'Million Dollar Baby' author left behind a novel of caring and fighting in the boxing world

T he man who wrote "Million Dollar Baby" died in 2002, before his story hit the big screen and won Oscars and a global audience. Still, by all accounts he was satisfied.

He'd written for decades with no response but rejection slips. Then a literary magazine published one of his stories. An agent read it and asked if he had more. He did and the result was published in 2000 as "Rope Burns," the acclaimed volume of boxing stories that includes "Million Dollar Baby."

He wrote under the name F.X. Toole, a moniker fabricated, he said, in salute to the missionary saint Francis Xavier and Irish actor Peter O'Toole. He was known in the boxing world as Jerry Boyd, a respected cut man and trainer in Los Angeles fight gyms for many years. Though his writing is set in the world of boxing, he kept it secret there until he was finally published.

When he died at the age of 72, F.X. Toole left behind the thick manuscript of a novel, "Pound for Pound." Edited by his agent and a freelance editor, the novel appears with an introduction by fight fan and noir stylist James Ellroy. It carries the Toole stamp of lean, conversational storytelling and dialogue rich in an American polyglot of tic and rhythm.

"Pound for Pound" occupies the same bruising terrain as Toole's short stories. The primary actors are fight guys -- boxers and trainers. There is plenty of pugilistic lore, but boxing is the setting, not the subject. For Toole the sport is a laboratory where human fiber is tested, dissected and displayed under crisis conditions.

The novel crystallizes Toole's deeply moral view of existence. His bad guys are one-dimensional, relentless and unforgivable. Evil is almost religiously defined as the absence of light. But "Good" is complicated and hard. His characters stumble, grope and struggle for it. When it happens it is a mystery and a blessing achieved through the oldest of verities -- love, loyalty and commitment.

"Pound for Pound" centers on Dan Cooley, an aging ex-boxer turned trainer. His auto repair shop in Los Angeles has a boxing gym out back. The stoic Cooley has endured harsh losses, including the deaths of his wife and children. But as the story opens he is a decent man maintaining his equilibrium with the clear purpose of teaching and caring for his small grandson.

When the child is killed in a traffic accident, Cooley loses it. All the contained pain of his life explodes in fury. He dives into the bottle and plots a terrible revenge against the driver who did the deed. Then he turns the rage against himself and the God he believes in and hates. He methodically prepares for a gruesome suicide that will obliterate any trace of his existence.

Meanwhile, far off in San Antonio, an old ring rival of Cooley's is also a grandfather. But this rival, Eloy "The Wolf" Garza, is dying and the vultures surrounding the sport are eager to strip all the hope and talent out of his grandson, a gifted boxer. As a last, desperate attempt to save his grandson's dreams, The Wolf sends him to Los Angeles to ask Cooley to train him for a professional career.

Predictably, the living grandfather steps up for the dead. Someone else's grandson stands in for the lost child. But nothing comes easy for Toole's characters. There are twists at every step. If goodness is to triumph it must out-connive evil. The savagery of "Pound for Pound" is inextricably melded with profound sweetness. That's how F.X. Toole saw the world.