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The Devil and Sonny Liston by Nick Tosches
Nick Tosches's brutal, stunning, and widely praised biography of Sonny Liston-the world heavyweight champion who hit harder than any man alive, and who embodied everything that is compelling and terrifying about boxing. Author Nick Tosches was born in Newark and schooled in his father's Jersey City bar. He is the author of Dino, an acclaimed biography of Dean Martin, among other books. He is a contributing editor of Vanity Fair.
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First published April 1, 2000
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About the author
Nick Tosches
53 books240 followersNick Tosches was an American journalist, novelist, biographer, and poet. His 1982 biography of Jerry Lee Lewis, Hellfire, was praised by Rolling Stone magazine as "the best rock and roll biography ever written."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 78 reviews
March 12, 2023
I became aware of THE DEVIL AND SONNY LISTON when I saw it on a list of the ten greatest books on sports. It is a biography of Sonny Liston, who was the heavy weight boxing champion of the world in the early 1960s. He won his title from Floyd Patterson and lost it a few years later to Cassius Clay, who immediately after winning the title renamed himself Muhammed Ali. Liston was an unpopular champion and allegedly connected to the underworld. I remember listening to his fights on the radio with my father when I was a boy.
The subject of his life intrigued me, so I bought a copy of Tosches' book. It has merit, but the details of Liston's story are not developed well enough for THE DEVIL AND SONNY LISTON to deserve consideration as one of the best books of its genre.
Much of Liston's story is predictable. He was a child of southern poverty. He may have been the 24th of his father’s 25 children. His father was cruel and physically abusive. His mother was neglectful. He moved to St. Louis as a teenager, fell into petty crime and twice served short sentences in a Missouri penitentiary where he was introduced to boxing. He was strong, fearless and a natural puncher. Soon there was no one in the penitentiary who was willing to spar with him.
He was released from prison the second time while still in his early 20s. (Identifying his exact age is not possible. His birthday is forgotten - even to his own mother.) He returned to St. Louis. But still unable to read or write, his options were limited. He was in every way a natural target for the predators who then controlled boxing. Soon enough, Liston fell under their influence.
This is where THE DEVIL AND SONNY LISTON becomes interesting. Tosches seems to want to write an expose. The problem is that he does not have the whole story. Instead, he peppers his readers with poorly connected facts and anecdotes. It is clear that Liston was "owned" by shadowy underworld figures, but Tosches is unable to pull back the screen so that we can get a good view. One senses that Tosches tried to research his book thoroughly, but he simply did not get to the root of it. One would not expect participants in organized crime to volunteer the facts of their criminal activities. But Tosches’ failure to assemble a more complete account of the facts is very unsatisfying, even if understandable.
The fight game, in Liston’s time, was rife with criminal activity and Tosches believes, as did many of Liston’s contemporaries, that both of Liston's title fights with Ali were fixed. What a book this could have been if Tosches had penetrated the mystery around these fights and resolved the controversy. But he does not present any new information.
Liston's personal story is grim. He was a dark and brooding presence. Unlike other fighters of his time, he drank heavily – even while in training. He gambled. He may have sold drugs and done some loan sharking. He was muscle for the teamsters on occasion. In these jobs, he was exploited. Most troubling of all, is something that he alone must take the blame for. He took what he wanted from women. Many were willing partners, but Tosches documents a handful of incidents where Liston seems to have raped a woman and then paid her off.
Tosches describes Liston as “a man born dead.” By this, I take it that Tosches is telling us that Liston never had a chance for decency or success. A close associate of Liston’s is reported to have said that Liston had no sense of right and wrong – almost as if he was not a full member of the human race. Tosches is effective in describing the aura of doom that seems to have surrounded Liston.
Liston died in mysterious circumstances in December 1970. Officially, Liston died from a heart attack. But there was evidence of heroin in his system. This was suspicious in that he was not known to use narcotics and, to the contrary, was known to have a deathly fear of needles. Some believed that he had been given a "hot shot" in order to eliminate him as a potential witness. Tosches suggests that he himself may believe this too. But no one is identified who would have had a motive and opportunity to administer the deadly dose. Nor does Tosches tell us what it was that Liston witnessed that would have caused someone to murder him. These and too many other questions are left unanswered.
In the end, that is Tosches' failing. He leaves his job unfinished.
The subject of his life intrigued me, so I bought a copy of Tosches' book. It has merit, but the details of Liston's story are not developed well enough for THE DEVIL AND SONNY LISTON to deserve consideration as one of the best books of its genre.
Much of Liston's story is predictable. He was a child of southern poverty. He may have been the 24th of his father’s 25 children. His father was cruel and physically abusive. His mother was neglectful. He moved to St. Louis as a teenager, fell into petty crime and twice served short sentences in a Missouri penitentiary where he was introduced to boxing. He was strong, fearless and a natural puncher. Soon there was no one in the penitentiary who was willing to spar with him.
He was released from prison the second time while still in his early 20s. (Identifying his exact age is not possible. His birthday is forgotten - even to his own mother.) He returned to St. Louis. But still unable to read or write, his options were limited. He was in every way a natural target for the predators who then controlled boxing. Soon enough, Liston fell under their influence.
This is where THE DEVIL AND SONNY LISTON becomes interesting. Tosches seems to want to write an expose. The problem is that he does not have the whole story. Instead, he peppers his readers with poorly connected facts and anecdotes. It is clear that Liston was "owned" by shadowy underworld figures, but Tosches is unable to pull back the screen so that we can get a good view. One senses that Tosches tried to research his book thoroughly, but he simply did not get to the root of it. One would not expect participants in organized crime to volunteer the facts of their criminal activities. But Tosches’ failure to assemble a more complete account of the facts is very unsatisfying, even if understandable.
