The Real McCoy [Mass Market Paperback]

Darin Strauss (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 27, 2003

From Darin Strauss, the bestselling author of Chang and Eng (A Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year), comes the unforgettable story of "Kid" McCoy: boxer, jewel thief, scam artist, and the most married man in America. The Real McCoy is a fascinating mirror of the tumultuous backdrop of America at the turn of the century.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Deadpan comic and grandly imaginative, The Real McCoy, Darin Strauss's recounting of the life of a legendary grifter, is a sparkling, memorable novel. Strauss (author of the highly acclaimed Chang and Eng) tells the story of Virgil Selby, or "Kid" McCoy, turn-of-the-century flimflammer, welterweight champion, and the speculative origin of the famous titular catch phrase. After witnessing the death of a small-time boxer named McCoy, young Selby adopts his name and reputation and leaves his Indiana home to achieve renown. Taking up residence in Louisville, McCoy befriends brilliant Chinese con man Jonnie Gold, who teaches McCoy the twist fist fighting style and the art of the flimflam. The naive and monomaniacal McCoy soon departs for New York City, where he uses his newfound trickery to conquer the boxing world, marry a Broadway starlet, and become a minor celebrity and the origin of a national phenomenon. However, McCoy's perpetual mythmaking catches up with him, revealing the cost of his attempts to turn a life of fiction into immortality.

Strauss has created a resounding personal narrative and cultural allegory with The Real McCoy. The hopeful, starstruck McCoy embodies the obsessive American tendency toward self-improvement and reinvention, and demonstrates the consequences of these ideals. Like its hero's successful though obvious scams, The Real McCoy is wonderfully entertaining fiction that reveals no small amount of truth. --Ross Doll --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Strauss follows a brilliant debut novel (Chang and Eng) with more fictive doctoring of history in this daring, unique reenactment of the life of reed-thin, bone-weary Virgil Selby, who came to be known as Kid McCoy: a talented turn-of-the-century boxer, professional flimflammer and bigamist. The book opens with a bogus charity benefit exhibition boxing match on the first night of the new millennium (1900) as Kid McCoy fights and defeats welterweight champ Tommy Ryan, garnering the crown for himself. The narrative backtracks several years as McCoy, a young runaway still developing his boxing form, meets Johnnie Gold, a philosophical Chinese grifter who initiates McCoy into a life of swindling and deceit, peddling snake oil remedies and betting on fixed horse races. Lonely at times, McCoy settles on a timid department store clerk, and though he's not in love, he marries her, if only to test his new powers of flimflam. When he moves to Manhattan, vaudeville actress Susan Fields catches his eye and they quickly marry, just in time for a spectacular rematch with Tommy Ryanwhich is set up for McCoy to win but backfires, sending McCoy into a depression compounded by an unexpected visit from his father. Several championship fights, another marriage and a cinematic jewel heist later, McCoy emerges as the defeated narrator of his own madcap tale. Apart from the book's awkwardly shifting time line (a device that too often steals McCoy's thunder), this book is well written, comprehensively researched, and stylish, sure to score at the cash register. The big question on fans' lips: Whom will Strauss consecrate next?
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 326 pages
• Publisher: Plume (May 27, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0452284414
• ISBN-13: 978-0452284418
• Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 0.7 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,425,464 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars More style that substance, August 28, 2003

By 

J. Mullin (Plantation, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Real McCoy (Hardcover)

I have to agree with some of the other reviewers here who opine that while Strauss definitely has a way with words, this novel left me wanting a little more. The book presents a fictionalized account of the fighter "Kid McCoy", a bare-knuckles brawler and scam artist from the beginning of the 20th century. I thought the novel would paint a real vivid picture of turn-of-the-century big city life, but ultimately the novel lost steam amid crazy twists and turns of the plot, until its wacky ending.

The scenes of young Virgil starting out his career and assuming his identity (as "McCOy") on a fateful train trip were the highlight for me, as well as his curious first marriage to a poor midwestern girl who never had a clue what made her husband tick. In that respect she was kind of like the reader, since we were similarly in the dark surrounding most of McCoy's motivations. Once McCoy made it to the big time (with his bizarre Oriental side-kick Johnny Gold), I rapidly lost interest.

Had the novel given a better glimpse of New York City at the turn of the century, rather than an occasional reference to Madison Square Garden or a famous hotel, I might have enjoyed it more just for the setting. Instead, while often impressed at Strauss' writing style, I found the book to be a pretty forgettable tale written by a talented author yet to fully hit his stride.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Unreal McCoy, August 14, 2003

By 

J. Carroll "Jack" (Island Heights,NJ) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Real McCoy (Hardcover)

Darrin Strauss's second foray into historical fiction is much like his first, (CHANG AND ENG) taking the bare bones of a true story and then totally changing it to comment on other aspects of human nature. Virgil Selby starts out as a young man in search of something more than life is offering him. By taking on the identity of a fighter named Kid McCoy and following the advice of a Chinese flim-flam artist named Johnnie Gold; he sets out to make himself into a great man. The real problem is that Virgil's new life is based on a lie and of course it falls apart. Sort of a rags to riches to rags tale that could have been so much better if Strauss had stayed closer to McCoy's actual life; which fans of boxing history know had more than a few twists and turns to it, or at least skipped the ridiculous character of Johnnie Gold, who is so over the top in his Machiavellian plans that he is seen as blatantly unbelievable. Strauss is most successful at portraying McCoy's love for Susan Fields, an actress, who McCoy is constantly winning back after pushing her from his life with his lies. Strauss does a nice job recreating the rural and urban America of the early twentieth century, but Johnnie Gold and the finish with McCoy's plan for one last score are just so far-fetched they distract from the other pleasures of the novel. An interesting read, but like CHANG AND ENG, the idea for the novel is better than the execution.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Really McGreat, August 8, 2002

By 

Dave Braverman "braverdog" (Boston, MA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Real McCoy (Hardcover)

Strauss is seriously talented, possibly the best young writer in America (at least of the writers that I've read). His deadpan style is hilarious and poignant at the same time. His command is evident in every sentence. After Chang and Eng (his last book), I had high expectations, which McCoy surpassed. If Strauss continues to improve at this rate, I think he will become one of the greats.