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Looking for a Fight
Looking For A Fight
A Memoir
"I should have been alarmed at the canvas I had, in my bullheadedness, unwittingly stepped into--but I never could back down from a challenge," writes Lynn Snowden Picket in her frank, powerful memoir. An accomplished journalist, Lynn had just completed the New York Marathon and was toned and fit, but underneath she was smarting from a recent and hurtful divorce. Seeking an outlet for her stifled aggression, her trainer led her to a sweat-stained gym in Brooklyn, a place renowned for producing skilled, hard-hitting boxers. At Gleason's, Lynn would learn how to fight.
Lynn steps into the ring with a cockiness that is "part naïveté and part rage." Before long she's sparring with men twice her size, with years more experience. For the men at Gleason's, fighting is sometimes their only available path to glory, money, and fame. At their hands, three times a week, Lynn's ribs slam against her lungs, her face bruises, her hands swell. More difficult to overcome, however, are the tenacious panic attacks that come both in and outside the ring. Gleason's has become the focal point of Lynn's life; its mixed smells of machismo, adrenaline, and fear have become her own.
After ten months Lynn is ready for her first public fight against a woman, her equal in weight and strength. This match will be the greatest test of Lynn's skill. The greatest test of her courage, however, will be knowing when to quit.
A Memoir
"I should have been alarmed at the canvas I had, in my bullheadedness, unwittingly stepped into--but I never could back down from a challenge," writes Lynn Snowden Picket in her frank, powerful memoir. An accomplished journalist, Lynn had just completed the New York Marathon and was toned and fit, but underneath she was smarting from a recent and hurtful divorce. Seeking an outlet for her stifled aggression, her trainer led her to a sweat-stained gym in Brooklyn, a place renowned for producing skilled, hard-hitting boxers. At Gleason's, Lynn would learn how to fight.
Lynn steps into the ring with a cockiness that is "part naïveté and part rage." Before long she's sparring with men twice her size, with years more experience. For the men at Gleason's, fighting is sometimes their only available path to glory, money, and fame. At their hands, three times a week, Lynn's ribs slam against her lungs, her face bruises, her hands swell. More difficult to overcome, however, are the tenacious panic attacks that come both in and outside the ring. Gleason's has become the focal point of Lynn's life; its mixed smells of machismo, adrenaline, and fear have become her own.
After ten months Lynn is ready for her first public fight against a woman, her equal in weight and strength. This match will be the greatest test of Lynn's skill. The greatest test of her courage, however, will be knowing when to quit.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published November 7, 2000
14 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 3, 2015
I have to admit that when I pre-ordered this book from Amazon several months ago I was afraid that I would be bored by a memoir about boxing. I mean as far a sports go, boxing is WAY DOWN on my list of favorites. The concept of two people getting into a ring and punching each other until one falls down on death's door is less than appealing. However, Snowden is of one of my favorite female authors and I LOVED her previous book "Nine Lives, which, by the way, I would HIGHLY recommend purchasing. I've also read dozens of her magazine articles over the years and think she's an incredible journalist. Therefore, I had to order this book, no matter what the subject matter because I'm definitely a loyal fan.
As it turns out I LOVED this book, subject matter aside. Not only did I find her courage and dedication inspiring, but I also learned a lot about boxing and am actually looking forward to watching the next fight that airs on HBO.
Snowden entered the boxing world after a bitter and painful divorce seeking an outlet for her bottled-up pain and anger that accompanied the separation. "Looking for a Fight" is a memoir about her 10 month experience which was both emotionally and physically brutal, yet exhilarating and spiritually uplifting. I found myself literally squirming during the scenes where she gets punched in the ribs and socked in the nose, to the point where she had globs of blood hanging out of each nostril. What amazed and inspired me was that she stuck it out and kept coming back for more. But she didn't come back in a masochistic way, she came back because she wanted to achieve her personal best. And she did. But she also knew when it was time to quit.
Snowden's trainer was an interesting and evasive man named Hector whose professional ethics, were not very professional in the beginning of their relationship when he made an uninvited sexual pass at Snowden during a trip to Atlantic City for a boxing match. But on the positive side, I could immediately feel his remorse as he made a complete professional turnaround. Overall he turned out to be an outstanding trainer. He is the type of trainer I would want to have because he is both tough yet gentle. Hector is not one to easily offer praise so when he did dish it out he genuinely meant every word. His respect and admiration for Snowden grew as the months went by and I could tell he really cared for her as a boxer and as a *non-sexual* person.