The fight game, in Liston’s time, was rife with criminal activity and Tosches believes, as did many of Liston’s contemporaries, that both of Liston's title fights with Ali were fixed. What a book this could have been if Tosches had penetrated the mystery around these fights and resolved the controversy. But he does not present any new information.
Liston's personal story is grim. He was a dark and brooding presence. Unlike other fighters of his time, he drank heavily – even while in training. He gambled. He may have sold drugs and done some loan sharking. He was muscle for the teamsters on occasion. In these jobs, he was exploited. Most troubling of all, is something that he alone must take the blame for. He took what he wanted from women. Many were willing partners, but Tosches documents a handful of incidents where Liston seems to have raped a woman and then paid her off.
Tosches describes Liston as “a man born dead.” By this, I take it that Tosches is telling us that Liston never had a chance for decency or success. A close associate of Liston’s is reported to have said that Liston had no sense of right and wrong – almost as if he was not a full member of the human race. Tosches is effective in describing the aura of doom that seems to have surrounded Liston.
Liston died in mysterious circumstances in December 1970. Officially, Liston died from a heart attack. But there was evidence of heroin in his system. This was suspicious in that he was not known to use narcotics and, to the contrary, was known to have a deathly fear of needles. Some believed that he had been given a "hot shot" in order to eliminate him as a potential witness. Tosches suggests that he himself may believe this too. But no one is identified who would have had a motive and opportunity to administer the deadly dose. Nor does Tosches tell us what it was that Liston witnessed that would have caused someone to murder him. These and too many other questions are left unanswered.
In the end, that is Tosches' failing. He leaves his job unfinished.
Read
March 28, 2020An interesting book, but not one I'd want to duplicate.
Tosches is clearly a skilled writer, and this book is full of good, muscular prose. The scope of the book is impressive, as is the thoroughness of research. Tosches covers a lot of ground—quite admirably, in fact—and is quite dexterous in reminding readers where in the book they've encountered particular underworld characters before.
So that's the good stuff (very stripped down).
On the less good front—and I'll say upfront that a lot of this is at least partly rooted in personal preference—I have two main complaints.
The first is that the book seems to lack a cohesive sense of purpose. Now, it's fine to set out and explore, and it's fine to craft a book that holds out on the reader in terms of its discoveries until whatever point it suits the writer. But I got the sense that the book's very raison d'etre was elusive— shifting or undetermined until the very last second—and that no real editing took place in light of that final discovery. Of course I know editing did happen, so why not cut away some detours that not only detract from the story's momentum but seem to propose a different kind of book altogether (as when, in the early pages, Tosches considers his own early impressions of the fighter, and of blackness as a cultural phenomenon)?
The other slight criticism I have is that I couldn't shake the feeling that the author was, at times or in whole, making Sonny Liston into what he wanted him to be more than what he actually was. In all fairness, we nonfiction writers probably all do this to all our subjects to a greater or lesser degree. But in the sort of ethical cosmos I was raised in as a writer, it's part of our obligation to do something with those inclinations. Plumb them, or fight them, or expose them, or something. I didn't get the sense that this author was owning the fact that he was, in fact, using Sonny every bit as much as any of the other figures in this book. Maybe to a better purpose or end, but still using. It left a funny feeling in my gut, even while I was otherwise enjoying the book.
It was sort of like the feeling you get at a really fun party if some small part of yourself is deeply unsure you turned off the stove. Which, now that I think about it, raises the possibility that Toshes's lack of admission or insight about his motivation in turn leaves the reader with some sense of culpability? Which maybe isn't a bad thing, even if it wasn't intentional (and maybe it was)? Regardless, it tainted my sense of enjoyment.
Tosches is clearly a skilled writer, and this book is full of good, muscular prose. The scope of the book is impressive, as is the thoroughness of research. Tosches covers a lot of ground—quite admirably, in fact—and is quite dexterous in reminding readers where in the book they've encountered particular underworld characters before.
So that's the good stuff (very stripped down).
On the less good front—and I'll say upfront that a lot of this is at least partly rooted in personal preference—I have two main complaints.
The first is that the book seems to lack a cohesive sense of purpose. Now, it's fine to set out and explore, and it's fine to craft a book that holds out on the reader in terms of its discoveries until whatever point it suits the writer. But I got the sense that the book's very raison d'etre was elusive— shifting or undetermined until the very last second—and that no real editing took place in light of that final discovery. Of course I know editing did happen, so why not cut away some detours that not only detract from the story's momentum but seem to propose a different kind of book altogether (as when, in the early pages, Tosches considers his own early impressions of the fighter, and of blackness as a cultural phenomenon)?
The other slight criticism I have is that I couldn't shake the feeling that the author was, at times or in whole, making Sonny Liston into what he wanted him to be more than what he actually was. In all fairness, we nonfiction writers probably all do this to all our subjects to a greater or lesser degree. But in the sort of ethical cosmos I was raised in as a writer, it's part of our obligation to do something with those inclinations. Plumb them, or fight them, or expose them, or something. I didn't get the sense that this author was owning the fact that he was, in fact, using Sonny every bit as much as any of the other figures in this book. Maybe to a better purpose or end, but still using. It left a funny feeling in my gut, even while I was otherwise enjoying the book.
It was sort of like the feeling you get at a really fun party if some small part of yourself is deeply unsure you turned off the stove. Which, now that I think about it, raises the possibility that Toshes's lack of admission or insight about his motivation in turn leaves the reader with some sense of culpability? Which maybe isn't a bad thing, even if it wasn't intentional (and maybe it was)? Regardless, it tainted my sense of enjoyment.
November 6, 2015
The former Heavyweight champion of the World Sonny Listen was a former convict who learned how to box in prison and become one of the most feared boxers in boxing history. He was just 6 foot 1 inch but had an incredible fist circumference of 15 inches, larger than former Champion 6 foot 9 inch Primo Carnero’s hands.
