Connect with us

Featured Articles

Boxing Noir

Published

on

Adam Berlin’s “Both Members of the Club”

When the grandfathers of today’s hand-wringers were running around with their hats pulled down over their ears hollering that boxing was in its last days, W.C. Heinz published a novel.

The Professional is the story of Eddie Brown, a middleweight with dreams dashed at the end of a fist that was not his own. It is considered by many the greatest boxing novel ever written. I suppose it is. The writing is stripped-down, like a fighter at his weigh-in; hyperfocused, like a man at the end of the line. Heinz added nothing to spare anyone’s feelings, including his own. The sudden heartbreak that closes the novel was such that even he couldn’t bear to read it again.

Prize fighting, he said without saying, is the ballad of every man and being thus, it isn’t going anywhere.

Heinz was one of those boxing “experts” who would wince at the term. He slipped only once in the 334-page edition that I read. Speaking through narrator Frank Hughes, Heinz says that Ezzard Charles “wasn’t the complete fighter and that showed in his fights.” Out came the pen when I saw that. I wrote “forgot Baroudi” at the margin. Heinz’s mistake is the all-too common mistake of overstressing the 1950s version of Charles. The fact is, Charles was as complete a fighter who ever lived in the 1940s—blasting contenders and ex-champions out of their boots and whipping Charley Burley on his own turf before graduating from high school, and then whipping him again, which was unheard of. Charles’s blitzkrieg ended the moment Sam Baroudi died at his hands in 1948. The fire was gone after that and the fans and the historians forgot it ever was.

But I forgave Heinz his oversight, and not just because good Christian Ezzard would insist. I forgave him because he was gifted. “When you want to beat another man,” his narrator says to his fighter, “you try to beat him, literally.” He continues:

You don’t try to hit behind the runner, or work the pitcher for a walk or break a curve over the corner of the plate. These are the refinements of civilization …I like most of the refinements of civilization, but I have to believe that of all games—if that’s what we’re talking about—yours goes the deepest and, going deepest, goes the furthest toward the truth.

Those words were published in 1958. Today, author Adam Berlin is continuing the tradition of boxing noir. He is exploring the truth of our pre-grave existence; of what Thoreau called “quiet desperation.” Berlin finds traces of it in blinking yellow parking lots, in money changing hands, in the timeless ring. His writing, like Heinz’s, is stripped down. Unlike Heinz’s, it is not bound by the refinements of previous generations. Berlin, in other words, doesn’t blush. The truth he seeks is ruthless truth, and he does so ruthlessly. He teaches writing courses at John Jay College in Manhattan and I have a feeling his more sheltered students get wide-eyed real quick.

Both Members of the Club (Texas Review Press) was published earlier this month. It won the 2012 Clay Reynolds Novella Prize and by page five I could see why. I read it inside of a day. “Pretty soon you’ll be a body they use to build other fighters’ records,” Sam tells friend and fighter Billy Carlyle (and Ezzard Charles and every other over-the-hill-fighter that ever stumbled out of the ring):

“They’ll pay you to bleed and lose and the fans will love watching you because every time you fight your eyes will open up and start gushing and they’ll be getting their money’s worth.”
Sam’s sitting all the way forward. She catches herself, sits back in the booth.
“You done?” Billy says.
They’re looking at each other, eyes to eyes, a blinking game, one eye with stitches.
“You done?” he says again.

Wizened Heinz is in these pages, half-illuminated on 33rd and Seventh in New York City, in the dim corridors of Madison Square Garden, in Paris in a gym in Berlin’s description of “the pull” that happens when the hooks explode and sweat flies and everything is working right. And Heinz isn’t alone. What Heinz was to the word, George Bellows was to the brushstroke. The title of Berlin’s novellais spun from Bellows’ Both Members of This Club (1909), a masterpiece of realism first exhibited, properly, in an old warehouse on West 35th Street. The angst depicted in the painting is bigger than the ring. Berlin trains his eye on that. When Sam swears off attending any more of Billy’s fights because he’s losing —and bleeding, Berlin’s narrator reminds her that boxing is merely a reflection of their own quiet desperation without the complications. “There’s blood in everything,” he says.

Billy can touch the scar tissue over his eyes though he’s in denial about what it means. The narrator and Sam wear their scars inside and hide them from Billy, who emerges (as fighters usually do in literature) as the innocent. When he fights, Billy’s eyes spring leaks. Berlin asks the reader to look again as he paints with slashing strokes every bit as suggestive as Bellows: The friendship that the three characters had clung to since childhood—itself a mass of scar tissue—likewise springs leaks.

Bellows’ masterpiece is a translucent screen on Berlin’s literary stage. But does it bless or haunt? The figure at left looks to me like a homage to the straining loser; especially so given that his opponent is almost certainly the great Joe Gans. His face, partially obscured, is distorted with pain and red with desperation. His arms splay upwards in an effort to ward off the inevitable blows coming his way. And isn’t that, ultimately, every one of us?

