Boxer Handsome

by Anna Whitwham

'A genuinely impressive debut. Boxer Handsome does everything great fiction should... revealing a world that most people will never even think about. If you can't see what it is that people need from boxing, or why it somehow persists into the 21st century, then read this' -- Guardian

Boxing runs in Bobby’s blood. His Irish dad was a boxer. So was his Jewish grandfather. Yanked up by their collars at Clapton Bow Boys Club, taught how to box and stay out of trouble.

So Bobby knows he shouldn’t be messing in street brawls a week before his big fight with Connor ‘the Gypsy Boy’, an Irish traveller from around the way. They’re fighting over a traveller girl with Connor’s name all over her. But Bobby’s handsome, like his dad; boxer handsome.

For Bobby, the ring is everywhere and he can’t afford to lose.

Genres: Fiction, Novels

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 16, 2014

Reviews

[Jonkers Jonkers]

I would have given this a 3/12 if I could. It is blunt and simply written but none the worse for that. The short chapters help to make it a page-turner and the story builds well. There is almost a James Patterson quality to it. A good, hard-hitting read!

[Sandie]

Bobby was raised to box. His grandfather on his mother's side and his father were both boxers and Bobby has been in the gym since he was a small boy. Now he is about to have the match that will make or break his career.

Connor was a friend in those boyhood days but now he's going to be Bobby's rival in the big fight. Both representing the same gym, one will go on and one's career will be done. Days before the fight, the two have a street fight over the girl Connor loves but who is having a fling with Bobby. Now the fight in the ring will be between enemies.

Bobby meets a girl who brings her brother to the gym to learn some self-defense. Chloe is nothing like the usual girls that Bobby meets, she is more refined and she makes Bobby want to be better. She will be coming to the big fight and gives Bobby one more reason to win.

This is a debut novel from Anna Whitwham who is an English author who was singled out as one of the Best New Novelists in the Guardian's annual listing. The boxing scenes ring true and it turns out that Anna herself took up boxing in the months after her mother died a slow death from cancer. Growing up she had been like the girl that Bobby and Connor fought over but after she had a child herself she finally began to grow up. Readers will be transported to a world most have no idea of. The action is brutal and the characters don't seem to be fully developed but caught in a world that defines them as one thing and refuses to let them break away. I will be looking for more work by this author and I'm glad to have seen the boxing world from the inside. This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.

[Anand Cholera]

Absolutely 5 stars for me, selfishly because it hits so close to home. Its a beautiful depicted book, accurately describing the life of a boxer, but intertwining the challenges of every day life too.

You feel connected to Bobby and almost understand Connors motives before the fierce rivalry come to a head in their meeting at the hallowed home of UK boxing York Hall.

A brilliant read, one I couldn't put down.

[Jordan Abey]

I really enjoyed the character work. It was definitely a page turner and left me rooting for every single person & POV. The female chapters worked better than the male chapters in my opinion. Anna has such a strong female voice, and writes grief/trauma really well. But unfortunately it fell flat slightly in the masculine sections, the descriptions/observations/language didn't really fit the character of Bobby. (with the exception of Joe's POV which was really strong).

[Mandy Warner-Bradshaw]

I didn't really like the simplicity of the writing - but a good yarn, nonetheless.

[Harry]

This was a very good book. My favourite character in the book is maggie because she puts up with a lot of things and deals with a lot of grief.

[Callum Osment]

sparse effective prose in spite of cheesy plot elements

[Kayleigh Goodyear]

Really really enjoyed this book

[Anne]

The story opens violently with a fight scene that is so descriptive that it will make you wince. Bobby and Connor are fighting over a girl; Theresa, a traveller girl who totters on her high heels from lad to lad.

Bobby is rough, he's violent, crass and doesn't really play by the rules. Bobby is also very good looking - he's Boxer Handsome.

Bobby and Connor are due to fight each other in the ring, but they come to blows on the riverbank just a week before fight day. This is a brutal, no-holds barred fight - bare-knuckles and blood and although this is about who 'owns' Theresa - the history between Bobby and Connor goes way back. Their families have always been connected, by boxing and by family relationship. The lads grew up together and Bobby's father Joe was a great boxer in his day, hard to believe when looking at the broken man destroyed by years of alchohol abuse that Joe is today.

When Bobby meets Chloe, just after the riverbank fight, he is fascinated by this girl who is so different from Theresa and the other girls he grew up with. Taking Chloe out on a first date, only kissing her, not expecting the rough sex that he gets with Theresa, Bobby sees a possibility, a different way of life. Sadly, and shockingly Bobby can't deal with this relationship at all - the strength of the violence within him leads to another brutal and bloody chapter in his life.

Anna Whitwham based her story on the life of her grandfather who fought at the Crown and Manor Boys Club in the east end of London in the 1920s. There is an overwhelming sense of brooding, dirt and passion within this story - the violence is stark and brutal and the characters appear very simple, but are in fact multi-layered with a multitude of long-lasting historical issues festering away inside them. Their answer to most things is to deal with it with their fists.

This is not the east end as portrayed in the soap opera, with laughter and jokes and songs down the pub. This is an area that reeks of danger, with family feuds that have become ingrained in social history, with prejudice and fists and a cast of characters who because of their flaws and sadness are realistic.

Anna Whitwham writes with authority, passion and depth. Boxer Handsome is a modern-day story that deals with age-old problems and issues. It is brutal and violent and explodes with language and fear but it is also has a sensitivity to it that gives the characters a vulnerability and sensitivity and it is this that made me fall just a little in love with Bobby - a guy who I'd probably run a mile from if I met him in real life.

[Andrew]

This book was a cracking tale about boxing at the lowest and toughest levels. Bobby the hero is a troubled young man who has to fight his emotional demons at the same time as his physical battles. The boxing cliches are rife but it didn't matter because i could tell that the writer was bringing her own life to this first novel as her biog describes. There is no one particularly likeable but the fight scenes are brilliantly described , brutal and the opening chapter lets you know what you are in for during the remainder of the book both as the basis of the plot and as the anticipation of the tense rivalry between the east end tribes and childhood friends that is the heart of the story. I will definitely look out for more by the writer, not subtle but very enjoyable.

[Stephen Goldenberg]

A very bold first novel which is well written and creates a powerful visceral atmosphere. It's a novel you can smell on almost every page. It has a boxing and street fighting milieu and is very violent in places and not for the faint-hearted.

[Katy Berger]

I had to abandon this macho rubbish!

[Lee Kane]

As much as I tried, I just couldn't make it to the end of this. Lost be about halfway through