The Barfighter
Ivan G. Goldman
ThePermanent Press
ISBN: 978-1579621827
Buy at Amazon
File Under: fiction, I coulda been a contender

Lee Cheskis is a part time community college instructor who also unloads moving vans on the side to pay the bills. After a bar fight, he is court mandated to go to anger management classes. In those classes he meets Marvin, a gang-banger, who wants to learn to box. Cheskis boxed in the army to keep himself out of Vietnam and gets Marvin a trainer. Cheskis then becomes Marvin's manager.

You are then treated to the ins and outs of the sleazy world of boxing in the 1980s. Ivan Goldman knows his stuff. He is a columnist for Ring Magazine and you can tell in the realistic fight scenes. When reading a book like this I of course wonder how much of it is autobiographical.

The story is told in a quick naturalistic pace. You believe the characters. You root for the characters. Marvin, Cheskis and the manager Eddie are all misfits that together are taking on the world. You want them to succeed.

Mixed martial arts has really taken the spotlight off of boxing so I wonder how much of an audience this book has. Maybe not a lot, which is really a shame because at its heart it really isn't about boxing, It is a story of someone who life hasn't been to good to, someone who hasn't really tried too hard, but hasn't given up yet. It is a solid read.