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Flesh and Blood
Blond blue-eyed Bobby Fallon is a tough Brooklyn Irish kid with a hunger to slay dragons. His fists hit like a mule kicking downhill. When he throws a punch, a scream bellows his rage, for his world is an endless chain of enemies. The torment of Pete Hamill's hero [in "Flesh and Blood"] is an erotic passion for his mother Kate, a beautiful half-Shoshone woman of 36 with a poignant, enigmatic smile. Kate, in turn, miserably lonely at the desertion of her dashing husband Jack, transfers her love to Bobby. In this savage novel there are no priests to condemn their sinning, nor are they tormented by conscience. Son and mother love and make love repeatedly, dominated by their irrepressible need for each other
292 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 1986
3 people are currently reading
117 people want to read
About the author
Pete Hamill
110 books561 followersPete Hamill was a novelist, essayist and journalist whose career has endured for more than forty years. He was born in Brooklyn, N. Y. in 1935, the oldest of seven children of immigrants from Belfast, Northern Ireland. He attended Catholic schools as a child. He left school at 16 to work in the Brooklyn Navy Yard as a sheetmetal worker, and then went on to the United States Navy. While serving in the Navy, he completed his high school education. Then, using the educational benefits of the G.I. Bill of Rights, he attended Mexico City College in 1956-1957, studying painting and writing, and later went to Pratt Institute. For several years, he worked as a graphic designer. Then in 1960, he went to work as a reporter for the New York Post. A long career in journalism followed. He has been a columnist for the New York Post, the New York Daily News, and New York Newsday, the Village Voice, New York magazine and Esquire. He has served as editor-in-chief of both the Post and the Daily News. As a journalist, he covered wars in Vietnam, Nicaragua, Lebanon and Northern Ireland, and has lived for extended periods in Mexico City, Dublin, Barcelona, San Juan and Rome. From his base in New York he also covered murders, fires, World Series, championship fights and the great domestic disturbances of the 1960s, and wrote extensively on art, jazz, immigration and politics. He witnessed the events of September 11, 2001 and its aftermath and wrote about them for the Daily News.
At the same time, Hamill wrote much fiction, including movie and TV scripts. He published nine novels and two collections of short stories. His 1997 novel, Snow in August, was on the New York Times bestseller list for four months. His memoir, A Drinking Life, was on the same New York Times list for 13 weeks. He has published two collections of his journalism (Irrational Ravings and Piecework), an extended essay on journalism called News Is a Verb, a book about the relationship of tools to art, a biographical essay called Why Sinatra Matters, dealing with the music of the late singer and the social forces that made his work unique. In 1999, Harry N. Abrams published his acclaimed book on the Mexican painter Diego Rivera. His novel, Forever, was published by Little, Brown in January 2003 and became a New York Times bestseller. His most recently published novel was North River (2007).
In 2004, he published Downtown: My Manhattan, a non-fiction account of his love affair with New York, and received much critical acclaim. Hamill was the father of two daughters, and has a grandson. He was married to the Japanese journalist, Fukiko Aoki, and they divided their time between New York City and Cuernavaca, Mexico. He was a Distinguished Writer in Residence at New York University.
Author photo by David Shankbone (September 2007) - permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation.
At the same time, Hamill wrote much fiction, including movie and TV scripts. He published nine novels and two collections of short stories. His 1997 novel, Snow in August, was on the New York Times bestseller list for four months. His memoir, A Drinking Life, was on the same New York Times list for 13 weeks. He has published two collections of his journalism (Irrational Ravings and Piecework), an extended essay on journalism called News Is a Verb, a book about the relationship of tools to art, a biographical essay called Why Sinatra Matters, dealing with the music of the late singer and the social forces that made his work unique. In 1999, Harry N. Abrams published his acclaimed book on the Mexican painter Diego Rivera. His novel, Forever, was published by Little, Brown in January 2003 and became a New York Times bestseller. His most recently published novel was North River (2007).
In 2004, he published Downtown: My Manhattan, a non-fiction account of his love affair with New York, and received much critical acclaim. Hamill was the father of two daughters, and has a grandson. He was married to the Japanese journalist, Fukiko Aoki, and they divided their time between New York City and Cuernavaca, Mexico. He was a Distinguished Writer in Residence at New York University.
Author photo by David Shankbone (September 2007) - permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
July 3, 2011
The review here by Andy Seven provides a very succinct outline of this hard-to-find book's quirky charm. Young, fresh-out-of-prison tough guy Bobby Fallon trains to become a boxer in a prototypical sweaty, grungy city gym—meanwhile greeting his gorgeous half-Native American mother, after said stint in the slam, with a prodigious boner straining against his pants, a hard greeting that doesn't embarrass mom in the slightest. With Bobby taking out his burning issues regarding mother and her current boyfriend-du-jour—and abandoning, sparkle-eyed Irish father—on his sparring partners, it's only a matter of time before mom makes the move on sonny boy after too many holiday drinks and a bout of spirited role-playing—Don't call me Mom, call me Kate—in a scene that Hamill somehow manages to make more erotic than icky. After this initial shame-and-lust inducing seduction, well, you know things are going to rush headlong towards disaster—and so it is that, in the final stretch, we find Bobby fighting a syndicate bruiser in Las Vegas, with his frisky off-and-on bed-partner Mom and I'm-back-and-still-rakishly-smiling Dad figuring into the rope-a-dope drama.
