Serenity: A Boxing Memoir | 
 enlarge | Author: Ralph Wiley
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
Category: Book
List Price: CDN$ 23.95
Buy New: CDN$ 23.71
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Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 359280
Media: Paperback
Pages: 242
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.5
ISBN: 0803298161
Dewey Decimal Number: 070.44979683092
EAN: 9780803298163
ASIN: 0803298161
Publication Date: January 1, 2000
Availability: Usually ships within 1 - 2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: From our American Warehouse - Delivery in 7-10 days
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| Customer Reviews:
One of the Best Books on Boxing Ever June 20, 2004
this was where you truly could appreciate the Greatness of Ralph Wiley.He knew His Boxing&the way He broke down each subject matter is Classic.Boxing has had many Fighters but you know the Guys that you still debate&talk about many years later.Great takes on Ali,HitMan hearns,Sugar Ray Leonard,Mike Tyson&Everyone else mentioned.A Knockout of a Book from start to finish.
The Pain Business December 27, 2002
Intellectuals have long had a fascination with boxing, an athletic contest reduced to its very essence-two semi-naked men trying to kill each other for the enjoyment of a crowd. That's about as stark as it gets. A long and varied list of literary heavyweights have fallen under boxing's spell-Hemingway, Mailer, Oates, Earley, etc., etc., etc. Ralph Wiley belongs up there with the best of them. The ideas he expresses in "Serenity" are meaty and delivered in a style that is both clear and artistic. Mr. Wiley can flat-out write and my goodness does he have an eye for detail and an ear for dialogue. His descriptions of knockout blows are downright poetic; one fighter "... went out like a broken light bulb"; another was struck so hard that the blow "... sent his eyes into the top of his head like snapped windowshades". The sights and sounds and smells of the gym all ring true in "Serenity", from the lowliest trainer ("...with a trainwreck of a yellowing smile") to the beatific Ali. Mr. Wiley defines serenity as "...the inner peace which comes from doing something well enough to understand it". Boxers, per Wiley, can only acheive pugilistic serenity after they understand that pain, and maybe death, are part of the equation. Pain can not be avoided, no matter how skilled the fighter. So why do so many of them continue on, or return for more once they retire, even (or, perhaps, especially) the successful ones? Larry Holmes, one of the best, (whose latest comeback, at age 50, was against a 300 pound sideshow attraction named "Butterbean") is quoted that a fighter has "... gotta enjoy the ones you take just like the ones you give". Sugar Ray Leonard, like Holmes a wealthy man, made more comebacks than Marley's ghost and risked permanent blindness in the process. Bobby Chacon, another champion, "...smiles at the sight of his own blood". The title of a Gerald Earley essay-"I Only Like It Better When The Pain Comes"-is a direct quote from an early '80's crowd-pleasing Philadelphia middleweight Frank "The Animal" Fletcher. (Aside-Frank "The Animal" once fought James "Hard Rock" Green in a brutal, blood-gushing bout, a great nickname bout, where Mr. Fletcher's mother spurred her son on by leading the crowd in chants of "AN-I-MAL, AN-I-MAL, AN-I-MAL".) Do these otherwise intelligent men actually enjoy getting hit? Hardly. Mr. Wiley has delved deeply into the psyches of men who fight for pay searching for motive, for purpose, and he has succeeded. This is good stuff. "Serenity", like Evander Holyfield, is the Real Deal.
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