Rocky Marciano Summary and Reviews

Rocky Marciano
by Everett M. Skehan

Rocky Marciano
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Book Summary Information

Author: Everett M. Skehan
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1999-06
ISBN: 0860512347
Number of pages: 384
Publisher: Robson Books

Book Reviews of Rocky Marciano

Book Review: A good read, but glosses over a few things
Summary: 3 Stars

A biography of the undefeated champ, from his somewhat hard childhood and attempts
to break into baseball, to his boxing career after the army, to his retirement and the life of Reilly that followed. It's written in an almost fictionalized style - quotes from scenes in Rocky's life come from interviews, doubtless, but as exact quotes they must be taken with a large grain of salt. Skehan doesn't judge, nor is he critical; he merely reports, without skepticism. The picture that emerges is an ambiguous one. The Rock was obviously a tightfisted cheapskate, sometimes to the point of criminality (cheating pay phones, defrauding an insurance company for ten grand). He had strange ideas about money; not trusting banks, he'd squirrel away large chunks of cash. He had all sorts of business deals, shady and otherwise, that he enacted without so much as a signature or IOU. Many of Rocky's friends insist he was staunchly loyal, but his long-time trainer Al Columbo's estrangement, his lifelong argument with another friend over a probably imagined forty bucks, and his failure to help out the boxer he hospitalized all belie this picture. The consensus is that Rocky was pretty much the all-time greatest; since he faced the champions of his time when they were nearing 40, this is disputable, and the book should state that. Certainly, Skehan blatantly glosses over serious flaws in Rocky's character, such as soliciting prostitutes, leaving his wife and daughter for long stretches, cutting short vacations with them, etc. In all this is a thorough, interesting, easy to read bio, but it could stand to show a few more warts than it does. He was a great champion; we don't need to think he was a saint, too.

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