One of Ernest Hemingway's best stories is just six
words long: ''For Sale: Baby shoes. Never used.'' It's
hard to imagine a more economical tragedy. He would've
loved F.X. Toole, who died before two of his tales
became the Oscar-winning film Million Dollar
Baby. Not only for his manly bona fides
(ex-longshoreman, boxing cut man), but for the haunting
simplicity of his prose. Toole traces Dan Cooley, an
Eastwood-esque fight trainer with a bum ticker and three
dead children, and Chicky Garza, a young Mexican
southpaw. Despite some sappy contrivances, Pound for
Pound proves that a flurry of emotional jabs can be
just as powerful as one knockout punch. Grade:
B+