At prison he met Prison Staff Priest, Alois Stevens, who introduced him to boxing and arranged for an early release for Sonny in 1952. Sonny started with a successful Amateur career winning the Chicago and New York Golden Gloves championships. He then turned professional in September 1953 knocking out Boxer Don Smith in round one. He won his next 6 bout before dropping a split decision to Marty Marshall. He won his next 26 bouts in a row, 22 of them by Knock out. The current Champion Floyd Patterson’s manager, Cus Damata, did not want to give Sonny a shot at Floyd’s championship.
Trouble swirled around Listen during these years. He had been arrested for speeding and assault but was always released due to his connections with Gangsters Frankie Carbo and Blinky Palermo who ran Sonny’s boxing career from behind the scenes.
However, public pressure forced a match between Champion Floyd Patterson and Sonny. September 25 1962 they met in the ring where Sonny destroyed Floyd with a first round knockout becoming the new heavyweight champion of Boxing in the destructive aftermath. A rear later a rematch happened with the same result -KO round 1.
There was no one in boxing that could come up with a contender who could beat Sonny when a young former Olympic Champion demanded his shot at the title. Very few at the time knew that this man would become one of the greatest of all time - Muhammad Ali.
Ali’s record was 19-0 when he fought Sonny for the Championship. He was also a huge underdog, some even fearing for the young man’s life.
They fought February 25th 1964 in Miami. From the start of the fight Muhammad plastered Sonny with jabs then moved out of the way before Sonny could hit him with his thunderous punches. By the end of the 6th Sonny’s face was a mess. It was puffy and bloody. Then astonishingly Sonny Liston quit, never getting off his stool to proceed to round 7. He claimed that his shoulder was injured but he lost his championship, none the less, as a TKO.
The rematch happened May 25, 1965 and it went down as as one of the most controversial matches in boxing history. In the very first round Ali caught Liston with a short fast punch that floored Sonny. Sonny laid there as Ali stood over him. The referee, another former champion though retired, Jersey Joe Walcott, did not start the 10 count until Ali moved into a neutral corner. Afterwards he started the count and then the time keeper yelled that 10 seconds had passed already ( The fighter has 10 seconds to rise or else he is considered knocked out). Jersey Joe stopped counting and declared Ali the winner. The punch that dropped Sonny is known as “the phantom punch” because it is hard to see the power it delivered.
Naturally some of the press clamored that is was a fix. The truth is that a young Muhammad Ali with his superior quickness and iron clad jaw would beat Sonny Listen every time they boxed.
Sonny boxed 9 more fight winning all but one by knock out before being knocked out himself by Leotis Martin in December 1969. He fought once more defeating Chuck Wepner and afterwards retired.
His unsuspected death December 30, 1970 at the age of either 38 or 40 (his birth date was never established) brought more controversy. The coroner listed the cause of death as a natural death. However, his age and the very good condition of his body made almost everyone doubt that opinion. Some speculated his death was due to a drug overdose others that he was murdered by some mobster that he may have offended. The case was never reopened. As such, Boxings most feared champion laid rest for the final time.
At prison he met Prison Staff Priest, Alois Stevens, who introduced him to boxing and arranged for an early release for Sonny in 1952. Sonny started with a successful Amateur career winning the Chicago and New York Golden Gloves championships. He then turned professional in September 1953 knocking out Boxer Don Smith in round one. He won his next 6 bout before dropping a split decision to Marty Marshall. He won his next 26 bouts in a row, 22 of them by Knock out. The current Champion Floyd Patterson’s manager, Cus Damata, did not want to give Sonny a shot at Floyd’s championship.
Trouble swirled around Listen during these years. He had been arrested for speeding and assault but was always released due to his connections with Gangsters Frankie Carbo and Blinky Palermo who ran Sonny’s boxing career from behind the scenes.
However, public pressure forced a match between Champion Floyd Patterson and Sonny. September 25 1962 they met in the ring where Sonny destroyed Floyd with a first round knockout becoming the new heavyweight champion of Boxing in the destructive aftermath. A rear later a rematch happened with the same result -KO round 1.
There was no one in boxing that could come up with a contender who could beat Sonny when a young former Olympic Champion demanded his shot at the title. Very few at the time knew that this man would become one of the greatest of all time - Muhammad Ali.
Ali’s record was 19-0 when he fought Sonny for the Championship. He was also a huge underdog, some even fearing for the young man’s life.
They fought February 25th 1964 in Miami. From the start of the fight Muhammad plastered Sonny with jabs then moved out of the way before Sonny could hit him with his thunderous punches. By the end of the 6th Sonny’s face was a mess. It was puffy and bloody. Then astonishingly Sonny Liston quit, never getting off his stool to proceed to round 7. He claimed that his shoulder was injured but he lost his championship, none the less, as a TKO.
The rematch happened May 25, 1965 and it went down as as one of the most controversial matches in boxing history. In the very first round Ali caught Liston with a short fast punch that floored Sonny. Sonny laid there as Ali stood over him. The referee, another former champion though retired, Jersey Joe Walcott, did not start the 10 count until Ali moved into a neutral corner. Afterwards he started the count and then the time keeper yelled that 10 seconds had passed already ( The fighter has 10 seconds to rise or else he is considered knocked out). Jersey Joe stopped counting and declared Ali the winner. The punch that dropped Sonny is known as “the phantom punch” because it is hard to see the power it delivered.
Naturally some of the press clamored that is was a fix. The truth is that a young Muhammad Ali with his superior quickness and iron clad jaw would beat Sonny Listen every time they boxed.
Sonny boxed 9 more fight winning all but one by knock out before being knocked out himself by Leotis Martin in December 1969. He fought once more defeating Chuck Wepner and afterwards retired.
