Customer Reviews

Million Dollar Baby: Stories from the Corner

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

The prose in Rope Burns is so accurate, so precise and so "right" that it's difficult to believe that this collection of shot stories is Toole's debut. What is clear, however, is that Toole is writing about a subject that he knows intimately and about which he has a real passion. As a former amateur-level boxer I recognized the characters and scenes in this book as realistic and insightful.

Toole gets it right. He slips effortly from ghetto dialect to Irish brogue to South California Spanglish, and perfectly captures the sights, sounds and smells of the gym. The stories here are all anchored in the ring, but vary somewhat in scope. There are dramatic elements of tragedy, death, gunfights - but in my opinion the most effective of the stories is "Fightin in Philly", in which Toole focuses the action entirely in the ring.

As an author Toole has a fighter's timing. His to-the-point delivery and almost complete lack of foreshadowing will take many reader's off-guard; these stories take tragic twists on a dime. Like a good fighter Toole keeps the reader off-balance. He's less effective when the storylines stray into social issues, and I found his handling of the Rodney King riots as a backdrop to one of the stories to be a bit ham-fisted, but when he sticks to what he knows these stories couldn't be better.

This is a great collections for boxing aficionados and for those who have no interest in the sport. Toole captures the "sweet science" as being far more than a contest of force. He does this through his ability to quickly and effectively develop the characters who compete in the ring, and those who shape them into fighters. Interestingly, he at one point quotes the Spanish existentialist philosopher Miguel de Unamuno, saying:

"To make a point about believing in God with one's whole being, Unamuno described fighters as being capable of throwing punches with such economy of effort that they are able to focus the force they unleash and thereby knock out their opponent by suing only those muscles necessary...that a blow delivered by a nonprofessional may not have as much effect on an opponent...but that it would have more effect on the nonpro who threw the punch, since it caused him to bring into play almost his entire body and energy....Unanumo's point was that one blow was that of a professional, the other of a man of flesh and bone - and that when a man of flesh and bone believed, he did so with his whole being."

So Toole, a first time author in his sixties, takes us from the details of being a ringside cutman to Spanish existentialist philosophy in one short volume of short stories. And it all works - this guy can write! Highly recommended.

The story for which the book is titled, Rope Burns, is, indeed, an astonishing performance. And in all the stories every nuance is correct, authentic. Every piece of dialog frightenly accurate. Chillingly real. Toole has obviously heard these voices and altho like many Irish writers his stories are, well, not uplifting, they are incredible -- and moving -- slices of life. If you want to see, hear and feel what's it's like to hang out at the gym (not the spa or health club)and if you want to experience really good writing of this genre; read this book. Then take a shower.

Let's get this out of the way right of the bat: To say Million Dollar Baby: Stories From The Corner is a book about boxing is akin to saying Moby Dick is a book about fishing. It touches on the truth but misses the point entirely.

Sure, all the "stories from the corner" involve boxing. And they feature people involved in fighting. And yes, they take place in seedy gyms and boxing arenas. OK, OK, I admit, they really are about boxing. But there's so much more to them than that. If you saw the Million Dollar Baby movie, you'll get what I'm talking about.

Boxing is the springboard for these stories because they were written by a man who was immersed in the boxing culture for decades. Jerry Boyd (aka F.X. Toole) was a fighter himself before moving on to "cut man," someone whose job is to stanch the flow of blood from wounds inflicted during a fight. He knew the fight game inside and out.

But if that's all there was to him, these stories wouldn't be as wonderful as they are. Like Ernest Hemingway, Boyd followed that most essential rule: Write what you know. Hemingway wrote about bullfighting and hunting and chasing girls, but that's hardly what made his stories resonate with millions of readers over three generations. Likewise, Boyd writes about boxing but only as a means of delving into the hearts and souls of some unforgettable characters.

On the surface, the six short stories are interchangeable. Each features fighters, trainers and cut men. Each takes place in the gym and in the ring. But once you dig in, you'll see each has its own unique flavour. Sometimes it's sweet, sometimes it's bitter, but it's always hearty.

In The Monkey Look, a cut man takes what he's owed from a fast-talking deadbeat fighter in a classic revenge tale. Black Jew looks at money's role in the fight game, how it's used and misused, and how it's often more a symbol of honour than currency.

Willie "Scrap Iron" Dupree (played by Morgan Freeman in the movie, which actually fused elements from three stories) is the narrator of Frozen Water. Scrap Iron tells us the story of a young fighter who bullies a mentally challenged man and, in turn, is taught a lesson in the true spirit of boxing by a more seasoned pugilist. And Fightin In Philly introduces us to a cut man whose unplumbed depths come to the fore when he sees works by Michaelangelo.

The two powerhouses in the collection are Million Dollar Baby, obviously, and Rope Burns. MDB is about an aging trainer who all but adopts a fierce but gentle woman boxer as the two climb to the top level of the sport. Rope Burns, which was the original title when the book was first released in 2000, may be the most touching and compelling of the lot. In it, Boyd weaves a complex tale of love, friendship and loyalty, and how the spectre of racism and violence threatens them all.