Berlin has written a first-rate novella about that which puts our backs to the ropes and knocks us and our illusions down and sometimes —out. Like Billy Carlyle, the best of us will go down swinging, but we’re all headed in the same direction.

Here’s to the losers, Berlin says without saying, bless us all.

 

 

Both Members of the Club (2013) by Adam Berlin.
Fiction. $12.95. 978-1-937875-47-3.

 

 


Photograph by author.Springs Toledo can be contacted at scalinatella@hotmail.com.

WATCH RELATED VIDEOS ON BOXINGCHANNEL.TV

Share The Sweet Science experience!
Continue Reading
Advertisement
Vito-Mielnicki-Whitewashes-Kamil-Gardzielik-Before-the-Home-Folks-in-Newark
Featured Articles3 weeks ago

Vito Mielnicki Jr Whitewashes Kamil Gardzielik Before the Home Folks in Newark

Results-and-Recaps-from-New-York-Where-Taylor-edged-Serrano-Once-Again
Featured Articles3 days ago

Results and Recaps from New York Where Taylor Edged Serrano Once Again

From-a-Sympathetic-Figure-to-a-Pariah-The Travails-of-Julio-Cesar-Chavez-Jr
Featured Articles1 week ago

From a Sympathetic Figure to a Pariah: The Travails of Julio Cesar Chavez Jr

Catching-Up-with-Clay-Moyle-Who-Talks-About-His-Massive-Collection-of-Boxing-Books
Featured Articles4 weeks ago

Catching Up with Clay Moyle Who Talks About His Massive Collection of Boxing Books

Results-and-Recaps-from-NYC-where-Hamzah-Sheeraz-was-Spectacular
Featured Articles2 days ago

Results and Recaps from NYC where Hamzah Sheeraz was Spectacular

Catterall-vs-Eubank-Ends-Prematurely-Catterall-Wins-a-Technical-Decision
Featured Articles1 week ago

Catterall vs Eubank Ends Prematurely; Catterall Wins a Technical Decision

More-Medals-for-Hawaii's-Patricio-Family-at-USA-Boxing's-Summer-Festival
Featured Articles3 weeks ago

More Medals for Hawaii’s Patricio Family at the USA Boxing Summer Festival

Philadelphia-Welterweight-Gil-Turner-a-Phenom-Now-Rests-in-an-Unmarked-Grave
Featured Articles3 days ago

Philadelphia Welterweight Gil Turner, a Phenom, Now Rests in an Unmarked Grave

Richardson-Hitchins-Batters-and-Stops-George-Kambosos-at-Madison-Square-Garden
Featured Articles4 weeks ago

Richardson Hitchins Batters and Stops George Kambosos at Madison Square Garden 

Callum-Walsh-Umar-Dzambekov-and-Cain-Sandoval-Remain-Unbeaten-at-Santa-Ynez
Featured Articles3 weeks ago

Callum Walsh, Umar Dzambekov and Cain Sandoval Remain Unbeaten at Santa Ynez

Jake-Paul-Outpoints-Julio-Cesar-Chavez-Jr-plus-Other-Results-from-Anaheim
Featured Articles2 weeks ago

Jake Paul Outpoints Julio Cesar Chavez Jr plus Other Results from Anaheim

A-Fight-Fan-and-Teremoana-Samson-Junior-Leon-Teremoana
Featured Articles4 weeks ago

A Fight Fan and Teremoana Samson Junior Leon Teremoana

Avila-Perspective-Chap-333-Jake-Paul-JC-Chavez-Jr-Zurdo-and-More
Featured Articles1 week ago

Avila Perspective, Chap. 333: Jake Paul, JC Chavez Jr, Zurdo and More

A-Boxing-Card-in-Alabama-Goes-Pfft-A-True-Tale-from-the-Underbelly-of-the-Sweet-Science
Featured Articles2 weeks ago

A Boxing Card in Alabama Goes Pfft: A True Tale from the Underbelly of The Sweet Science

Paro
Featured Articles3 weeks ago

Liam Paro Returns with a Flourish on Wednesday’s ‘No Limit’ Card in Queensland

Avila-Perspecrive-Chap-334-Back-to-Back-Boxing-Cards-in-the-Big-Apple
Featured Articles4 days ago

Avila Perspective, Chap. 334: Back-to-Back Boxing Cards in the Big Apple

Avila-Perspective-Chap-331-Callum-Walsh-Brian-Norman-Galal-Yafai-and-More
Featured Articles3 weeks ago

Avila Perspective, Chap. 331: Callum Walsh, Brian Norman, Galal Yafai and More

A-Closer-Look-at-Mario-Barrios-Poised-to-Wreck-the-Comeback-of-a-Legend
Featured Articles3 weeks ago

A Closer Look at Mario Barrios, Poised to Wreck the Comeback of a Legend

Brian-Norman-Jr-Bombs-Out-Jin-Sasaki-with-a-Frightful-Left-Hook
Featured Articles4 weeks ago