His unsuspected death December 30, 1970 at the age of either 38 or 40 (his birth date was never established) brought more controversy. The coroner listed the cause of death as a natural death. However, his age and the very good condition of his body made almost everyone doubt that opinion. Some speculated his death was due to a drug overdose others that he was murdered by some mobster that he may have offended. The case was never reopened. As such, Boxings most feared champion laid rest for the final time.
January 5, 2009
The first chapter of Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man": Battle Royale sums this book up, except there isn't a protagonist. Like in this chapter, a kind of metaphor for black oppression, black men fight blindfolded in a boxing ring while their white superiors watch in enjoyment: Sonny Liston was slaved into boxing. A giant thug who was used to make other people money. A modern day slavery despite a huge paycheck.
In this Book Nick Tosches' narrative just got to me and I found his style overbearing and unenjoyable. It was almost as if a high school history paper was put together and coupled with a stream of consciousness personal assumptive account of what actually happend to Sonny Liston. Bad Pairing. Interesting subject though.
In this Book Nick Tosches' narrative just got to me and I found his style overbearing and unenjoyable. It was almost as if a high school history paper was put together and coupled with a stream of consciousness personal assumptive account of what actually happend to Sonny Liston. Bad Pairing. Interesting subject though.
Read
February 7, 2008I have to say that this book was something of a slight disappointment to me. That's not to say that I didn't learn things about Sonny Liston that I did not know prior to going in, but my problems are more with the author himself and the way he approaches the subject.
I have read a Nich Tosches biography before, his book on Dean Martin, so I should have been prepared. Tosches is one of those biographers who seems to approach his subject the way does his fictional ones. He takes the sketch he gets from his numerous interviews and bits of research and sketches the personality, usually zeroing in on certain aspects of that person's personality and running with it.
I have seen other biographers do this, in both book and film (Oliver Stone's movies on Nixon and Jim Morrison being prime examples), and it tends to annoy me a bit.
Tosches latches on to the darker side of Sonny Liston, the Bad Man, almost to the point of obsession, a times writing several paragraphs of first person narrative from Liston himself on how he felt when he walked into such and such a room and felt about such and such a situation, trying his best to sound Lison, with expletive laden sentences and jive-talking abbreviations and slang. The results, whether true to Sonny Liston or not, can be laughable and odd. (I remember he did the same with Dean Martin)
Now to be fair, Liston was certainly a dark and brooding character, with a rap sheet a mile long and a history of violence beyond the ring. But as a biographer, at least the way I see it, your job is to present facts based on yoru research and interviews. Now of course you will have to fill in the blanks at times, and come up with the best sketch you can, but when you interject opinion and a bit of creative license here and there as all biographers do and must, I think that should be clear.
To me, the Sonny Liston I see in the pages of this book, in pictures, films, and other sources I've read about him, paint a much more conflicted man than portrayed here - the brute, the Bear. People with Liston's history usually are, not just "born dead" as Tosches calls it.
The books gives a great look into the influence the Underworld has in the boxing industry, especially of Liston's time, and may shock some readers with it's insinuations of fixs and rigged fights (some of which are the biggest in history) but context and a little more historical reference should be taken into account here as well.
Worth a read but with caution!
I have read a Nich Tosches biography before, his book on Dean Martin, so I should have been prepared. Tosches is one of those biographers who seems to approach his subject the way does his fictional ones. He takes the sketch he gets from his numerous interviews and bits of research and sketches the personality, usually zeroing in on certain aspects of that person's personality and running with it.
I have seen other biographers do this, in both book and film (Oliver Stone's movies on Nixon and Jim Morrison being prime examples), and it tends to annoy me a bit.
Tosches latches on to the darker side of Sonny Liston, the Bad Man, almost to the point of obsession, a times writing several paragraphs of first person narrative from Liston himself on how he felt when he walked into such and such a room and felt about such and such a situation, trying his best to sound Lison, with expletive laden sentences and jive-talking abbreviations and slang. The results, whether true to Sonny Liston or not, can be laughable and odd. (I remember he did the same with Dean Martin)
Now to be fair, Liston was certainly a dark and brooding character, with a rap sheet a mile long and a history of violence beyond the ring. But as a biographer, at least the way I see it, your job is to present facts based on yoru research and interviews. Now of course you will have to fill in the blanks at times, and come up with the best sketch you can, but when you interject opinion and a bit of creative license here and there as all biographers do and must, I think that should be clear.
To me, the Sonny Liston I see in the pages of this book, in pictures, films, and other sources I've read about him, paint a much more conflicted man than portrayed here - the brute, the Bear. People with Liston's history usually are, not just "born dead" as Tosches calls it.
The books gives a great look into the influence the Underworld has in the boxing industry, especially of Liston's time, and may shock some readers with it's insinuations of fixs and rigged fights (some of which are the biggest in history) but context and a little more historical reference should be taken into account here as well.
Worth a read but with caution!
December 22, 2011
A study of the short, mysterious, brutal and strange life of Charles Sonny Liston. Tosches is an erudite writer; his vivid, poetic prose propels his narrative along, even when as a detective biographer he goes out on a limb. It’s fact that Liston was in with the Mob, but that it’s a given in this book that Liston’s two fights to Ali were fixed is a little presumptuous --- but only a little. Tosches has a wealth of interviews and solid evidence at his disposal; that and his moody, evocative prose keeps his story going.
At times, the book meanders too much into mini-bios of Mob figures and peripheral boxing people, and skips too quickly over important events in Liston’s life (his fights with Ali and the media hype preceding them, for example). On the whole, though, this is a finely-crafted and important look into, not so much Liston’s shadowy life, but the shadowy world that he inhabited.
At times, the book meanders too much into mini-bios of Mob figures and peripheral boxing people, and skips too quickly over important events in Liston’s life (his fights with Ali and the media hype preceding them, for example). On the whole, though, this is a finely-crafted and important look into, not so much Liston’s shadowy life, but the shadowy world that he inhabited.
