Robert Anasi's The Gloves offers a gritty, spirited inside look at the world of amateur boxing today.
The Golden Gloves tournament is center stage in amateur boxing-a single-elimination contest in which young hopefuls square off in steamy gyms with the boxing elite looking on. Anasi took up boxing in his twenties to keep in shape, attract women, and sharpen his knuckles for the odd bar fight. He thought of entering "the Gloves," but put it off. Finally, at age thirty-two-his last year of eligibility-he vowed to fight, although he was an old man in a sport of teenagers and a light man who had to be even lighter (125 pounds) to fight others his size. So begins Anasi's obsessive preparation for the Golden Gloves. He finds Milton, a wily and abusive trainer, and joins Milton's "Supreme Team" a black teenager who used to deal guns in Harlem, a bus driver with five kids, a hard-hitting woman champion who becomes his sparring partner. Meanwhile, he observes the changing world of amateur boxing, in which investment bankers spar with ex-convicts and everyone dreads a fatal blow to the head. With the Supreme Team, he goes to the tournament, whose outcome, it seems, is rigged, like so much in boxing life today. Robert Anasi tells his story not as a journalist on assignment but as a man in the midst of one of the great adventures of his life. The Gloves, his first book, has the feel of a contemporary classic.Related Subjects
PoetryAddictive, Exciting and Honest Look At Amateur Boxing 4.75 Stars George Plimpton is quoted as having said that The Gloves "As good a book as any I've read about the sport" - not exactly a ringing endorsement and I was a little worried - This is actually a great book right from the start. I was immediately hooked and addicted to his trainer's (Milton) style of fighting - something about the concept of Southpaw's just grabs...
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"As both a writer and a boxer, Robert Anasi hears the fight game's music twice as loud. The result: a soundtrack for the wounded and the healing; for the seasoned veteran and the baffled student. With lilting precision Anasi captures the grace, the courage, and the madness of a boxer's everyday life. In a time when Boxing Books written by Journalists, Novelists, and Academics are as common as bloody noses, "The Gloves"...
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I must say at the start I have never been a boxer and not a follower of the sport, however, this book was most enjoyable to me and well explained the joy of boxing and the highs and lows experienced along the way. The author is a good writer and as he lived the subject matter, we are led into the life of a wannabe fighter. I was totally unaware of the positive side of boxing and realized far more athletes in hockey, football...
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Robert Anasi... decided to enter the Golden Gloves at age thirty-three, in the last year that he was eligible. It was something he'd thought about since he took up boxing in his twenties, mostly as a way to stay in shape, but with the chance to pursue a dream slipping away, he finally went for it. He even signed on with a tough but talented trainer, Milton LaCroix, a man with a reputation for being difficult to work with--he's...
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What an engossing book, ended up staying up all night to read it. We're big Golden Gloves fans and this book brought us right into the inner world of the Gloves, the descriptions and characterizations are rich and lyrical and ring true. Anasi has a genuine and engaging style. He is curious and a wonderful guide to a world that not many people know or even imagine unless they've been there. While it was particularly fun...
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