Brian Norman Jr Bombs Out Jin Sasaki with a Frightful Left Hook

When-Boxing-Was-Big-on-the-Fourth-of-July-A-TSS-Classic
Featured Articles2 weeks ago

When Boxing was Big on the Fourth of July: A TSS Classic

Results-and-Recaps-from-NYC-where-Hamzah-Sheeraz-was-Spectacular
Featured Articles2 days ago

Results and Recaps from NYC where Hamzah Sheeraz was Spectacular

Results-and-Recaps-from-New-York-Where-Taylor-edged-Serrano-Once-Again
Featured Articles3 days ago

Results and Recaps from New York Where Taylor Edged Serrano Once Again

Philadelphia-Welterweight-Gil-Turner-a-Phenom-Now-Rests-in-an-Unmarked-Grave
Featured Articles3 days ago

Philadelphia Welterweight Gil Turner, a Phenom, Now Rests in an Unmarked Grave

Avila-Perspecrive-Chap-334-Back-to-Back-Boxing-Cards-in-the-Big-Apple
Featured Articles4 days ago

Avila Perspective, Chap. 334: Back-to-Back Boxing Cards in the Big Apple

From-a-Sympathetic-Figure-to-a-Pariah-The Travails-of-Julio-Cesar-Chavez-Jr
Featured Articles1 week ago

From a Sympathetic Figure to a Pariah: The Travails of Julio Cesar Chavez Jr

Catterall-vs-Eubank-Ends-Prematurely-Catterall-Wins-a-Technical-Decision
Featured Articles1 week ago

Catterall vs Eubank Ends Prematurely; Catterall Wins a Technical Decision

Avila-Perspective-Chap-333-Jake-Paul-JC-Chavez-Jr-Zurdo-and-More
Featured Articles1 week ago

Avila Perspective, Chap. 333: Jake Paul, JC Chavez Jr, Zurdo and More

When-Boxing-Was-Big-on-the-Fourth-of-July-A-TSS-Classic
Featured Articles2 weeks ago

When Boxing was Big on the Fourth of July: A TSS Classic

A-Boxing-Card-in-Alabama-Goes-Pfft-A-True-Tale-from-the-Underbelly-of-the-Sweet-Science
Featured Articles2 weeks ago

A Boxing Card in Alabama Goes Pfft: A True Tale from the Underbelly of The Sweet Science

Mexico's-Francisco-Rodriguez-Jr-is-the-TSS-Fighter-of-the-Month-for-June
Featured Articles2 weeks ago

Mexico’s Francisco Rodriguez Jr is the TSS Fighter of the Month for June

Jake-Paul-Outpoints-Julio-Cesar-Chavez-Jr-plus-Other-Results-from-Anaheim
Featured Articles2 weeks ago

Jake Paul Outpoints Julio Cesar Chavez Jr plus Other Results from Anaheim

Holly-Holm-Joshua-Edwards-and-Rene-Alvarado-Sparkle-on-the-Paul-Chavez-Undercard
Featured Articles2 weeks ago

Holly Holm, Joshua Edwards, and Rene Alvarado Sparkle on the Paul-Chavez Undercard

Mbilli-Blasts-Out-Sulecki-in-Quebec-Wilder-TKOs-Herndon-in-Wichita
Featured Articles2 weeks ago

Mbilli Blasts Out Sulecki in Quebec; Wilder TKOs Herndon in Wichita

Avila-Perspective-Chap-332-Jake-Paul-vs-Chavez-Jr-plus-Mbilli-Deontay-and-More
Featured Articles2 weeks ago

Avila Perspective, Chap. 332: Jake Paul vs Chavez Jr., plus Mbilli, Deontay and More

A-Closer-Look-at-Mario-Barrios-Poised-to-Wreck-the-Comeback-of-a-Legend
Featured Articles3 weeks ago

A Closer Look at Mario Barrios, Poised to Wreck the Comeback of a Legend

Paro
Featured Articles3 weeks ago

Liam Paro Returns with a Flourish on Wednesday’s ‘No Limit’ Card in Queensland

More-Medals-for-Hawaii's-Patricio-Family-at-USA-Boxing's-Summer-Festival
Featured Articles3 weeks ago

More Medals for Hawaii’s Patricio Family at the USA Boxing Summer Festival

Callum-Walsh-Umar-Dzambekov-and-Cain-Sandoval-Remain-Unbeaten-at-Santa-Ynez
Featured Articles3 weeks ago

Callum Walsh, Umar Dzambekov and Cain Sandoval Remain Unbeaten at Santa Ynez

Vito-Mielnicki-Whitewashes-Kamil-Gardzielik-Before-the-Home-Folks-in-Newark
Featured Articles3 weeks ago

Vito Mielnicki Jr Whitewashes Kamil Gardzielik Before the Home Folks in Newark

Avila-Perspective-Chap-331-Callum-Walsh-Brian-Norman-Galal-Yafai-and-More
Featured Articles3 weeks ago

Avila Perspective, Chap. 331: Callum Walsh, Brian Norman, Galal Yafai and More

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

Trending