January 16, 2021
"Mediocrity and media, it should be remembered are cognates of the same Latin root"
I sure would loved to have seen Liston fight Tosches for purses of money. Tosches would say "don't hit me so hard champ, I'm the one tryna find what killed you!" Sonny'd say nothing just keep on hittin the poor scribbler.
This here is a beautiful book.
It is for: People who don't think Muhammed Ali was all that great, people who think that boxing is worse off without the mafia involved, people who like their champions strong and silent.
It is not for: Fans of the movie "Rocky," correct people of a political nature, people from Sand Slough, Arkansas.
I sure would loved to have seen Liston fight Tosches for purses of money. Tosches would say "don't hit me so hard champ, I'm the one tryna find what killed you!" Sonny'd say nothing just keep on hittin the poor scribbler.
This here is a beautiful book.
It is for: People who don't think Muhammed Ali was all that great, people who think that boxing is worse off without the mafia involved, people who like their champions strong and silent.
It is not for: Fans of the movie "Rocky," correct people of a political nature, people from Sand Slough, Arkansas.
February 20, 2013
The first time I ever heard of Sonny Liston was in - I believe, it's a little hazy that far back - 1989. There was a 25th anniversary documentary about Clay-Liston, where Liston is of course presented as the villain on the way down fighting the soon-to-be-Muslim-and-famous Cassius Clay. Given that I was bored 14 year old who knew nothing about boxing, this documentary was quite a history lesson. I remember coming away from watching it with 2 indelible impressions - a) Cassius Clay was a really obnoxious and annoying dude and b) Sonny Liston seemed about the scariest man I have ever laid (virtual, via the television) eyes on.
Which leads me to this book, 24 years later. I still know very little about boxing, really nothing more than can be gleaned from repeated playing of Mike Tyson's Punch Out!, but this book isn't actually about boxing and requires little to no knowledge of the Sweet Science. It's all about Sonny Liston, who just happened to be the most feared boxer of his generation (and still the scariest man I have ever laid eyes on). A guy caught up in the world as it was, that was then passed by.
Tosches paints a finely detailed portrait of someone who's often cast as a cartoon character of sorts. Liston comes across as brutal and thuggish, but highly intelligent (although functionally illiterate) and in his own way, completely pure. Tosches has no love lost for Clay/Ali and posits very reasonable theories about how Liston/Clay I and II could have ended as they did.
Stories about the mob and fight structure starting from the 30s onward as spliced over the top of Liston's story. Since this book documents what was essentially a criminal enterprise, a lot of it is innuendo and inference after the fact. But that makes it a good read, and a good mystery, like Liston himself. Tosches clearly enjoys talking about Mob business, and he's very good at it.
Not exactly an uplifting story, but not meant to be either. A contemplative one that forces you to speculate about how people end up who they are and where they are.
Which leads me to this book, 24 years later. I still know very little about boxing, really nothing more than can be gleaned from repeated playing of Mike Tyson's Punch Out!, but this book isn't actually about boxing and requires little to no knowledge of the Sweet Science. It's all about Sonny Liston, who just happened to be the most feared boxer of his generation (and still the scariest man I have ever laid eyes on). A guy caught up in the world as it was, that was then passed by.
Tosches paints a finely detailed portrait of someone who's often cast as a cartoon character of sorts. Liston comes across as brutal and thuggish, but highly intelligent (although functionally illiterate) and in his own way, completely pure. Tosches has no love lost for Clay/Ali and posits very reasonable theories about how Liston/Clay I and II could have ended as they did.
Stories about the mob and fight structure starting from the 30s onward as spliced over the top of Liston's story. Since this book documents what was essentially a criminal enterprise, a lot of it is innuendo and inference after the fact. But that makes it a good read, and a good mystery, like Liston himself. Tosches clearly enjoys talking about Mob business, and he's very good at it.
Not exactly an uplifting story, but not meant to be either. A contemplative one that forces you to speculate about how people end up who they are and where they are.
December 12, 2008
This book is worth reading but it could have been a lot better. The author should have left out some of his personal commentary, which was bad enough and made even worse in many cases because it often had nothing to do with the subject matter and seemed totally random. However for all its faults it has more stuff about Sonny Liston than anything else I have ever read. It more or less obsesses on his "darkside" more than boxing or anything else. His various run ins with the law and prison stints, the possibility that he threw the fights against Cassius Clay, his association with the mob, and it explores whether or not he was murdered instead of dying of a heroin overdose as the official story claims.
July 16, 2015
I got what I wanted from this book, which was to learn about the life and career of Sonny Liston. (Mark Knopfler made me do it.)
Sometimes, the writing departs from the narrative into flights of poetic vulgarity. That annoyed me.
Sometimes, the writing departs from the narrative into flights of poetic vulgarity. That annoyed me.
August 21, 2015
Another epic story from Nick Tosches. Sonny Liston battled the Devil in one form or another his entire life. I very highly recommend this book. You just have to read the story for yourself.
May 28, 2010
Dirt -- Fist -- Feet.
December 3, 2015
Compelling reveal of one of Boxing's more mysterious characters.
January 14, 2014
The Mob’s Fight Racket Costarring Sonny Liston
Ostensbibly, Tosches wrote a biography of Sonny Liston. Sad to say, that ain’t the case. While Liston receives more page time than any of the other scurrilous characters that populates this fascinating investigation of America’s dark underbelly, this book is more of something else than simply a biography of Sonny Liston. It is closer to a treatise on a number of issues, the main one happening to be the relationship of the mob to the fight game costarring Sonny Liston. Tosches uses Liston’s rise & fall as a springboard to explore a host of dark nooks & crannies. Peppered throughout this sociological examination are philosophical ruminations on what it is to be a slave, or a “mean-assed, bad motherfucker.” What emerges as the dominant focus of his book is an unrelenting attempt to piece together who ruled & how they ruled the fight game in the 50’s & early 60’s. He leaves little room for discussion on the merits of the morality of the sport. The conclusion he hammers home time & again is that the fighters who entered the ring, knowingly or not, were no more than marked cards at a crooked black jack table where the house was the winner & this particular house belonged to the mob.
