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Golden Boy: The Fame, Money, and Mystery of Oscar De LA Hoya
 
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Golden Boy: The Fame, Money, and Mystery of Oscar De LA Hoya [Hardcover]

Tim Kawakami (Author)
3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)


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Book Description

February 1999
The hottest star in boxing today. An Olympic gold-medal winner. A child who grew up dirt poor and last year made $35 million. A charming man with a conflicted, complex personality who's just 25 years old.

Those facts alone make Oscar de la Hoya one of the most fascinating athletes in the world today. Throw in looks that make him one of People magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People, a spicy and risque love life, and a never-ending revolving door of managers, trainers, and publicists, and it's easy to see why de la Hoya is one of the most popular -- and controversial -- athletes of all time.

Like Muhammad Ali before him, de la Hoya is as much celebrity as he is boxer. Now there is a book that offers the world an inside look at a man that has long since shut most observers out. Golden Boy is the stirring biography of a lonely, motherless adolescent whose once-in-a-generation talent has thrust him into the glaring spotlight of fame and fortune.

Allowed unprecedented behind-the-scenes access to this usually private mega-star, Los Angeles Times writer Tim Kawakami recounts de la Hoya's compelling story of family politics, reckless romances, and creeping paranoia. Though Golden Boy is technically unauthorized, Kawakami conducted several prolonged, revealing interviews with de la Hoya. Golden Boy also offers a look at this intriguing boxer through the eyes of his brother, father, long-time girlfriend, close camp associates -- and a litany of managers, trainers, and fellow boxers past and present.

A celebrity in the Latin community every bit as important as Selena or Pele, de la Hoya's popularity transcends boxing. And, now, for the first time ever, a book reveals the fame, money, andmystery surrounding America's Golden Boy.


Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews

This solid piece of journalism goes the full 12 rounds in detailing the personal demons that fuel Oscar de la Hoyas fists of fury. Kawakami, former boxing reporter for the Los Angeles Times, begins in the rat- and roach-infested barrio of East Los Angeles, where this grandson of a Mexican immigrant grew up in poverty. Oscar was a natural lefty who learned at the Eastside Boxing Club to fight like a righty with a surprisingly powerful left. Often at odds with his tyrannical father, he was close to his nurturing mother, who succumbed to cancer in her 30s. After his mothers death, Kawakami writes, pent-up anger turned into rage, into frenzy, into destruction.'' Oscar won the Olympic gold medal in Barcelona, then turned pro, hooking up with premier promoter Bob Arum and dismantling a series of highly rated opponents on the way to the major championships in his weight class. (The book contains a chart listing the date, location, and full decision of de la Hoyas 29 pro fights since 1992.) At the same time, he wrecked a serious romance by constant philandering; the girlfriend suggests that after his mother he was afraid to love and lose another woman. Treating his subject as a tragic figure, the author portrays de la Hoya flirting with defeat in a repeat bout with his rival Latin star, Julio Cesar Chavez, and, more recently, barely taking a decision against Ike Quartey, the imposing former WBA champ from Ghana. Kawakamis prose is sometimes embarassingly self-conscious, and he pads the text with a lot of unnecessary background. Still, his book offers valuable insights into this extraordinary middleweight champ with the marquee looks and the multimillion-dollar wins. It would have been easier for Kawakami to stand and deliver an inspirational, Up from East L.A. saga; its to his credit that he gets out of the fighters corner to assess de la Hoya from the stands. (16 pages photos, not seen) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 315 pages
  • Publisher: Andrews Mcmeel Pub (February 1999)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0836269411
  • ISBN-13: 978-0836269413
  • Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,546,653 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

7 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
3.9 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars TWO GREAT CHAMPIONS:DE LA HOYA AND KAWAKAMI. Worth 100 stars, December 23, 1999
This review is from: Golden Boy: The Fame, Money, and Mystery of Oscar De LA Hoya (Hardcover)
As an Oscar de la Hoya fan, I try to get my hands on anything that is written about this boxer who I consider to be my role model.This book truly didn't disappoint me. Kawakami goes into such detail in Oscar's life from the time the "Golden Boy" was just a shy little kid to the present rich and highly desired champion. Kawakami gives his reader in depth knowledge ranging from Oscar's private life, which he seems to totally know all the women in Oscar's life, to a side one is not accostumed to seeing and knowing of the Golden Boy like his leaving of managers to managers that payed the De la Hoya's more money and a sense of ruthlessness.In the end, this is what makes the Book so great because it says about both sides of the story: the good and the bad of Oscar de la hoya. A very unbiased book, that doesn't have information that makes Oscar look like a Saint or Satan, but makes Oscar look human.A must have for the hardcore Oscar de la Hoya fans like me or for any other person interested in a book that you will not put down until you finish reading it!
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Terrific, April 9, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Golden Boy: The Fame, Money, and Mystery of Oscar De LA Hoya (Hardcover)
As a boxing fan, it is impossible not to embrace "Golden Boy.'' The author, Tim Kawakami, obviously knows his stuff. I found myself unable to put down the book because Kawakami wrote like a novelist. He did not merely fill up pages with facts and figures and methodical recounts of De La Hoya's bouts. Nor did he fall into the trap of gushing and heaping praise on a celebrity. Instead, Kawakami went deep, into the heart and soul and mind of a young man, revealing that all that glitters is not necessarily golden. Nonetheless, Kawakami was more than fair throughout. His newspaper training was in evidence by his every attempt to analyze and deal with the facts, while refraining from cheap shots and innuendo when the difficult parts of De La Hoya's life were chronicled. I highly recommend "Golden Boy'' not just for boxing fans, but for anyone who enjoys a captivating story. I think De La Hoya should at least appreciate it, too. Granted, the book does not paint him in an entirely favorable light. But the boxer should feel good that someone made a legitimate effort to portray him in a human light. And after all, isn't that the predicament that faces all of us?
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Solid biography, missing Oscar's best years, September 19, 2005
This review is from: Golden Boy (Paperback)
Tim Kawakami turns in a decent re-telling of Oscar De la Hoya's rise to boxing fame & fortune, interviewing many of the prime movers & shakers to come in & out of the Golden Boy's orbit up until 1999. The author paces the tale well, giving the reader a real flavour of the personalities & their motivations & machinations within 'Oscar's World'.
Having said that, you sense from his writing Kawakami doesn't like his subject too much, either as a boxer or human being. He seems overly critical of De la Hoya both outside of & within the ring. In his reviews of some of the fighters' biggest tests during this period, he seems to constantly look for reasons other than being better than his opponent for De la Hoya to have triumphed. Maybe to some extent this is valid, but Kawakami seems more inclined to veer towards negative interpretations of events without exploring more positive possibilities.
The books biggest disappointment (though this can't be blamed on the writer) is in the timing of its conclusion. It ends abruptly just prior to De la Hoya's fight versus Ike Quartey; the Golden Boy's career reaching its most exciting period with big fights against the likes of Trinidad, Mosley & Vargas still to come. This time in Oscar's life also saw him getting married, becoming a successful boxing promoter & seemingly developing into a more rounded human being. Growing up, in other words.
I would be interested to read Kawakami's interpretation of these times in De la Hoya's life, maybe in an updated edition of this title or in a completely new book. That said, this is a good insight into the workings of both the business of boxing and the early career of the Golden Boy.
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