Sound and Fury: Two Powerful Lives, One Fateful Friendship

by Dave Kindred

Book Overview

Muhammad Ali and Howard Cosell were must-see TV long before that phrase became ubiquitous. Individually interesting, together they were mesmerizing. They were profoundly different -- young and old,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0743262115
• ISBN13: 9780743262118
• Release Date: February 2006
• Publisher: Free Press
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 1.28 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Cosell and Ali-Media darlings

Sound and Fury (14 hours, 11 cds, unabridged, Blackstone Audio) is a duel biography of Howard Cosell and Mohammed Ali. Sport writer Dave Kindred knew both men, he has written a bio that transcends his knowledge of both men. His text is an honest, no hold barred , warts and all biography. When a third person (like Kindred) writes a biography, he tends to put his personal touches with his own bias, this book is NOT that.The book showed an unlikely partnership created by media hype. In the audio narrative hands of Dick Hill, this audio project seems more like a docudrama in its scope. Hill's narrative voice takes on verbal personas of Cosell and Ali, without mocking them. His talent has grown from the days at Brilliance Audio. Sound and Fury is an amazing production . . . you won't forget it audio, long after you heard it Bennet Pomerantz AUDIOWORLD

May your hands always be busy

May your feet always be swift, May you have a strong foundation When the winds of changes shift. May your heart always be joyful, May your song always be sung, May you stay forever young, Forever young, forever young, May you stay forever young. Bob Dylan's song, Forever Young, serves as one of Dave Kindred's melodic themes in his wonderful book, "Sound and Fury". Sound and Fury is a biography of Muhammad Ali, Howard Cosell, and the relationship between them. Sound and Fury carries the reader along as Muhammad Ali, born Cassius Marcellus Clay, and Howard Cosell, born Howard William Cohen, burst like stars upon the public's imagination in the 1960s and takes them through their respective heydays and then to their inevitable fading away. Kindred, a sportswriter for close to forty years, began his newspaper career at The Louisville Courier in Muhammad Ali's hometown. He covered Ali since his earliest days, his glory days. It also seems he was one of the few print reporters that Howard Cosell respected and liked. They stayed in close touch with each other until Cosell's death. But, although it is quite clear that Kindred admires and respects both men, and with feelings toward Ali that are powerfully affectionate, even loving, Sound and Fury is no hagiography. The book takes us quickly through Ali and Cosell's early days. As Kindred alternates between Ali and Cosell's struggle for success in their respective fields one can see the similarities between the two, particularly a single-minded determination to achieve their goals. Ali and Cosell came together in the public imagination after Ali's conversion to the Nation of Islam and his decision to refuse induction into the Army after being (finally) classified as draft-eligible. Ali's famous line "I ain't got nothing against them Viet Cong" made him something of a marked man. Ali was stripped of his title, denied the right to box, and convicted of draft evasion, a conviction later overturned by the Supreme Court. Cosell was one of the few to stand up Ali and it was this stand that helped make Cosell as controversial as Ali. Kindred does an excellent job covering the evolution of the symbiotic relationship between the two men. Kindred points out that Cosell was always very careful never to endorse Ali's views about religion or the war in Vietnam. Rather, Cosell always made it very clear that he argued only that Ali had a fundamental right to hold those opinions and no one had the right to deprive him of a livelihood simply because he held unpopular views. Kindred, for all his respect and admiration for both men, is quick to point out those instances in which Ali and Cosell acted badly. Ali's treatment of his original religious mentor, Malcolm X, after Malcolm was tossed from the Nation of Islam and then killed is covered as is his brutal and unfair characterization of Joe Frazier (calling him less than a man and an Uncle Tom when in fact Frazier had grown up in greater poverty and experienc

Absolutely terrific work!

This is the first book by kindred that i've read. i knew of him mostly as a columnist for the sporting news who seemed to dislike everyone and everything, especially anything new or unusual. but i have always been fascinated by both cosell and ali, and was willing to give this a shot.....thankfully. this is one of the best sports books of recent years: cosell and ali as individuals and their relationship (which in reality took place almost fully onscreen) is covered in full, but the author also shows these incredibly complex characters, warts and all, as they maneuver through their respective careers. ali was never more alive than when he was in the ring, or training for a fight: that is why he, as so many other fighters, was loath to leave the life he loved, fought for several years more than he should have, and of course paid a dear price for it. the fact that he may be the most beloved human on the plane today owes more to our society's need for heroes than anything else: ali is no longer able to cheat on his wife(s), turn his back on his friends (since his current spouse controls his schedule), or be manipulated by religious leaders and businessmen with their own terrible agendas (since he has little income, there is little need for the con artists of the world to carve out their pound of flesh). now, we can project all our own ideas on to this man who reportedly spends the bulk of his day in prayer, harmless to all. cosell, having passed away years ago, can be looked at in a much more balanced and subjective manner now than when he was alive. his combination of ego and insecurity was toxic to most who associated with him, apparently, but there can be no doubt that he deserves to be considered a groundbreaker and a risk taker. while the rest of american media villified ali for attempting to evade the draft, cosell sided with the boxer. this and other events recounted by kindred show cosell, as compared with his contemporaries at least, to be a man of courage, vision and conviction. the fact that he became a casualty to his own ego later in his career (ex: trying to become a news anchor, distancing himself from the sport that made him famous once ali left the scene, the bitter jealousy aimed at his MNF cohosts) does not reduce his greatness. a wonderful, moving work that will not make you want to nominate either cosell or ali for sainthood (far from it), but instead will provide the reader a deeper understanding of both, as well as the times they lived through.

Mr. SportsTelevision Meets Mr. Boxing

Mr. Kindred is a wonderful storyteller in this very readable dual biography of two controversial men: Muhammad Ali and Howard Cosell. Like "Beyond Glory" -2005- by David Margolick (which tells another story of a white man and a black man linked by history in the 1930's), "Sound and Fury" is a history of a later era, the chaotic 1960's, and a history of two outsiders. Mr. Margolick makes clear that their relationship was less of a friendship and more of a partnership -- the two of them never hung out socially but each saw the other as a genius in their domain who could further their respective careers. This book is a wonderful introduction to their lives for any reader who was born after the time when Muhammad Ali and Howard Cosell had already come and gone, and as a reminder to those of us who were there.

A compelling social history told through sport

For those of us who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s, The Sound and Fury is a wondrous re-telling of the period through the lives of two unlikely partners, Howard Cosell and Muhammad Ali. It is not a boxing book. It is a work of social history, responsibly reported and told. Dave Kindred's superior writing and interviewing have made a book that should last for many years. The tales of Cosell's and Ali's lives, each up-from-bootstraps, and their accidental friendship, will impress even the most jaded sports fans and grownups. I could not stop reading this once I began.