Snowden is an excellent writer who doesn't waste words. The story is well paced and expresses a variety of emotions, a great sense of humor, insightful wisdom, strong ethics and incredible sensitivity and awareness to those around her. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has always wanted to achieve a goal but has never had the courage to go for it, or, to someone who is struggling with the willingness to persevere through a tough, challenging situation. But all of that aside, I simply recommend this book to ANYONE because it's an excellent, thought-provoking, well written book. Five stars and "two-gloves up!"
As it turns out I LOVED this book, subject matter aside. Not only did I find her courage and dedication inspiring, but I also learned a lot about boxing and am actually looking forward to watching the next fight that airs on HBO.
Snowden entered the boxing world after a bitter and painful divorce seeking an outlet for her bottled-up pain and anger that accompanied the separation. "Looking for a Fight" is a memoir about her 10 month experience which was both emotionally and physically brutal, yet exhilarating and spiritually uplifting. I found myself literally squirming during the scenes where she gets punched in the ribs and socked in the nose, to the point where she had globs of blood hanging out of each nostril. What amazed and inspired me was that she stuck it out and kept coming back for more. But she didn't come back in a masochistic way, she came back because she wanted to achieve her personal best. And she did. But she also knew when it was time to quit.
Snowden's trainer was an interesting and evasive man named Hector whose professional ethics, were not very professional in the beginning of their relationship when he made an uninvited sexual pass at Snowden during a trip to Atlantic City for a boxing match. But on the positive side, I could immediately feel his remorse as he made a complete professional turnaround. Overall he turned out to be an outstanding trainer. He is the type of trainer I would want to have because he is both tough yet gentle. Hector is not one to easily offer praise so when he did dish it out he genuinely meant every word. His respect and admiration for Snowden grew as the months went by and I could tell he really cared for her as a boxer and as a *non-sexual* person.
Snowden is an excellent writer who doesn't waste words. The story is well paced and expresses a variety of emotions, a great sense of humor, insightful wisdom, strong ethics and incredible sensitivity and awareness to those around her. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has always wanted to achieve a goal but has never had the courage to go for it, or, to someone who is struggling with the willingness to persevere through a tough, challenging situation. But all of that aside, I simply recommend this book to ANYONE because it's an excellent, thought-provoking, well written book. Five stars and "two-gloves up!"
October 9, 2007
Normally memoirs have a point. This one didn't. Or she couldn't decide what her point was. Either way, yawn.
December 9, 2010
An interesting read by Lynn Snowden Pickett about the life of a female boxer. Snowden, a professional writer who has also gone all-out to do stories on strippers and running a marathon, trained as a boxer for about a year in the famous Brooklyn gym, Gleasons. This book was good because it gives the view so seldom seen, boxing from the view of a women rather than a man.
Pickett's details in her writing are unbelievably great. It was like I was right there in the ring with her. It's a quick read too, and with the suspense it's easy to read 10 pages in about five minutes.
The problem I had with the book, and the author even admits to it sometimes, is that she asks to be treated like all the other male boxers when she is being trained, but then whines about being hit too hard in the ring at other times. In fact, she even yells out to some boxers, "Oh, so you like hitting girls huh? That make you feel strong?" In my opinion, you can't have it both ways. Ask to be treated like everyone else, you are going to be treated like everyone else. You can't have the good and the good, you have to be able to deal with the bad as well. That being said, how some of the other boxers treated her outside of the ring was unacceptable I thought. Outside of the ring, treat her like the lady that she is.
An interesting read, I'd recommend it to anyone who lives near Brooklyn, and any fan of boxing.
Pickett's details in her writing are unbelievably great. It was like I was right there in the ring with her. It's a quick read too, and with the suspense it's easy to read 10 pages in about five minutes.
The problem I had with the book, and the author even admits to it sometimes, is that she asks to be treated like all the other male boxers when she is being trained, but then whines about being hit too hard in the ring at other times. In fact, she even yells out to some boxers, "Oh, so you like hitting girls huh? That make you feel strong?" In my opinion, you can't have it both ways. Ask to be treated like everyone else, you are going to be treated like everyone else. You can't have the good and the good, you have to be able to deal with the bad as well. That being said, how some of the other boxers treated her outside of the ring was unacceptable I thought. Outside of the ring, treat her like the lady that she is.
An interesting read, I'd recommend it to anyone who lives near Brooklyn, and any fan of boxing.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews