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One Ring Circus: Dispatches from the World of Boxing

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Katherine Dunn is a boxer's writer. Unlike many literary types who pursue the sport as a overwrought metaphor, titillation, or slumming with the lower classes, Dunn truly understands and appreciates boxing. She has spent decades learning the sport, from the coaches to the fighters themselves. She sees the gentleness that can exist behind the gloves, the contractions of the ring, and the uncertainty of a sport that remains entrenched in another time. To have a writer of her skill translate such a sport is a rare experience.

This is an anthology of novelist, Katherine Dunn's, thoughtful musings on the sweet science written over the last twenty-five or so years. You won't find articles about Oscar De La Hoya, Manny Pacquiao or any of the other recent superstars of the sport (the exception being an insightful essay on Mike Tyson). With mixed results Dunn instead casts her gaze on the journeymen who are the foundation of the sport, the great fights from the golden era of the 1980s, the relatively unsuccessful struggle women boxers have had to be seen as something more than a sideshow and the lessons boxers gain from their years of dedication to their craft.

Dunn's essays demonstrate her knowledge of the sport and deep respect for it's practitioners. What's most impressive is her independence of thought as she reflects on events in the history of the sport during the time she's been an observer. For instance, the aforementioned article on Tyson provides a useful balance to the conventional view that he is a madman by digging beneath the surface and offering some explanation (not defense) of his conduct in the "bite fight," when he twice bit Evander Holyfield's ears.

"One Ring Circus" is not in the same league as Ralph Wiley's "Serenity" or Carlo Rotella's "Cut Time" - books that surpass this one, are deeper, more poignant for the way in which they explore how hardship reshapes character. It's strength is in its coverage of actual fights, where it is as good, if not better, than the work of Thomas Hauser, John Schulian or Hugh McIlvanney, all of whom are considered among the best boxing reporters.

Anyone who loves boxing should read it.

These writings on boxing amuse and divert not just in their coverage of the quirks of personality of this or that famous or forgotten fighter but offer as well sometimes controversial insights about violence in the human animal as this manifests itself in the USA and, well, everywhere. Lots of fun here even for the non-sports fan.