The Devil and Sonny Liston
by Nick Tosches
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Book Summary Information
Author: Nick ToschesEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2001-12-06
ISBN: 0316897469
Number of pages: 288
Publisher: Back Bay Books
Book Reviews of The Devil and Sonny Liston
Book Review: "Attention, attention must be paid this man!"
Summary: 4 Stars
I remember, as a mere slip of a lad, tape-recording the Liston-Clay fight on my Wollensak reel-to-reel tape recorder. (I think it weighed more than I did.) I played that tape over and over. ...
"SONNY LISTON'S NOT COMING OUT!" excalimed Howard Cosell. "SONNY LISTON'S NOT COMING OUT! HE'S OUT! I'M NOW GOING UP INTO THE RING!"
Actually, I congratulate Nick Tosches on writing a book about Sonny Liston and not once mentioning Howard Cosell, who I simply *loooooooathe(d).*
As for Nick's book, you have to give him credit for the research he's done, he is thorough. But as a previous reviewer noted, he's a Jimmy Breslin/Damon Runyon wannabe. Of course that's not an unambitious wannabe gene to have, is it? So I can't really criticize Nick for aspiring to such obvious greatness.
The thing is, though, Nick manifests his hipness in an all too obvious way. Alas, there's nothing sadder than a hipster who tries too hard to be too hip.
Still, Nick was raised in Newark, New Jersey, as I was, he's about my age, and he's clearly a good, solid, interesting writer, so whaddya want? fugetaboutit -- da bum's okay!
In Hemingway's short story "A Clean Well-Lighted Place," the old man in the cafe is asked: "What are you thinking about?" To which he replies: "Nothing." Meaning: nothingness.
Indeed, this is the key that unlocks the mystery of Sonny Liston. In considering Sonny Liston, one inevitably looks into the abyss -- comes face-to-face with the personification of nothingness. ("Nada y nada y pues nada.")
Easily the most feared and ferocious of heavyweights, when he wasn't (probably) throwing both Ali fights, Charles Sonny Liston was nihilism to the 12th power. As such, I wish Nick had written a bit more about Liston from an existential point of view. His writing style is perfectly suited to such an approach. Put another way: I don't imagine it's a coincidence that Nick has also written biographies of Dean Martin and Jerry Lee Lewis, both of whom, each in his own unique way, has danced on the precipice of existential dread.
If you don't know Sonny Liston from Adam, or if you consider the only accceptable biography to be that of a famous, notable or "respected" individual (as opposed to a thug like Liston), then you're a square, daddy-o, and you should pass on this book, ex Post Toasties.
(Did you see what I did there? Huh? A little cereael humor -- "ex Post Toasties." ... I gotta million of 'em.)
If, on the other hand, you're consider Sonny Liston to be an important part of our cultural past and therefore worth paying attention to ("Attention, attention must be paid this man!"), then give my paisano Nick Tosches' bio of Sonny Liston a shot.
Meanwhile, there's no question Liston threw the second Ali fight. But what about the first one? Did he throw that one, too? If he did, one has to wonder what would have happened to Ali had he faced the full, "unfixed" fury of Liston.
Before the first, at the weigh-in, Ali went nuts, with most commentators (in hindsight of course) maintaining that this was meant to psyche out Liston. I don't believe it. I think Ali was scared witless of Liston; maybe not necessarily at the weigh-in but in his general psychological preparation for the fight. In fact, he was probably as surprised/shocked ed as anyone that he emerged from the fight victorious -- let alone survived it!
It's interesting how Nick points out that after the Mob's influence over boxing waned, many of the people involved in boxing, including the boxers themselves, longed for the days when they dealt with the Mob, as opposed to the real thieves, the compleat crooks, namely, the lawyers, corporatists and other buttoned-down nouveau riche hustlers we civilians are all now plagued with.
The Mob may have been rough, but as Mario Puzo once put it: at least back in the day you could get a decent bowl of spaghetti & meatballs in Las Vegas. Today? Fugetabout it!
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