Rope Burns

by Toole, F. X.

• ISBN13: 9780060198206
• ISBN10: 0060198206
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-08-17
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publications

Summary

Sixty-nine-year-old F. X. Toole has exploded onto the literary scene with this astonishing collection of stories drawn from his own experience in boxing. In these powerful and moving tales, he reveals a vicious netherworld of athletes and trainers, corrupt promoters, and other assorted denizens of East L.A., all players in a dirty business where victory, like defeat, comes with a dark and painful price.

Toole's dialogue crackles and bites, and the flawed warriors he creates cannot help but remind us of our own too-fragile humanity. He brings a new understanding to the violence and purity of the "sweet science", opening a window into the fighter's soul that can never be closed.

Table of Contents

Member of the Fancy: An Introduction	1	(12)
The Monkey Look	13	(24)
Black Jew	37	(24)
Million $$$ Baby	61	(42)
Fightin in Philly	103	(38)
Frozen Water	141	(14)
Rope Burns	155	(82)
Between Rounds: An Acknowledgment	237