I’m not saying that his book is not about Sonny, far from it. Tosches does a splendid job of stirring up old memories about Sonny. And, if like me, you have ancient recollections of Muhammad Ali sending Liston to the canvas in the 1st round for a K.O., you also, probably hold fuzzy tainted pictures of Sonny Liston, tucked away in that sphere of your mind reserved for low life & scum. Fair or not, that’s how it worked for me. Sonny stirs up images of a man with a scowl & wisp of a mustache, defeated twice by Ali. I faintly remember rumors that he was a punk with a drinking problem & a rap sheet as long as a football field – not a nice guy. At the time he lost his second match to Ali, there was a sense that Ali had rescued the fight game. Gone now, the evil black menace, curse to his race. Sonny was banished to the nether world & professional boxing was saved. To his credit, Tosches explodes those myths I & too many believed, crafting a more comprehensive, three-dimensional critique of this epochal fighter. He illustrates how the media back then helped to demonize him, fostering the sense that Sonny represented the worst elements of his race. The following captures that media bias:
It’s little surprise then that I & many others remember Sonny as we do. If nothing else, Tosches does a fine job of depicting him as a far more complex character. Yes, he was a man with demons, namely alcohol (when drinking, he was a “Devil”; when not, a rational man); but he was also a compassionate guy who loved kids & extending a helping hand to the down & out. Unfortunately, despite his prowess as the best fighter of his time, he was an illiterate (did not write or read) black man, entirely dependent upon the mob for his economic survival.
Sadly though, regardless of his empathetic analysis of Sonny, his environment, where he came from & heady obstacles confronting his life, there is still the disquieting feeling that there is more to know about this bear of man who “the legendary Joe Louis called …the greatest heavyweight champion in history.” So, to an extent, as Sonny Liston was cheated out of his rightful space in the pantheon of all-time great boxers, so too, are the readers of Tosches’ book, left feeling unfulfilled, wanting to know more about this man, now relegated to the footnotes of boxing lore.
Ostensbibly, Tosches wrote a biography of Sonny Liston. Sad to say, that ain’t the case. While Liston receives more page time than any of the other scurrilous characters that populates this fascinating investigation of America’s dark underbelly, this book is more of something else than simply a biography of Sonny Liston. It is closer to a treatise on a number of issues, the main one happening to be the relationship of the mob to the fight game costarring Sonny Liston. Tosches uses Liston’s rise & fall as a springboard to explore a host of dark nooks & crannies. Peppered throughout this sociological examination are philosophical ruminations on what it is to be a slave, or a “mean-assed, bad motherfucker.” What emerges as the dominant focus of his book is an unrelenting attempt to piece together who ruled & how they ruled the fight game in the 50’s & early 60’s. He leaves little room for discussion on the merits of the morality of the sport. The conclusion he hammers home time & again is that the fighters who entered the ring, knowingly or not, were no more than marked cards at a crooked black jack table where the house was the winner & this particular house belonged to the mob.
I’m not saying that his book is not about Sonny, far from it. Tosches does a splendid job of stirring up old memories about Sonny. And, if like me, you have ancient recollections of Muhammad Ali sending Liston to the canvas in the 1st round for a K.O., you also, probably hold fuzzy tainted pictures of Sonny Liston, tucked away in that sphere of your mind reserved for low life & scum. Fair or not, that’s how it worked for me. Sonny stirs up images of a man with a scowl & wisp of a mustache, defeated twice by Ali. I faintly remember rumors that he was a punk with a drinking problem & a rap sheet as long as a football field – not a nice guy. At the time he lost his second match to Ali, there was a sense that Ali had rescued the fight game. Gone now, the evil black menace, curse to his race. Sonny was banished to the nether world & professional boxing was saved. To his credit, Tosches explodes those myths I & too many believed, crafting a more comprehensive, three-dimensional critique of this epochal fighter. He illustrates how the media back then helped to demonize him, fostering the sense that Sonny represented the worst elements of his race. The following captures that media bias:
Look magazine ran a story entitled “Sonny Liston: King of the Beasts,” in the February 26, 1964, issue. “In essence, Sonny epitomizes the Negro untouchable, the angry dark-skinned man condemned by the white man to spend his life in the economic and social sewers of his country.”
It’s little surprise then that I & many others remember Sonny as we do. If nothing else, Tosches does a fine job of depicting him as a far more complex character. Yes, he was a man with demons, namely alcohol (when drinking, he was a “Devil”; when not, a rational man); but he was also a compassionate guy who loved kids & extending a helping hand to the down & out. Unfortunately, despite his prowess as the best fighter of his time, he was an illiterate (did not write or read) black man, entirely dependent upon the mob for his economic survival.
Sadly though, regardless of his empathetic analysis of Sonny, his environment, where he came from & heady obstacles confronting his life, there is still the disquieting feeling that there is more to know about this bear of man who “the legendary Joe Louis called …the greatest heavyweight champion in history.” So, to an extent, as Sonny Liston was cheated out of his rightful space in the pantheon of all-time great boxers, so too, are the readers of Tosches’ book, left feeling unfulfilled, wanting to know more about this man, now relegated to the footnotes of boxing lore.
