A writer’s greatest fear is to die on the cusp of finishing his
novel. Either the unedited manuscript never sees the light of day or
family and friends with the best intentions end up bastardizing it.
When F.X. Toole went into the hospital for emergency surgery in
2002, he took his 900-page manuscript of his novel, Pound for
Pound, with him. His last words were, “Doc, get me just a little
more time, I gotta finish my book.”
He had written all of his life, but Toole’s first work of fiction
was only published two years before his death. The short story
collection, Rope Burns: Stories from the Corner was released
in 2000. Toole’s vulnerable, hard-edged prose earned him critical
praise and gave him the opportunity to write the novel he was
desperately trying to finish. Three of the short stories, “The
Monkey Look,” “Million $$$ Baby,” and “Frozen Water,” were purchased
and adapted for a screenplay, which became “Million Dollar Baby.”
The movie, which starred Clint Eastwood, Hillary Swank, and Morgan
Freeman, was a box-office smash and won Best Picture at the 2005
Academy Awards.
Toole would not live to see all of that success. He passed away
on September 2, 2002, not getting that extra time to finish his
novel.
Because of the success of Rope Burns, Toole’s novel would
not end up locked in the filing cabinet. His novel went to his
children and his literary agent Nat Sobel, who in turn brought in
freelance editor James Wade to bring Toole’s vision to fruition.
If I heard this story in a bookstore, I would have purchased
Pound for Pound immediately and tried my hardest to enjoy it.
Fortunately, Toole never made the reader work hard to like or
appreciate his work, and Sobel and Wade have done his storytelling
justice.
As with Rope Burns, Toole gives the reader a tour of
boxing that only those who work in the sport have ever seen. Toole,
whose real name was Jerry Boyd, worked as a professional boxing
cutman, among many professions, before becoming a writer. While many
boxing novels feature colorful boxing commissioners, skuzzy
trainers, distractive women, and dank gyms, the detail Toole
provides leaves the reader both empathetic and fascinated.
The story focuses on two main characters that begin their journey
thousands of miles from each other. Dan Cooley is a former fighter
who came within one elimination bout of earning a title shot. Upon
retiring, he opened a gym in Los Angeles and became a highly
respected trainer. A widower who lost all three of his children to
individual tragedies, Dan’s greatest enjoyment comes from training
his grandson, Tim Pat, his only surviving relative.
The other main character, Eduardo “Chicky” Garza y Duffy, is a
17-year-old amateur fighter growing up in Poteet, Texas,
a town on the outskirts of San Antonio. Left with his
grandparents by his prostitute mother, Chicky was taught to box by
his alcoholic grandfather, Eloy. A former fighter himself, known all
around San
Antonio as Lobo, the Wolf, Eloy is the only
family Chicky has left. The young amateur is put under the tutelage
of Trini and Paco Cavazo, two mediocre trainers who deal drugs on
the side. Despite the distractions and the disadvantages, Chicky is
a welterweight with a middleweight’s punch. His goal is to win the
amateur regional tournaments in San Antonio. The only question is
whether or not he has the people around him who can make that
happen.
It is obvious that both Chicky and Dan will meet at some point or
another in the book. However, Toole uses many different means to
avoid the easy clichés that boxing fiction can fall prey to. First,
he takes his time in telling the story, peeling back a different
layer to each character as the book progresses. In doing so, the
book becomes much more character-driven than plot-driven. The
story’s most dramatic moments do not take place in the ring, and
just when you think the book is in danger of becoming a retread,
Toole’s narrative subtly leans in another direction.
The freshness of the story comes in the characteristics and the
author’s knowledge of the sport and its players. His level of
knowledge of the sport shows through in Pound for Pound just
as it did in Rope Burns. Any reader with just a limited
amount of boxing knowledge will see amateur tournaments, promoters,
and, even training, in a different light.
In the forward, hardboiled crime writer James Ellroy praised
Toole for his insight, saying Rope Burns “was dead rich in
details that only a right man could know.” Ellroy also describes
once meeting Toole, saying that he “held his mud,” and that his
level of conversation, like his literary output, never went beyond
the fight game.
And that point is the most bittersweet aspect of reading Toole’s
work. With just one short story collection and one novel, he gave us
some of the best boxing fiction the literary world and the silver
screen have ever seen. Yet one cannot help but wonder what he would
have accomplished had he had a little more time.