Hamill occasionally strains too hard in chapping his characters and stumbles awkwardly into bathos, but he is still a capable crafter of seamy and meaty glimpses into the city's underbelly; and Flesh and Blood is a satisfying—if occasionally ludicrous—foray into the gritty world of pulp by way of blue-collar boxing, booze, and incest. Long out of print, but worth it for a fun ride if you find a copy available.
Hamill occasionally strains too hard in chapping his characters and stumbles awkwardly into bathos, but he is still a capable crafter of seamy and meaty glimpses into the city's underbelly; and Flesh and Blood is a satisfying—if occasionally ludicrous—foray into the gritty world of pulp by way of blue-collar boxing, booze, and incest. Long out of print, but worth it for a fun ride if you find a copy available.
October 12, 2008
Kinda pulpy novel about a golden boy boxer who reunites with his hot young Navajo MILF mom. Everything's clover until he gets jealous every time he sees Mom in the arms of another boxing pimp. They finally "make the scene" near the end of the book. The greatest sports incest book ever written.
P.S. If you ever get a chance to see the TV movie starring Tom Berenger and Suzanne Pleshette, don't. It's very bad.
P.S. If you ever get a chance to see the TV movie starring Tom Berenger and Suzanne Pleshette, don't. It's very bad.
October 18, 2019
Please, whatever you do, DO NOT give a moment's thought to the ridiculous, adolescent fever dreams some "reviewers" have seen fit to ascribe to Pete Hamill's Flesh and Blood. Especially egregious is the inexplicable drivel currently heading the Pete Hamill "Flesh and Blood" opening page on this site (17 OCT 2019; "Blond blue-eyed Bobby Fallon..."). Por favor.
While there is, in the novel, an extremely difficult dynamic between mother and son which possesses an oppressive, longstanding sexual element, it is examined deftly and with Mr Hamill's customary compassion and insight, and this dynamic is every bit as troubling to the characters involved as it is to the reader.
Flesh and Blood is the story of a conflicted working-class young man haunted by a punishing past. His hard-won pugilistic skills lead him from prison into a realm only a short remove from the harshness and mistreatment that has informed much of his existence to now. He has heart, character, and the courage to hope for better days than he has known, but is faced with putting certain demons to rest before he can move forward and breathe free. The aforementioned mother-son dynamic obviously falls into that category. Unexamined rage, largely associated with the failings of his absentee father and their many consequences, is another issue young Bobby Fallon must confront, lest he be destroyed by it.
Be aware that the novel is as much about the fight game itself—with all its savage energy, backroom politics, greed, and heart-stopping physical grace—as it is about Bobby’s attempt to navigate his way to a life of quality and perhaps some portion of joy, where love is a thing that liberates heart and mind instead of choking them off in the darkness of emotional desperation.
You might want to read the two measured, highly personal reviews of the novel featured on Amazon.com as of this writing. (Not the few sophomoric toss-offs located nearby. You’ll know the ones to which I refer when you see them.) The reviewers to whom I point both understand that this is one of the author's finest feats of storytelling and characterization. They know that a thoughtful reader comes away from Flesh and Blood...changed...by its uncommon depth, intelligence, and astonishing rough beauty.
The novel is concerned with human beings and how and why they strive; where they find their opportunities and how they play them out; how they manage the realities that cannot be undone; and how they ultimately orient themselves toward the people shaping the substance of their lives, along with the costs—and gains—attendant to the decisions they make.
As an aside here: I only registered on this site about an hour ago expressly to suggest that readers interested in the book summarily dismiss irresponsible, misleading, and puerile "synopses" centered on an illicit sex-fest which simply does not appear in the novel.
Pete Hamill deserves better than that.
While there is, in the novel, an extremely difficult dynamic between mother and son which possesses an oppressive, longstanding sexual element, it is examined deftly and with Mr Hamill's customary compassion and insight, and this dynamic is every bit as troubling to the characters involved as it is to the reader.
Flesh and Blood is the story of a conflicted working-class young man haunted by a punishing past. His hard-won pugilistic skills lead him from prison into a realm only a short remove from the harshness and mistreatment that has informed much of his existence to now. He has heart, character, and the courage to hope for better days than he has known, but is faced with putting certain demons to rest before he can move forward and breathe free. The aforementioned mother-son dynamic obviously falls into that category. Unexamined rage, largely associated with the failings of his absentee father and their many consequences, is another issue young Bobby Fallon must confront, lest he be destroyed by it.
