Some of the most stunning prose I have ever read. Some of it is truly stunning, like being punched in the head repeatedly, and hard. This tale of the boxer's life is really a story about masculinity and race, and about the desperate search for ways to feel special when simply being White and male are no longer enough. The threats of pain and harm and even death are insufficient to keep these men on the margins from the one thing that makes them feel powerful for a moment. There is a forward by Denis Johnson where he says basically that everything he has written is him trying to write something as good as this. I can see the link to Johnson's work quite clearly, though Johnson's voice is still his own. I won't read a better book this year. The perfect iteration of what this set out to be.

ETA a few quotes

After his first sexual experience: “Still he was uncertain. He wondered if everything had gone as it should. Was that all there was to it? Perhaps it had been celebrated out of proportion because there was nothing else to live for.”

About that same woman whom he ends up with: “Profoundly moved, he kissed the lax waiting mouth with exquisite unhappiness.”

From a sad alcoholic Tully hooks up with talking about her history with men of different races: “The white race is in its decline. We started downhill in 1492 when Columbus discovered syphilis."

The best quotes for me are those about Stockton and about being in the ring. I will leave everyone to find those on their own. ( )

A beautiful book. Gardner uses the noir aesthetic to great effect, but goes much deeper into the individuality and motivations of each character than the typical book in this genre does. ( )

"It filled him with panic. To such devotion, such sacrifice, he felt rejection would be unbearable, that to quibble at all would be an unthinkable cruelty. Profoundly moved, he kissed the lax waiting mouth with exquisite unhappiness." ( )

3.5
***
edit.
Second read was so much better. ( )

The setting is Stockton California, in the 1960s, as the story follows two amateur boxers, one nearly washed up and the other on the rise. A nice snapshot of a time and place, with clean, neat prose. I was reminded of Steinbeck, as I was reading it. This slim novel quietly packs a punch. ( )