The Tao of Muhammad Ali [Hardcover]

Davis Miller (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1996

An intimate biography and a personal journey of spiritual discovery, this is a unique, enlightening, and compelling look at Mohammad Ali and his profound friendship with author Davis Miller. An award-winning writer, Miller was nominated for a 1994 Pulizter Prize for his story, "The Zen of Muhammad Ali", which was the basis of this book.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

As a boy growing up in North Carolina, Davis Miller was short, skinny, and scared. But he studied martial arts and after graduating from high school fought professionally as a kickboxer. What gave him the courage to change was the example of Muhammad Ali. In this insightful memoir, Miller recalls how a chance meeting with Ali in Louisville, Kentucky, years later led to friendship and to the beginning of Miller's career as a writer. During one of their meetings, Ali asks why Miller has followed him for so long. Miller's response: "Because you're the single largest person I've ever known."

From Publishers Weekly

To Miller, a contributing editor to Sport magazine, it seems as if Muhammad Ali has always been a part of his life?even as far back as January 1964, when the author "had just turned twelve and was the shortest and skinniest and sickliest kid in town." It was then that Miller first saw Ali, then known as Cassius Clay, on TV, in connection with his fight against Sonny Liston. Ali was, as always, supremely confident: "I'm young and handsome and fast and pretty and can't possibly be beat," Miller heard the boxer say. For Miller, "the voice was cooking with the cosmic." In this engaging blend of autobiography and portrait, Miller goes on to tell of meeting Ali in person, in 1975, at the boxer's training camp in Pennsylvania, where the writer sparred with the champ and took a punch that dazed him. Although Miller has met other boxing legends, Ali, he says, is in a class by himself?not only for his consummate skill and self-assurance but for other qualities as well, such as the quiet, sure, unmistakable way he befriends and enlivens others, seemingly relieving them at least in part of their troubles and worries. The author leaves no doubt that his admiration for and friendship with Ali has had a benevolent?perhaps salvational?effect on his own life. While the exact nature of Ali's effect on Miller remains unclear, the picture of Ali presented here offers many clues?the man Miller portrays so vividly is, though physically slowed by Parkinson's syndrome, full of charm, wit and religious fervor ("I've been everywhere in the world, seen everything, had everything a man can have. Don't none of it mean nothin'.... The only thing that matters is submitting to the will of God"). Told in clean, spare prose, Miller's warm celebration of Ali will have readers cheering for the man who calls himself "The Greatest of all Times"?and for his Boswell too. Simultaneous Time Warner AudioBook.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 306 pages
• Publisher: Warner Books; First Edition edition (November 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446519464
• ISBN-13: 978-0446519465
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #569,416 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #32 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( A ) > Ali, Muhammad

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A True Insight into the Daily Life of a Hero, November 23, 2004

By 

Irish bloke (Dublin) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Tao of Muhammad Ali (Vintage Originals) (Paperback)

I bought many books on Mohammad Ali because I find the character truly amazing : the first modern icon, the first brand, the most recognisable face on Earth, and one if not the best boxer ever (especially in his early days).
I bought the book out of curiosity five years ago and from page one it grabbed me. I did read the book in one go.
Davis Miller's style is crystal clear, to the point; it sounds as if he is writing a letter to you.
His life is as boring as anybody except for the light that Mohammad Ali puts in it. Videos, articles, books, photos you name it, he has collected them all throughout his life.
What makes this book work is the paralell between the life of a star and a life of a fan : they nearly have the same age but they couldn't be more world apart if it wasn't for the dedication in the training they both had.
One day the aged fan meets his star and his life takes another spin : he has at last found his way, he will write about the only thing he knows that is Mohammad ALi.
Mohammad Ali is miles apart from the bragging Cassius Clay he once was and that is a reassuring discovery.
He pulls tricks, he plays like a kid, he shows his kindness towards any other human beings but the revelation is that he is not as disminished as the press would like to see him.
What this books tells us ?
it tells us that you can live your dream at any time, you can grab your destiny if you really want to. It gives us a true insight into the daily life of the most famous face on Earth.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I think I finally know how to describe this book to friends, September 29, 2004

By 

Todd (Blacksburg, Virginia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Tao of Muhammad Ali (Paperback)

I recommend this book all the time. It's always a struggle to get people to understand how darn good it is and why they'll love it, even though they may not be interested in Muhammad Ali. I was telling my friend Nanci about it a few days ago. She and I've both read the Norman McLean story, A River Runs Through It, and it's one of her very favorite books. (I also like the movie, by the way.) I told Nanci to think of Tao of Muhammad Ali as A River Runs Through It with Ali playing the role of the river. I don't know that she understood what I meant but she bought a copy of the book. No matter who you are, I'm sure you'll love this book. It'll become one of your very favorites, even if you couldn't care less about Ali. Tao of Muhammad Ali is a beautiful, connecting, sweet, level-headed story.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars People will still be reading this book in 2104 A.D., September 23, 2004

By 

Futch "Futch" (Manchester, England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Tao of Muhammad Ali (Paperback)

And I'll bet (not that any of us will be around to find out) that this is the only book related to Muhammad Ali for which that will be true. Real literature. Real art. Davis Miller is Nick Carraway in the book; Ali is Jay Gatsby. It doesn't matter what this book is about: it's pure, and purely beautiful, writing.