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As someone who cares about the truth of boxing history, I cannot hold this novel in my hands for very long because of the arrogantly lazy work of James Ellroy in his ludicrous foreword. How can you take on faith ANY of the observations of a writer so lazy he refuses to verify the easily-verifiable history of the first Archie Moore-Yvon Durelle fight? (He says he discussed this with Toole; if that is true -- who can tell? -- Toole must have been silenty cringing at Ellroy's recitation.) Arrogantly relying on a bumbling memory rather than troubling his delicate self to get his facts right, Ellroy tells us Durelle was a "Quebecois" -- he was not. He tells us Durelle was "down from heavy" -- he was not. He tells us the bout ended in the sixth round; it did not. He tells us Moore was floored four times in the first round; he was not. Those wanting to know what really happened in this bout are invited to check out these boxers' records at boxrec.com. This bout was also viewable until quite recently at youtube.com, where a viewer could hear Durelle's hometown announced loudly and clearly (hint: it was nowhere near Quebec). None of this detracts from the relative merits of Toole's novel, of course, but it does reflect on a publisher who did not believe the book could stand on its own without the addition of a foreword by a name writer -- in this case a fiction writer (everything Ellroy has ever written must now be regarded as fiction, in my opinion) so uncaring for Toole's memory that he was willing to dash off this unacceptably sloppy foreword, while the publisher slept at his feet ("Fact-checkers? Are you kidding me?"). So, does the truth about the history of boxing matter to those who read boxing fiction? It does to this writer, enough that I have already written the publisher about the advisability of excising Ellroy's putrid foreword for any future editions of "Pound For Pound." At the very least, he should make the necessary corrections, if he sincerely wants to continue to offer this novel to readers as something worth holding in one's hands.
Leo Stevenson
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Pound for Pound: A Novel by F. X. Toole
leostevenson2020, April 6, 2007
As someone who cares about the truth of boxing history, I cannot hold this novel in my hands for very long because of the arrogantly lazy work of James Ellroy in his ludicrous foreword. How can you take on faith ANY of the observations of a writer so lazy he refuses to verify the easily-verifiable history of the first Archie Moore-Yvon Durelle fight? (He says he discussed this with Toole; if that is true -- who can tell? -- Toole must have been silenty cringing at Ellroy's recitation.) Arrogantly relying on a bumbling memory rather than troubling his delicate self to get his facts right, Ellroy tells us Durelle was a "Quebecois" -- he was not. He tells us Durelle was "down from heavy" -- he was not. He tells us the bout ended in the sixth round; it did not. He tells us Moore was floored four times in the first round; he was not. Those wanting to know what really happened in this bout are invited to check out these boxers' records at boxrec.com. This bout was also viewable until quite recently at youtube.com, where a viewer could hear Durelle's hometown announced loudly and clearly (hint: it was nowhere near Quebec). None of this detracts from the relative merits of Toole's novel, of course, but it does reflect on a publisher who did not believe the book could stand on its own without the addition of a foreword by a name writer -- in this case a fiction writer (everything Ellroy has ever written must now be regarded as fiction, in my opinion) so uncaring for Toole's memory that he was willing to dash off this unacceptably sloppy foreword, while the publisher slept at his feet ("Fact-checkers? Are you kidding me?"). So, does the truth about the history of boxing matter to those who read boxing fiction? It does to this writer, enough that I have already written the publisher about the advisability of excising Ellroy's putrid foreword for any future editions of "Pound For Pound." At the very least, he should make the necessary corrections, if he sincerely wants to continue to offer this novel to readers as something worth holding in one's hands.Leo Stevenson
(4 of 7 readers found this comment helpful)