Stephen King, in his book On Writing, says great writers are born, not made, and I believe that. Boyd is a great writer. His punchy (sorry, couldn't resist) prose appears natural and effortless and his dialogue is the best I've read, period. Even Harper Lee couldn't beat Boyd's mastery of the evocative southern black speech patterns: "Hymn... hit Shawrelle with a left hook yip! to the liver that made him gut sick and spread yellow all through him and he know what be next on the way. Shawrelle new trainer with his mouth all open go for ice water in a bottle he dump on Sharelle."

Emotion is never overt in these stories and yet they are steeped in it. Honour, love, hate, fear, joy - they're all here in these scant 230 pages. To distill so much story into so few pages is beyond many so-called "literary" writers - heck, even the undeniably great Jonathan Franzen needed almost 700 pages for The Corrections. Boyd serves up gourmet meals, presented on tiny plates, rather than the all-you-can-eat buffet of other authors. And I savoured every bite.

Just a footnote: Jerry Boyd's stories were rejected by publishers for 40 years before he finally sold The Monkey Look to a small literary magazine. Luckily for us, he managed to collect this handful of stories before he died in 2002. Tragically for us, we will never again hear from this wonderful author who, in the words of Terry Malloy, coulda been a contender.

This collection of short stories, originally called "Rope Burns," has an apt title; it refers to boxing and to the emotional tenor of the passionate exciting writing. Pseudonoymous F.X. (probably a play on special effects)was a cut man and could work miracles in the ring. And he comes pretty close in these stories. Most are intense, dynamic, and soulfully written--and never boring. "Fight in Philly" is typical--portraying an old Irish trainer who recites Lorca and loves Michaelangelo and admires the philosophy of Unamuno; his fighter shows up sick for a championship match, and he works a miracle on him to get him ready for a big fight at the Blue Horizon in Philly; the two of them along with the assistant trainer, wend their way through physical, medical and interpersonal obstacles during their 72-hours before a major fight. Much of the language vibrates with the true spirit and grit of an 'insider' and the lives portrayed in these story erupt with life; they are a sure cure for the anemic post-literature literature in vogue nowadays. This is the kind of writing that, like a good movie, maybe better than a good movie, can give you a wake up call that life is tough but the pain feels so goo--as opposed to much contemporary literature that that prides itself on irony, as though being numb to experience were a virtue. numbing. There's art and craft to this writing, a good eye and ear for ethnicity and social class without the steretypes. The writing is not perfect, though. Now and then there's a bit too much exposition and some of the writing could have used a bit of editing, but that's a small price to pay for a writer who dared to enter the fray of literature as bravely as fighters to in the ring. Read this book and take the sawdust from your eyes and inject some adrenaline into your bloodstream. Do you really want the words on your tombstone to read: "Here I lie--as in life --wan and ironic and dry"????

Yes, its a book about boxing - mainly. But its much more than that. Toole - and its hard to believe that this is his first book - is a natural writer with a fantastic sense of drama, conversation, and place. I read a great piece in the New York Times about Toole - and I hope he's writing a memoir next. I highly recommend.

One of the grittiest, heart pumping books I have ever read. 6 stories all related to boxers, their trainers, cutmen and the eerie lifes that surround them. From a crooked fighter trying to rip off a cutman, to a young woman trying to convince an older trainer to be the first woman to be trained, to a story in the backdrop of the L.A. riots of the early 90's. I felt anger, sorrow, pride and happiness throughout. Waiting for Mr. Toole's next book!

I can't say I find Toole's writing to be flawless; he strikes me as someone who had a hard time presenting more than one fascinating character per story. But there are certainly some vivid, wonderful moments here, and the detail - about boxing and about life on the fringes of society - is certainly memorable.

The two stories that make up the movie "Million Dollar Baby" are both here, and if you like that movie, they are both worth a read. Clint Eastwood made some interesting adjustments to them, but much of what Toole wrote is in the movie.

Mr. Toole's short stories takes inside the ropes, in the gyms. His writing is so vivid that you can smell the linament and feel the punches. His style is filled with nuance. The stories are heart breaking. What a shame that he did not live long enough to enjoy his success and gives us more great writing.

In addition to strong plots and tension-filled scenes, Toole's style captures exactly the tone of the environment. he slips in and out of dialects and racial emotions like he's changing hats. The movie was great, but the book contains many other stories. A must read for any boxing fan.

I'm not sure what's not to like about this series of short stories. Those who don't like F.X. Toole seem to fall into two categories. Either his characters are stereotypes or he's not literary enough. I found some genuinely interesting characters and stories with a point that are a refreshing change from the dusty introspective work that comes out of so many university creative writing departments these days. Toole was a careful observer of the craft of boxing and probably an ardent reader of Hemingway. His writing is traditional, and he's a wonderful storyteller.

If you like boxing novels like "The Professional" or "The Harder They Fall" but found reading "Fat City" to be a pointless chore, then this book is for you.