter to the champion. A bit too much build up that foreshadows, to me anyway, the upcoming and sudden loss in the fight. I knew he would lose but the way Heinz had it happen did not fit with what was laboriously stressed throughout the book. Eddie forgets his training and the patience he showed in the other 90 fights and allows himself to be knocked out basically with one punch. I fully expected Eddie to lose but figured it would be a bad decision or injury of some kind. I found the ending quite a disappointment. The narrator then, after all of this apparent admiration and affection for Eddie and Doc all through the book, forgets about his good friends as shown by a brief final chapter.
This book is terribly dated, which I can't really hold against it. The fight game is different nowadays.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 27, 2018
The Professional is an exceptional sports novel.
I should state at the outset that if competition does not interest you, if you are not fascinated by the effort and diligence and sacrifice required to pursue a physically and psychologically punishing lifestyle and profession, then this book probably isn't for you. But if you have any experience playing or caring about sports, if you've ever spent time considering what Theodore Roosevelt referred to as "The Man in the Arena," you will enjoy this book.
The Professional is the story of boxer Eddie Brown's month of preparation for a middleweight title fight, as covered by the book's narrator, sportswriter Frank Hughes. The story is filled with characters admirable and unsavory, learned and ignorant, anecdotes hilarious and heartbreaking, and insight and wisdom and poetry that emanate from author WC Heinz's decades of experience covering the sweet science as a sports columnist.
I really liked The Professional. I read it in 2 days. If you like sports, I think it's likely that you will too.
I should state at the outset that if competition does not interest you, if you are not fascinated by the effort and diligence and sacrifice required to pursue a physically and psychologically punishing lifestyle and profession, then this book probably isn't for you. But if you have any experience playing or caring about sports, if you've ever spent time considering what Theodore Roosevelt referred to as "The Man in the Arena," you will enjoy this book.
The Professional is the story of boxer Eddie Brown's month of preparation for a middleweight title fight, as covered by the book's narrator, sportswriter Frank Hughes. The story is filled with characters admirable and unsavory, learned and ignorant, anecdotes hilarious and heartbreaking, and insight and wisdom and poetry that emanate from author WC Heinz's decades of experience covering the sweet science as a sports columnist.
I really liked The Professional. I read it in 2 days. If you like sports, I think it's likely that you will too.
August 20, 2018
What an extraordinary book. Magnificent writing, but more wondrously, a portrait of a time I lived and didn't know.
The book, first published in 1958, tells the story of the men gathered around a boxer who has a shot at the title. The narrator is a magazine writer who turns a keen, knowledgeable, unsentimental, affectionate eye on all the people and events in the month that leads up to the title fight.
My dad followed "the fights" when I was small, but he certainly had no personal connection to the boxing world. He did, I realized as I read, have every connection to the morals and manners of the men in The Professional, World War II vets, many of them, who gave and expected civility, who never asked for anything they didn't earn, and who had hearts without being bleeding hearts.
If you were a child in the 1950s, give The Professional a try. See if you don't see some of your own father for the first time.
And if you admire craft, read Elmore Leonard's introduction, then read the book through eyes newly opened.
The book, first published in 1958, tells the story of the men gathered around a boxer who has a shot at the title. The narrator is a magazine writer who turns a keen, knowledgeable, unsentimental, affectionate eye on all the people and events in the month that leads up to the title fight.
My dad followed "the fights" when I was small, but he certainly had no personal connection to the boxing world. He did, I realized as I read, have every connection to the morals and manners of the men in The Professional, World War II vets, many of them, who gave and expected civility, who never asked for anything they didn't earn, and who had hearts without being bleeding hearts.
If you were a child in the 1950s, give The Professional a try. See if you don't see some of your own father for the first time.
And if you admire craft, read Elmore Leonard's introduction, then read the book through eyes newly opened.
January 11, 2019
Written in the 1950s when Baseball and Boxing were the national pastimes of the sports world and television was still in it's infancy, "The Professional" follows fictional middleweight contender Eddie Brown through training camp in the month leading up to the title fight.
Poignant and spare in it's writing style, author W.C. Heinz emphasizes the science aspect of "the sweet science" of boxing as Eddie and his trainer/manager Doc Carroll go through the meticulous routine of bringing a fighter to his peak, both physically and mentally.
This was the first novel by sportswriter turned novelist Heinz, who later became famous as the co-author of MASH, and he brings all of his expertise in the field of boxing to this fine story as told from the perspective of his fictional alter ego, Frank Hughes.
Poignant and spare in it's writing style, author W.C. Heinz emphasizes the science aspect of "the sweet science" of boxing as Eddie and his trainer/manager Doc Carroll go through the meticulous routine of bringing a fighter to his peak, both physically and mentally.
This was the first novel by sportswriter turned novelist Heinz, who later became famous as the co-author of MASH, and he brings all of his expertise in the field of boxing to this fine story as told from the perspective of his fictional alter ego, Frank Hughes.
June 10, 2018
At first I hated it. I found the dialogue hard to follow and it turns out fiction won't change the fact that sports, to me, are boring.
By the end I had changed my tune a bit. I picked up the rhythm of Heinz's writing and was no longer lost on the sidelines of the conversation. There were multiple likable characters and I felt at the end I had some stake in the outcome. There were even some interesting tidbits learned about the sport.
But I guess I just like happy endings. You're telling me I went through all that - overcoming the initial dialogue issue and my disinterest in boxing - and it ended like THAT? Ugh. Three stars. Would only recommend to a boxing fan.
By the end I had changed my tune a bit. I picked up the rhythm of Heinz's writing and was no longer lost on the sidelines of the conversation. There were multiple likable characters and I felt at the end I had some stake in the outcome. There were even some interesting tidbits learned about the sport.
But I guess I just like happy endings. You're telling me I went through all that - overcoming the initial dialogue issue and my disinterest in boxing - and it ended like THAT? Ugh. Three stars. Would only recommend to a boxing fan.
February 3, 2020
This is an interesting look at the boxing industry before television. Told in a minimalist fashion it has a quality that dates back to a bygone era. I would not recommend it to other than a die hard boxing fan. To be honest, I did not quite get the ending, the why of the ending. I liked it anyway.
It is a look at boxing when the biggest part of the game was not the promotion of the fight but the fighting itself. Or so the author would have you believe. As I have become older I see a pattern of the older generation complaining about how the newer generation ruins everything. This might be that.
Still, for a boxing fan it is an interesting book and a fair piece of literature as well.
It is a look at boxing when the biggest part of the game was not the promotion of the fight but the fighting itself. Or so the author would have you believe. As I have become older I see a pattern of the older generation complaining about how the newer generation ruins everything. This might be that.
Still, for a boxing fan it is an interesting book and a fair piece of literature as well.
November 17, 2025
Спортивный журналист проводит месяц в тренировочном лагере с профессиональным боксером Эдди Брауном, который готовится к бою за чемпионский титул. Сюжет развивается преимущественно через разговоры журналиста с самим спортсменом, его командой, менеджером, семьей и друзьями. Однако мне не совсем понравился такой формат: книга в основном построена на диалогах, за ходом которых порой трудно уследить. Разочаровало и завершение - исход для меня был предсказуем, но то, как автор его подал, оставляет вопросы. Тем не менее в книге немало сильных и запоминающихся эпизодов и идей, затрагивающих не только спортивную тематику, но и более общие, жизненные темы.
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