Customer Reviews

The Abysmal Brute

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If you're reading this, you must, like me be a Jack London fan who is able to enjoy some of his less well known and somewhat flawed work. If so, you'll enjoy _The Abysmal Brute_. It's great to have this in print.

If you're interested in Jack London, you may want to ask your ISP to carry the newsgroup alt.books.jack-london, where we discuss his life, works, and ideas.

Anyone who has read Malamud's _The Natural_ (or seen the movie based on it) has to wonder whether Malamud was thinking of _The Abysmal Brute_. The theme is the same; only the sport is different.

This is one of London's boxing stories (the others are his fine short stories "The Mexican" and "A Piece of Steak," and his novel _The Game_)

I loved the first half of the book. Even though it's silly and unbelievable, Pat Glendon is a memorable character. He's one of Jack London's superheros, a boxer who totally outclasses every other living boxer while reads Browning in his spare time.

I'm always happy to see one of Jack London's lesser-known works get plucked from obscurity and brought back into print. Originally published in book form in 1913, this short novel tells the story of Young Pat Glendon, a proverbial "babe in the woods" who is brought out of the wilderness to embark on a big-city prizefighting career. London has written boxing tales before, most notably the excellent short story "A Piece of Steak" and the novel "The Game". His style of gritty realism is well-suited to the sport. The detailed, naturalistic descriptions of boxing matches, the people who fight them, and the combat strategy involved really makes you feel like you're there in the ring with the contenders. In this book, the vivid realism is somewhat counteracted by the fact that London makes his hero into such a superman that his perfection defies believability. On the other hand, with a little updating this book could easily be turned into a Hollywood movie (where defying believability is commonplace). It's not just another typical underdog-overcomes-adversity-to-win-the-championship type of boxing story. There are some unexpected turns in the plot which are a pleasant surprise. The introductory essay by Michael Oriard puts the book into historical context, and gives the reader a good picture of the boxing world of a hundred years ago. Oriard also addresses the issue of whether or not London was a racist, and the role of race in boxing at the turn of the century.

I am very grateful to the publisher, Kaitlin Press, for the re-release of this nearly forgotten but impressive story. As an older man, reading the first two-thirds of this work was every bit as exciting as reading Jack London's "Call of the Wild" when I was a 12-year-old boy. Here, the reader will find Jack London the storyteller, pure, vital and riveting, not Jack London the literary artist, as demonstrated in his melancholic novel, "Martin Eden." This is the story of an Irish prize-fighter and his millionairess lover. The writing is so clear, so graphic, it should have been made into a movie.

There's a wonderful kind of revenge plot, too, which occurs towards the end, that in a distant way is reminiscent of "The Count of Monte Cristo." Pat Glendon, the "abysmal brute" prize fighter, gives a speech in the ring at the near-end of the story that reminded this reader of Galt's speech in "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand. But it was with this speech, ironically, that I found Pat Glendon to be just a little too good to be believable. Not only is he a healthy specimen of male strength, a naturalist, a hunter and fisher, and a lover of poetry, to say nothing of his instinctive skill at fighting, he simply happens to be a natural statesman as well, a leader, too. I wish that I could have felt like the crowd that he sways at the conclusion of this story, but, alas, I felt Jack London adding just a touch too much of the fairy-tale in his characterization. of this magnificent god of a man.

There were also a couple of infelicitous phrasings I found strange. Several times London refers to "the machine," sometimes meaning the human body as in "..the crowd caught and held his machine," but on page 104, when he and his lover make eye contact and experience the magnetism of opposite sexual attraction, London writes, "He saw into her machine, and gave her another thrill...." Later, in Pat Glendon's speech in the ring to the crowd, London has his main character say at one point, "Tom, Dick, and Harry are three fighters. Dick is the best man. Dick licks Tom.... Harry licks Dick... Tom licks Dick."

These flaws are as nothing compared to the whole story, however.

I would love it, if Jack London, could he be alive today, should write this same story but told from the perspective of a patriotic American and taxpayer who manages to get involved with the members of the Copenhagen Treaty and the G20 Summits such that our hero does to the managers and governors participating in these meetings as well as in the Agenda 21 Agreement what he accomplishes inside and outside the boxing ring at the end of this particular story. That would be a story where Atlas -- or Hercules (whom London compares the boxer to) -- doesn't shrug. It would be a story where payback comes to all those who make huge piles of graft behind the ropes or screen.

The Abysmal Brute is a quick read, but it is under-appreciated in importance for Jack London fans. London critics seem to frequently concentrate on his "socialist" fiction or his "nature" stories. Sometimes lost in the discussion are novels that emphasize London's interest in individualism, and the rise of the "superman." In the Abysmal Brute, we get tastes of various sides of London. Jack the social reformer shows us the corruption of the boxing game. Jack the individualist shows us the superman, a boxer who grew up in the wilderness, can beat any fighter in the world in short order, and attends literary lectures an hour before the big fight and reads poetry in his spare time. This seems to be London's fantasy self, inflated to incredible proportions. He has an equally powerful mate in the form of a reporter who is skeptical of the boxing game, Young Pat's equal/mate who is of course Charmian London in thin disguise. Suspend disbelief and have fun with this one, and realize there are deeper issues beneath the fantasy coating.

This novella is rarely included in most collections of Jack London's "complete" works. After reading it I can see why. It seemed rushed as if written quickly for some fast cash. Definitely not among London's best. But for all that it's an entertaining, sometimes hilarious, expose of the rottenness of professional boxing with a romantic subplot thrown in for good measure. I am surprised that some talented screenwriter hasn't latched into this obscure novella as grist for a very good madcap romantic comedy. Picture this. An independent-minded socialite newspaperwoman who hates boxing is sent to interview the # 1 contender for the world championship. She falls in love with him when she finds out that, far from being the brute portrayed by the media, he's a sensitive art-loving, poetry- reading outdoors aficionado. Cary Grant and Kate Hepburn. Yup, it got potential.

This is a great story. It's simple. It's inspiring. And it has a happy ending.

It takes place in Jack London's boxing world in the early part of the 20th Century. Son of a fighter, the young man in question was raised in the country. He was big, strong and raised by his father. He didn't smoke or drink or carouse with women. He was just a country boy who loved the outdoors. He had a pure heart but his father trained him to be a fighter. And, according to the story, when the father was ailing, he sent for a reporter who specialized in boxing and sent the boy down to San Francisco in the reporter's care to compete in the boxing ring.

The boy was an innocent but he easily defeated all his opponents. Eventually though he learned to not knock them out in the first moments of a fight. He learned to play to the audience. He did well. The reporter was his manager and made a lot of money on him. The boy, who was called the Abysmal Brute was still naive though. He didn't know that fights were fixed. He also became enamored with a beautiful female reporter who he instantly fell in love with.

How it all turned out is the stuff of legends. I was indeed smiling at the perfect conclusion. And you will be too.

I read this story when I was a kid, and wanted to share it with my son. I found it quite inspiring when I read it and now i find it inspires my son as I read it with him (he is 13). Good, easy and quick read.

Also, I have stayed away from cheap Kindle publications having had problems with the quality of the pagination, formatting, etc. But this is very well done, Table of Contents works, I found no spelling mistakes or omissions which are common with most publications like this one.

All in all, highly recommend this book and this kindle edition. If you like this, you might also like The Mexican, also by Jack London. You can find it here:
The Mexican