Customer Reviews

The Shadow Boxer

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Great impression I got since first pages of this surprising and eminent work of Steven Highton an author still unknown for me. The history, the atmosphere, the rithm and superb quality of writing has touched and troubled me. I found in this book the remote and always powerful world of images, sounds and architecture I received when I met the great authors of universal literature of all the times. I even was obliged to stop some times the reading because of the excessive charge of emotion and toughts the book comunicates with the strenght of an immense river. The Shadow Boxer has been a capital experience I wouln't hope to meet again in a young author og these days and I recommend this book to everyone is looking to find in books the supreme and rare deed of beauty and truth. Hoping Steven Highton will come to Italy and meet his italian readers.

THE SHADOW BOXER is a great coming of age story that becomes a love story, adventure story, and, at the end, a meditation on what really matters in life. I've not read any of Heighton's other books, but his romantic style and deeply feeling narrative make me want to -- I'd recommend this book to anyone looking for something to curl up with on a rainy day.

Steven Heighton's book is like something written in the 1940s, with all the passion, turmoil and poetry of that era. It's hard to recconcile this overwhelming impression with the chronology of the storyline that places the action in a different era. I wish Otto Preminger were still around, it would take a film-maker of his magnitude, unafraid of the corny and the obvious, to tackle this novel and whip it into a sprawling film. Heighton is loaded with talent and the relationship between Sevigne Torrins and his father is magnificently drawn. Like Michael Ondaatje, Heighton is a Canadian poet of repute but the parallels stop there. I liked "The Shadow Boxer" a lot and I wonder why it wasn't more of a success in the USA. Indeed I wonder how it did in Canada, where it might be considered a book sort of in the vein of Leonard Cohen's turbulent novel "Beautiful Losers" from the 1960s.

Steve Heighton writes like an angel. This novel is very atmospheric, and his prose is truly lovely. Although set in Canada, I could relate easily to the struggle for love and maturity in the modern world. I really look forward to reading more by this gifted writer- I can easily see how he is a poet, too.
Good writing, good story- highy recommended.

I bought this book in the UK on the recommendation of a colleague who is a fan of Canadian literature. I really wanted to like this book, but I'm sorry to say I was very disappointed by it. It rambles on and on and I found its pretentiousness extremely irritating. My girlfriend thinks the female characters are insulting, and I have to agree with her. My co-worker praised Heighton's beautiful descriptions of scenery, and to be fair those parts are well written. This is not enough to carry the book however.

I went back and forth in my opinion of this book as I read, and had to force myself to keep reading several times. Which is strange since I really enjoyed the story. I thought the characters were great for the most part, but for a hint of the I'm a oh so soulful artist type becoming annoying at times. But it's always nice in this type of fiction to find some outdorsey "manly" type male characters. Very Hemingwaysesque. But what made reading this seem like a chore at times is the style. Very lyrical, really too much for the story. I understand the author is a poet and that doesn't surprise me having read this. The style would probably work well in a collection of short stories, but here it is just too much and he probably should have toned it down a little.

I've read all of Heightons work and found SHADOW BOXER to be the 'can't put down book' of the year. The book is full of emotion a real man vs nature / man vs himself reflection. Men of all ages should read this book it makes you think and then makes you pause and evaluate where and what your battles may be.

I bought this book because the title intrigued me and the opening paragraphs were well written. I wish I hadn't bothered. A novel that showed promise quickly degenerated into a self absorbed whine of the I'm-such-a-poor-misunderstood-artist type. My advise -- skip this one.