August 23, 2016
Tosches seems to have found himself on the disapproving end of the post-blog era, amongst that class of writers whose common thread is that a bunch of people on the Internet hate them for a multitude of contradictory reasons, and the theory that maybe it's just because they were the last batch of people who got decent paychecks and research budgets to write about music is dismissed in favor of pointing out how unaware they are of copious signifiers from the last three months. That's not to give Tosches' critics a blanket condemnation--his novels have deserved most of the disgust they've received--and his tendency to prioritize his brand over his points has always a nuisance. But there's a thing he does, or did, that has immense, inarguable value, and that's the gruntwork. His books--specifically his non-fiction books, of which this is one, the others being mostly music biographies--aren't built from pontification or enthusiasm, they're built from work. Like Steve Coll and Dostoyevsky, a Tosches book expects you to remember the names, to pay attention to the job titles, to keep up your end of the bargain. And while Coll will grant you the rich syrup of gossip for your labors, Tosches goes for wild-eyed poetry, for paragraph long breaks where he rhapsodically idolizes what it must be like to have a gigantic penis, or coldbloodedly explains what the spiral of drug addiction feels like. He forces himself into a corner, opening by saying that Sonny was murdered (a long standing piece of gossip that remains tantalizingly unprovable), only to conclude by saying he's glad he said that, but he doesn't believe it anymore. It's the sort of work we have too little of, a work that admits and admires unanswerable complexity, a book as opposed to disgusting behavior as it is to the idea that that behavior should be responded to in kind. There's nothing wrong with hate, venom, foul language or bile: but in the world where the children of Tosches now rule, it's worth recognizing that they're best left to the professionals.
June 24, 2024
The story of Sonny Liston is compelling. Born dirt poor as one of 12 children to sharecroppers, Liston was a violent criminal until he fell into boxing. During his reign as one of the best and hardest hitting boxers of all time, he maintained underworld and mob ties until his suspicious death at age 40. As a person Liston was brutal, illiterate and courted notoriety his entire life. Arguably the only thing he knew how to do was hurt people. This book tells his story but with some of the worst and most overwrought writing I've ever read. Tosches sucks. But you will learn about Liston.
October 7, 2016
E' la biografia di Sonny Liston, grande pugile afroamericano degli anni sessanta, politicamente scorrettissimo e più che mai odiato dai perbenisti Usa, che arrivarono a vederlo come l'incarnazione stessa del male. Nato poverissimo da una famiglia allargata di ex schiavi e cresciuto nei bassifondi di Saint Louis, Liston era un vero duro analfabeta che amava l'alcool e con una fedina penale lunghissima. Era legato a doppio filo al racket della malavita, che controllava le scommesse e il mondo della boxe di allora. La sua esistenza è circondata dal mistero così come la sua morte, avvenuta in circostanze mai chiarite, quando Liston aveva solo trentotto anni. La sua forza da picchiatore tremendo, capace di mandare al tappeto qualsiasi avversario, era leggendaria. Lo stesso Joe Louis disse che si sarebbe tenuto la corona dei massimi fino a quando l'avrebbe voluto, invece poco dopo dovette cederla a un giovane Cassius Clay che, dal punto di vista mediatico, era assai più funzionale, in due incontri tra i più palesemente truccati della storia del pugilato.
Questa biografia è ben scritta, ed è sospinta da dei continui flashback in bianco e nero, oltre che dalle testimonianze di chi lo conobbe, delineando così gli episodi salienti della vita di questo campione.
Questa biografia è ben scritta, ed è sospinta da dei continui flashback in bianco e nero, oltre che dalle testimonianze di chi lo conobbe, delineando così gli episodi salienti della vita di questo campione.
September 18, 2013
It's hard to write about Sonny Liston. Not much is known about his past and not many people wanted to get close to him.
Tosches does a pretty good job at painting a picture of Liston, given the resources he had. It became clear that he put time into his research but didn't get much from it.
There were times where his voice was too strong. In the beginning he seems to attempt to ease white man's guilt by going into detail about how race had slaves. While this is true, it was not relevant to the book. Other times he talked too in depth of people related to Sonny. He spend a good portion of the beginning of his book describing Liston's family tree, in detail.
I read this book because I read about Floyd Patterson and I planned to read about Ali so I wanted to read about the champion in between. Coming out of the book I have a decent idea of who Sonny was and a slightly more decent idea of the releation between the mob and boxing at the time.
Read this book if you have no other book on your list
Tosches does a pretty good job at painting a picture of Liston, given the resources he had. It became clear that he put time into his research but didn't get much from it.
There were times where his voice was too strong. In the beginning he seems to attempt to ease white man's guilt by going into detail about how race had slaves. While this is true, it was not relevant to the book. Other times he talked too in depth of people related to Sonny. He spend a good portion of the beginning of his book describing Liston's family tree, in detail.
I read this book because I read about Floyd Patterson and I planned to read about Ali so I wanted to read about the champion in between. Coming out of the book I have a decent idea of who Sonny was and a slightly more decent idea of the releation between the mob and boxing at the time.
Read this book if you have no other book on your list
January 22, 2009
Just finished reading this and really liked it. It has the usual Tosches touches of excellent storytelling, amazing research and a dark subject, that make all of his books enjoyable for me to read. However, I don't know who in the hell I'd recommend it to. There's a good deal of writing in here about the history of the Mafia and their hands in the history of boxing, so maybe if you're into that kind of thing you'd dig it. Mostly I like it because it's a human story about a guy that can't quite transcend his lot in life even though, from the outside, it seems like he has an opportunity to grab success and break away from his past. But, you know, it's all inside him. That's what he can't fight. Like "Dino", the book gets you to care about an unsympathetic loner, that doesn't really seem to care about too many others.