Be aware that the novel is as much about the fight game itself—with all its savage energy, backroom politics, greed, and heart-stopping physical grace—as it is about Bobby’s attempt to navigate his way to a life of quality and perhaps some portion of joy, where love is a thing that liberates heart and mind instead of choking them off in the darkness of emotional desperation.
You might want to read the two measured, highly personal reviews of the novel featured on Amazon.com as of this writing. (Not the few sophomoric toss-offs located nearby. You’ll know the ones to which I refer when you see them.) The reviewers to whom I point both understand that this is one of the author's finest feats of storytelling and characterization. They know that a thoughtful reader comes away from Flesh and Blood...changed...by its uncommon depth, intelligence, and astonishing rough beauty.
The novel is concerned with human beings and how and why they strive; where they find their opportunities and how they play them out; how they manage the realities that cannot be undone; and how they ultimately orient themselves toward the people shaping the substance of their lives, along with the costs—and gains—attendant to the decisions they make.
As an aside here: I only registered on this site about an hour ago expressly to suggest that readers interested in the book summarily dismiss irresponsible, misleading, and puerile "synopses" centered on an illicit sex-fest which simply does not appear in the novel.
Pete Hamill deserves better than that.
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January 24, 2020
I'll be honest: if any new readers come to witness the brilliance of this novel, they'll fully understand why the following is enough of a review.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozSQP...
This music video, for me, sums up everything we miss from the story and its ending. That's it, the 70s are gone, the 80s are gone, the 90s are gone, 00s are gone, 10s are gone.
Go with your gut on this one, have some heart. New readers, just put the trust in us, we that can vouch for it, that this novel is a piece of timeless brilliance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozSQP...
This music video, for me, sums up everything we miss from the story and its ending. That's it, the 70s are gone, the 80s are gone, the 90s are gone, 00s are gone, 10s are gone.
Go with your gut on this one, have some heart. New readers, just put the trust in us, we that can vouch for it, that this novel is a piece of timeless brilliance.
December 7, 2011
Well written coming of age, boxing, dysfunctional family saga told as only Hammil can. Gets a little weird and depressing, but an important work if you are a Pete Hammil fan.
January 11, 2012
Earlier novel, his 3rd. Not bad , but I personally like his later works.
May 15, 2025
3.5 stars. I rounded up
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June 22, 2025First
July 29, 2025
I’ve read nearly all of Pete Hamill’s novels, and while Flesh and Blood isn’t my favorite, it might be the most daring. It’s also one of the most disturbing. The central relationship—an occasionally sexual one between mother and son—is presented not as a fleeting shock but as the emotional core of Bobby the main character of the book. That’s going to be a dealbreaker for many readers, and I completely understand why.
But what struck me, and what kept me reading, was Hamill’s refusal to sensationalize. The writing is raw, and the characters—particularly Bobby—feel tragically human in his confusing obsession and obscene longing of both wanting to be with his mother physically and mentally actually be his father, who he also hates (and often idolizes.) This isn’t a book about morality or judgment; it's a complicated tale about a deeply flawed protagonist and about loneliness, identity, and the way pain can twist love into something unrecognizable.
It’s not a book I’d recommend lightly, and it’s not one I’ll easily forget. But as a longtime Hamill fan, I can respect the risks he took with Flesh and Blood and it hits on a whole different level than his other work. Pete Hamill never played it safe in his writing career—and this novel is proof.
But what struck me, and what kept me reading, was Hamill’s refusal to sensationalize. The writing is raw, and the characters—particularly Bobby—feel tragically human in his confusing obsession and obscene longing of both wanting to be with his mother physically and mentally actually be his father, who he also hates (and often idolizes.) This isn’t a book about morality or judgment; it's a complicated tale about a deeply flawed protagonist and about loneliness, identity, and the way pain can twist love into something unrecognizable.
It’s not a book I’d recommend lightly, and it’s not one I’ll easily forget. But as a longtime Hamill fan, I can respect the risks he took with Flesh and Blood and it hits on a whole different level than his other work. Pete Hamill never played it safe in his writing career—and this novel is proof.
December 7, 2015
This book really, really depressed me at the end. There is just so much left unsaid, so much life unlived. The story cuts off so quickly that it makes the emotional impact that much more severe. It left me angry and sick and full of latent hostility towards my own mother, which probably says more about me than the author's writing. But then, that's how it is with extremely dysfunction families - you never get a chance to make them feel bad for what they've done to you. Actually, Bobby handles himself and his situation a lot better than I have. At least he didn't destroy himself or anyone else. Inside, he was a real winner, a real champion. He had heart even after everybody stabbed him in it.
May 28, 2008
It is about a young Irish guy who would like to become a rich guy by earning on his inborn talent and strength. There was the time of discrimination between white and black guys.
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January 6, 2011I have read Pete Hamil before and always liked his books, so I was disappointed with this book. But maybe it is because it seems to me more of a man's book.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews