07/28/2007: "Rocky Mountain News Review / Champion Blog"

Hi All,

First, did you forget about my Nerve piece in that whole fight post below? Or get to the bottom of my long-ass post and forget that there was something else to read---or felt you'd read enough of my blithering for the day? Well, fair enough, but here's the link again:

www.nerve.com/screeningroom/books/downtime

...so, like, go check it out. Do me a solid.

Here's something my buddy sent me that he found on Edward Champion's site; it's really just a link to the blog post below, but I gotta say, the cockles of my heart were tickled:

Hell Hath No Fury Like a Boxer Scorned
DrMabuse | Uncategorized | Friday, July 27th, 2007

Craig Davidson offers this lengthy account of Tuesday night’s boxing match, observing, “Jonathan’s dating the singer Fiona Apple. So that’s pretty cool. I’m thinking, hell, even if he loses, he goes home with Fiona Apple. That’s got to go a long ways towards healing any hurts. Me, I got to go home to the hotel minibar.”

You know, if it’s any consolation to Craig, I was at the Rebar after-party and I happen to know that a few single women were there swooning for Mr. Davidson, with at least one of them asking me if “Craig was available.” I must aver that “available” meant a lot more than “Can I talk with him for five minutes?”
Comments (1)

1 Comment
Craig is definitely a hunk, and I know a few men were asking the same question about his availability.
Comment by Pamela — July 27, 2007 @ 2:00 pm

...ha! That's so humorous to me! Anyone of my highschool buddies would be laughing their bags off reading that. Craig Davidson, the fat kid who used to eat a bag of day-old donuts after rowing practice---you talk about your zero-sum endeavors---seen in anyone's eyes as a hunk. Bizarre. I mean, I thank Pamela for saying such a crazy thing; it's very nice, but I think only in the realm of writers and the literary arts could a 160lb bone-bag with floppsy red hair be considered hunkish. Maybe it's that I'm not currently growing any sort of facial hair, which makes me something of a rarity amongst bookish guys. Plus I'm heterosexual---I mean, I am so in conception, but it's like an spiderwebbed shovel in a dusty old garden shed: it is still technically a shovel, it's purpose is still digging, but it's been inert so long that purpose is starting to become hazy; if nobody's using it, it's just a flat metal scoop attached to a stick---which, it seems, is ... well, not rare, but less common in book circles than elsewhere, if the information I've been told is to be believed.

Or maybe it's like that idea from Bud Shulberg's THE HARDER THEY FALL: something in some women's hearts melt at the sight of a beaten fighter. They want to take them to bed, heal them. Of course, that was how Bud Shulberg saw it back in the 50s when he wrote the book; maybe that sentiment no longer prevails amongst women of today. If so I'm in trouble: the whole "beaten fighter" ticket seems to be the one I'm destined to ride.

Anyway, thanks to Ed and Pamela for making my day, in a strange and head-scratching way.

This review is from Vince Darcangelo of the Rocky Mountain News. He gives it a B, which is a fair grade. I think he makes a lot of good points, and the failings he saw with the book are the same, honestly, that I saw developing while writing it. But what he likes is what the book's sort of about, or what distinguishes it: the action / fight sequences. Anyway, my thanks to him for the review:

'The Fighter' not quite a knockout

Our Rating B
Author: Craig Davidson
Publisher: Soho Press
Pages: 249
Genre: General fiction
Price: $24

By Vince Darcangelo, Special to The Rocky

July 27, 2007

Plot in a nutshell: Davidson's debut is at once a class study, a gritty two-fisted slobber-knocker, and a lowbrow exploration of the world of illegal boxing. In its finer moments, it delivers its dark social commentary like a right hook to the jaw. At other times, particularly when describing human interactions outside the ring, Davidson telegraphs his punches.

The Fighter's plot unfolds through the mirrored lives of two characters: Paul Harris, the privileged son of a wealthy winery owner, and Rob Tully, a working-class teenage boxing prodigy. Paul is pampered and apathetic; in his late 20s, he still lives with his parents and works for his father. Then one night, he is savagely beaten in a bar fight, causing him to take up boxing.

Meanwhile, Rob is the product of a close-knit and loving family. Rob isn't passionate about boxing, but doesn't have any other career options. Their stories intersect in a rural farmhouse that hosts brutal, underground boxing matches.

Like Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club, The Fighter features a protagonist, Paul, who disdains the "softness" of the 21st century male and wants to get back in touch with his primal roots. Humanity has gained much through social evolution, but, the book seems to ask: In shedding its most basic survival skills, is humanity evolving into extinction?

Sample of prose: "Didn't every organism seek the easiest pathway to survival? Then what of the organism reared in an environment without predators or obstacles, its every need provided? Paul pictured a flabby boneless creature, shapeless, as soft and raw as the spot under a picked scab."

Pros: Like a great pugilist, Davidson's fight scenes contain no wasted motion. They are swift and smooth, graceful yet vicious. Few stomachs are stronger than mine, and even I was grimacing at the brutality.

Cons: Davidson excels at describing society's underbelly, but struggles to illustrate the upper-crust existence of Paul Harris. These scenes (which make up a good portion of the book) are slow, the characters and plot turns contrived.

Final word: Fans of Palahniuk and Irvine Welsh will relish the graphic fight sequences and gritty social commentary. Davidson has penned a disturbing treatise on the cost of human evolution.

All best, Craig.