January 28, 2014
One of the real-life characters in this biography made a comment that the author, Nick Tosches, wrote like Sonny punched. I agree. This is a powerfully written book about a powerful and tragic man. Read the first and last couple of sentences of the story's first paragraph and then try to tell me you aren't hooked: "The corpse was rolled over and lay face down on the metal slab. It was then that the coroner saw them: the copper-colored whipping welts, old and faint, like one might imagine to have been those of a driven slave................Born with dead man's eyes, he had passed from the darkness of those scars on his back to the darkness of the criminal underworld, to the darkness beyond, a darkness whose final form was the last thing his eyes ever saw." Man, I wish I could write like Nick Tosches.
September 19, 2011
This is a rare kind of biography. Its subject is not sympathetic, but was a towering figure in sport and culture. Normally (in my experience), the formula for a biography like that will be: (a) making the subject sympathetic, while ostentatiously distancing yourself as the author from that sympathy; and (or, by) (b) making an iconoclast out of the subject, that is, suggesting his or her problem is that he or she was or is too contrary to established mores to have been properly understood, through no fault of their own. Tosches does neither of those things, but neither does he shy away from the fact Liston could have turned out a lot different if he'd had a chance to be a better man or hadn't fallen in with bad people. The research is thorough and the story well told.
December 18, 2016
I'm not a fan of boxing, but this biography of Sonny Liston is my favorite sports book, partly because Liston was such an anomaly of 20th Century America. He was illiterate; he had no idea when or where he was born; and two of the most famous fights he was in - his bouts with Muhammad Ali - were possibly fixed (the second one almost certainly so). Even odder: not only does history not know what year he was born; we're not even sure how or even *what year he died*, despite it having happened in early-1970s Las Vegas. And Nick Tosches is an amazing writer whose work is greatly underappreciated. Find this in your local library. Soak in some Americana.
July 15, 2012
this was a pretty cool book. it also got me to read another book, Paul Clifford, but that's another story.
i really like Tosches' style. he's very raw and gritty and very direct. he gets right to the point in a vivid manner.
throughout the book i kept thinking to myself about the amount of labor that went into research for this book. Tosches drills to the core of the details of Liston's life. it's a frustrating story to hear. Ali would be in a different spot in the boxing history books if not for the path that Sonny Liston ended up on.
i really like Tosches' style. he's very raw and gritty and very direct. he gets right to the point in a vivid manner.
throughout the book i kept thinking to myself about the amount of labor that went into research for this book. Tosches drills to the core of the details of Liston's life. it's a frustrating story to hear. Ali would be in a different spot in the boxing history books if not for the path that Sonny Liston ended up on.
June 29, 2015
Great book. You can feel, page after page, how Tosches has been dragged to share Liston's feelings and sense of doom pervading his life. The book is also accurate from a journalistic point of view, considering how Tosches is able to track down even the least background players of Liston's life. Obviously he never pretends to be impartial but this, far from be detrimental to the narrative, gives it a warming sense of intimacy as if, more than conducting interviews, he was asking people about a common friend he has lost, just to discover, in the end, that that friend is gone forever.
February 1, 2016
Great insight into the brief but memorable life of a mysterious champ. Here is a sample of the great anecdotes and tales:
"Sonny sat next to me in the car, we were driving over south St. Louis to the gym, and this young boy, George Foreman, nineteen years old, and he was smacking gum or something in Sonny's ear. Sonny said, "Will you stop smacking that gum in my ear?" George said, "If you seen the way I whupped that German, you wouldn't talk to me like that." That cracked everybody up, because Sonny wasn't used to people sassing him. He loved Sonny. Yeah, he loved Sonny."
"Sonny sat next to me in the car, we were driving over south St. Louis to the gym, and this young boy, George Foreman, nineteen years old, and he was smacking gum or something in Sonny's ear. Sonny said, "Will you stop smacking that gum in my ear?" George said, "If you seen the way I whupped that German, you wouldn't talk to me like that." That cracked everybody up, because Sonny wasn't used to people sassing him. He loved Sonny. Yeah, he loved Sonny."
July 14, 2009
Sonny Liston lived a tortured life, but he was no dumb thug. Here is a book that creates an in-depth history and profile of a very complex and ignored man--Sonny Liston, the heavyweight champion who lost the title to Muhammad Ali.
So why only three stars? When I read a book about boxers, I want to read some analysis of their fights, and I did not find that in these pages. maybe I should have just stuck to Youtube for the fights, but I was disappointed.
So why only three stars? When I read a book about boxers, I want to read some analysis of their fights, and I did not find that in these pages. maybe I should have just stuck to Youtube for the fights, but I was disappointed.
July 31, 2007
Ohh MAN! I am CONVINCED that if Liston hadn't taken a fall (2 times!!) Ali would NEVER have had the career he had. This guy was just too miserable a human being for people in the sport to let him continue. He couldn't be beat! Tragic story. Who knows if he's the greatest heavyweight ever- the Brown Bomber probably will always get that title, but he is certainly top three- Louis, Liston, Ali.
June 19, 2008
Really disappointing. At times this book seems to be about everyone around Sonny Liston, in particular the criminal element, but not about Sonny himself. I really wanted to learn more about Sonny, but instead got all the intricate details about how the crime world was intertwined with professional boxing. No duh.
July 18, 2010
Students can learn about the issues that athletes faced during the time period of Sonny Liston and Ali in comparison to today. The book humanizes a historical figure by exploring his personal life and how greatly it impacted his career. The book explores topics such as racism, drugs, corruption, and organized crime to name a few.
August 29, 2013
What separates Sports Bestsellers from Sports writers? What separates Good Sportswriters from Excellent ones? Or Excellent ones from legendary writers, in general? Research. Research, Research, Research.
I have no other recommendations except that if you love boxing, you are lucky enough to have been graced by Nick Tosches to write a book about one of the most slighted boxers in history.
I have no other recommendations except that if you love boxing, you are lucky enough to have been graced by Nick Tosches to write a book about one of the most slighted boxers in history.
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