The Gloves: A Boxing Chronicle [Hardcover]

Robert Anasi (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 14, 2002

A gritty, spirited inside look at the world of amateur boxing today

The Golden Gloves tournament is center stage in amateur boxing-a single-elimination contest in which young hopefuls square off in steamy gyms with the boxing elite looking on.

Robert Anasi took up boxing in his twenties to keep in shape, attract women, and sharpen his knuckles for the odd bar fight. He thought of entering "the Gloves," but put it off. Finally, at age thirty-two-his last year of eligibility-he vowed to fight, although he was an old man in a sport of teenagers and a light man who had to be even lighter (125 pounds) to fight others his size.

So begins Anasi's obsessive preparation for the Golden Gloves. He finds Milton, a wily and abusive trainer, and joins Milton's "Supreme Team": a black teenager who used to deal guns in Harlem, a bus driver with five kids, a hard-hitting woman champion who becomes his sparring partner. Meanwhile, he observes the changing world of amateur boxing, in which investment bankers spar with ex-convicts and everyone dreads a fatal blow to the head. With the Supreme Team, he goes to the tournament, whose outcome, it seems, is rigged, like so much in boxing life today.

Robert Anasi tells his story not as a journalist on assignment but as a man in the midst of one of the great adventures of his life. The Gloves, his first book, has the feel of a contemporary classic.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A world away from the pay-per-view bonanzas where hype and egos reign are the musky neighborhood gyms and foulmouthed trainers who nurtured those big-time boxers. In this lyrical look at the world of amateur boxing, freelance writer Anasi chronicles how jabbing and jump-roping at a grubby gym in San Francisco's Tenderloin district developed into a life-altering quest to compete, in his early 30s, in New York's storied amateur boxing tournament, the Golden Gloves. It's not an easy journey: his trainer, for example, a blunt, boisterous Puerto Rican named Milton, throws him into sparring sessions he's bound to lose while peppering him with insults from ringside. Of course, Anasi notes, that's not how trainers see it. "Instead they mention `good rounds,' `going easy,' `working with someone,' " he writes. "As in the romance around sex, the stereotyped, delicate language serves to cloak a more brutal reality." Anasi cloaks nothing, and his forthright style serves to highlight not only boxing's brutal reality, but also its beauty and allure. He tells fascinating stories of the other characters he meets and illustrates their lives in and out of the ring. This attention extends to the irrepressible Milton, whose unorthodox style Anasi comes to respect, even as he recognizes his trainer's faults and limitations. Absorbing and honest, with prose an effortless mix of facts, poetic descriptions and personal vignettes, this book will appeal even to those with no prior knowledge of the ring. What John Feinstein has done for higher-profile sports, Anasi has done for amateur boxing.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

This intriguing title is the story of first-time author Anasi's venture into the world of amateur boxing. In his early twenties, Anasi took up the sport as a means of keeping in shape. When he reached 32, the last year of eligibility to fight in the prestigious amateur Golden Gloves tournament, he decided to fulfill a dream and test his pugilistic skill in the Gloves. From the beginning, the reader is immersed in the gym, introduced to the people (in particular owner/trainer Milton Le Croix), the sounds, the pitiless training regimen, and the blood, sweat, and tears. The gym becomes a way of life an obsession and, as Anasi evokes it, an environment dominated by the young and ethnic. Here is a powerful book that sporting enthusiasts will relish. Recommended for all public libraries. [Anasi travels the same fistic route as William Plummer in his wonderful, out-of-print memoir, Buttercups and Strongboys: A Sojourn at the Golden Gloves. Ed.] Larry R. Little, Penticton P.L., B.
- Larry R. Little, Penticton P.L., BC
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: North Point Press; First Edition edition (February 14, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0865475997
• ISBN-13: 978-0865475991
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,811,676 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars bittersweet boxing memoir, May 17, 2002

By 

Orrin C. Judd "brothersjudddotcom" (Hanover, NH USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Gloves: A Boxing Chronicle (Hardcover)

Robert Anasi... decided to enter the Golden Gloves at age thirty-three, in the last year that he was eligible. It was something he'd thought about since he took up boxing in his twenties, mostly as a way to stay in shape, but with the chance to pursue a dream slipping away, he finally went for it. He even signed on with a tough but talented trainer, Milton LaCroix, a man with a reputation for being difficult to work with--he's apparently alienated everyone involved in New York's boxing world--but also a reputation for turning out good, though unorthodox, fighters.

Mr. Anasi's chronicle, which combines elements of George Plimpton style participatory sportswriting with in-depth reportage, nicely captures both the qualities that make boxing alluring--the colorful cast of characters; the dedication required; the physical challenge; the savage beauty of a punch well thrown and a fight well
fought; there's even an amusingly heartfelt paean to sweat--and those that make it repulsive--the genuine danger of injury; the exploitation of fighters by greedy managers and promoters; the serious questions that surround even the judging of an amateur bout and the draw for a tournament bracket. As in all the best of such accounts, he succeeds in capturing this dying subculture in its entirety, warts and all, while conveying his obvious love for it.

He tells the stories of the people he meets along the way with great sympathy but also with brutal honesty, a combination that might only be possible from a Sarah Lawrence graduate who's also fought enough to begin experiencing neurological effects--memory loss. Mr. Anasi subjects himself to the same tough but fair treatment as he seeks to understand his own obsession and what seems to have been a final bout victory but ended up a loss. In the end he concludes that for all the problems that attend boxing, there is something uniquely worthwhile that occurs within the ring itself, a meeting of one man with another on terms of complete equality, a meeting that though it ends in victory for only one, ends in mutual respect between the two.

If you're a boxing fan, or used to be, you'll certainly love the book. If you hate boxing you'll find much here to justify your hatred. If you've never understood the attraction of the sport you will after reading it. Most of all, if you like good storytelling, superior cultural reporting, and quality writing, you'll find them all here, and you'll enjoy them even if you don't care about boxing. It's an impressive debut and if it wins the readership it deserves may well become a classic along the lines of Paper Lion, Muscle, Friday Night Lights or Pat Jordan's A False Spring.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Impressive, Exciting and Honest Look At Amateur Boxing, September 13, 2004

By 

Buster Paris (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Gloves: A Boxing Chronicle (Paperback)

Addictive, Exciting and Honest Look At Amateur Boxing

4.75 Stars

George Plimpton is quoted as having said that The Gloves "As good a book as any I've read about the sport" - not exactly a ringing endorsement and I was a little worried -

This is actually a great book right from the start.

I was immediately hooked and addicted to his trainer's (Milton) style of fighting - something about the concept of Southpaw's just grabs me and especially a non-natural Southpaw - anyway that's what truly hooked me in.

The story is true - and the experience of reading Anasi's practice and journey through the world of amateur boxing is so real and compelling that you just can't put the book down.

The characters and people he meets and trains with are very interesting and he does such a great job in retelling his tale.

There was a point where the book dragged a bit, but as a whole it's a great story.

It's an impressive, exciting and honest look at amateur boxing, of amateur boxers and the sport of boxing in general.

Great book - give it a read.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars REALLY, REALLY GREAT BOOK!!!!, December 6, 2003

By A Customer

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This review is from: The Gloves: A Boxing Chronicle (Paperback)

"As both a writer and a boxer, Robert Anasi hears the fight game's music twice as loud. The result: a soundtrack for the wounded and the healing; for the seasoned veteran and the baffled student. With lilting precision Anasi captures the grace, the courage, and the madness of a boxer's everyday life. In a time when Boxing Books written by Journalists, Novelists, and Academics are as common as bloody noses, "The Gloves" is unique in that it offers a reader rare insights and observations from the fighter's point of view. Anasi's boxing skills may only allow him to compete at the amateur level, but as a writer he's gone straight to the pros."