The Sweet Science

Nov 13, Ta0paipai rated it liked it.

At first Sweet Science disappointed me but it heated up towards the end. Liebling paints a colorful picture of boxing's bygone era, a time where TV was still gaining a cultural foothold and written accounts of fights still held high value. Liebling also dawdles around the trivial details of his experiences - his cab rides, his meals, how he obtained his tickets did he pay or were they free? You'll learn more about Liebling's preflight habits than you will about most if the actual fighters or At first Sweet Science disappointed me but it heated up towards the end.

You'll learn more about Liebling's preflight habits than you will about most if the actual fighters or fights, but it's still kind of a fun ride. Marciano v Moore, the last article in the collection really painted an epic picture of two legends in the sport. It was by far my favorite in the book.

Sep 19, Tyler Jones rated it really liked it Shelves: I am far more in love wit the style than I am with the subject, but Liebling does an admirable job of capturing the allure of the sport. More than just a book about boxing it captures the spirit of America at it's post war peak- a cigar chomping, manly America that we will never see again. I loved the sarcastic style. The bar-room smoke filled, beer and mustard stained pages. Feb 15, Captnamerca rated it really liked it. Very good and very well-written. Each chapter is an essay about a fight, usually covering a short history, training camp, the fight itself, and some reflection.

Liebling is an excellent writer and makes every fight seem like the outcome is still uncertain, even sixty years later.

I only wish he would have been around to cover the rise of Muhammad Ali. Apr 14, Mike rated it liked it. This book is worth reading just for the names. Feb 24, Corey Erdman rated it it was amazing. Some of the finest boxing writing ever, which launched a whole era and style of writers trying to sound like Liebling.

Jun 26, Paul O'Leary rated it it was amazing. I mentioned to my wife that I was reading a book called The Sweet Science. She initially appeared intrigued. The title does prompt an eye arch from anyone unfamiliar with the book's subject or renown. Upon her further inquiry, however, and the discovery that the "sweet science" actually concerned the "sweet art of bruising", according to Pierce Egan, who Liebling refers back to time and again, she appeared to lose interest; although whatever lost, she gained in puzzlement.

She would need seek her literary confections elsewhere. Liebling's classic work, consisting entirely of pieces of boxing journalism, has a romantic feel running throughout it. This likely merited it the honor of being awarded the best sports book of all time; or so Sports Illustrated accused it of being.

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The early 50s was a pivotal time for boxing; the time of the elder Louis and the younger Marciano. Most notably, however, it was between an age where the boxing match was strictly a community event which made an audience the true third man of the match, not the referee; and an era to come that would completely dominate the sport through the televised event that would effectively take the audience out of it, in more ways then one.

Televised events would also turn all events that weren't the main event into non-events. This, Liebling states, crippled the boxing profession immensely, or, at least, thinned it out. This period of flux is the background for Liebling's book. In reading Liebling's great articles, one actually gets the feel for what it must have been like for a fight-goer in New York in the 50s. Liebling was a master at depicting the symbiotic relationship between the pugilists and those who came to watch, admire, instruct, and curse them.

He is, also, a true student of the sport and his analysis is informative, fascinating and delightfully humorous. This is a collection that finishes quite strong. As a professional spectator at boxing events, Liebling understood that the last round of a match was usually the most important one to be on top of your game.

Books require stamina as much as boxers do. Liebling recounts this as a match, not just between men, but between concepts: He Marciano waddled in, hurling his fists with a sublime disregard for probabilities, content to hit an elbow, a bicep, a shoulder, the top of a head--the last considered to be the least profitable target in the business, since, as every beginner learns, "the head is the hardest part of the human body", and a boxer will only break his hands on it. Many boxers make the systematic presentation of the cranium part of their defensive scheme.

The crowd, basically anti-intellectual, screamed encouragement. Okay, I can't resist, one more snippet from the same chapter and bout: It was the fourth, though, that I think Sisyphus began to get the idea that he couldn't roll back the rock. Marciano pushed him Moore against the ropes and swung at him for what seemed a full minutes without ever landing a punch that a boxer with Moore's background would consider a credit to his workmanship. He kept them coming so fast, though, that Moore tried just getting out of their way. Dec 28, Kid rated it it was amazing. I'm a fan of the sports read - check the rest of my titles if you're a doubter.

This is a collection of essays about various boxing matches first published in the New Yorker back when pugilists held more of a cultural sway. I think the last boxer who penetrated the popular imagination was Mike Tyson right? Perhaps for all the wrong reasons - but anyway. To call this "the best sports book of a I'm a fan of the sports read - check the rest of my titles if you're a doubter.

To call this "the best sports book of all time" as Sports Illustrated did a while back is somewhat of a stretch only because it rarely rises above grand wit. This is no small achievement - there is so much here to recommend - but it also suggests a window into life, into humanity that perhaps this book only occasionally illuminates. It does this sometimes - especially in the last, greatest essay of the collection - a kind of analysis of an aging fighter's final battles.

There's no arguing that Liebling crushes all competition in sports journalism. His pieces are a joy to read and experience. I did find myself putting this book down though. Liebling is in thrall of Pierce Egan - a British boxing writer from the s who gets referenced ad nauseum throughout the essays.

Egan is super funny and rich. It's a flaw but not a huge deal. This book ends up being an extremely nuanced portrait of another time and place - superbly captured and a delicious experience. I do feel as though I would dock it half-a-star just 'cause it did not end up touching me so much. I admire it though.

Mar 18, A. The Sweet Science is not really a book about boxing. The real focus is A. Liebling's travels through this world, attending fights and getting into the real mechanics of the sport. Liebling's voice is lively and his prose is both funny and sharp. Most importantly, it becomes clear within 10 pages that Liebling truly loves the sport.

This is not a passing fancy for him. As a result, it's a book that celebrates boxing for what it really is: While I'm a boxing nerd I've watched fights involving all of the people mentioned above and a lot of the people in the book , this is a book for anyone interested in sports and the people who engage in them. Liebling explains the minutiae of the sport like tactics, strategies, and movements in a way that non-boxing watchers can understand and see the artistry involved even if it is hideous boxing like that of Marciano.

While he has some questionable viewpoints with regards to boxing on television, Liebling is a smart writer who has really, truly created one of the best sports books of the 20th Century. I would maybe even argue that it's the best sports book of the 20th Century. Nov 22, Erik rated it really liked it. Deeply enjoyable read, stacked with metaphors and boxing lore. Ever wonder where a 'double cross' got its name? The more you think about it, however, the more paradoxical the book is. For a gregarious sport, where big talk is as much a spectacle as the fight, the author is mostly alone with his thoughts throughout the book, looking in on the action, going for a drink by himself after the fight, walking around in the midtown streets and stopping in at the Neutral Corner to drink with the regulars Deeply enjoyable read, stacked with metaphors and boxing lore.

For a gregarious sport, where big talk is as much a spectacle as the fight, the author is mostly alone with his thoughts throughout the book, looking in on the action, going for a drink by himself after the fight, walking around in the midtown streets and stopping in at the Neutral Corner to drink with the regulars but avoiding it on fight night.

Liebling celebrates the sweet science and the eternal verities of boxing, don't throw the elbow, don't drop the shoulder, and so forth. Truths that had been known since the heyday of Pierce Egan, whom Liebling quotes liberally throughout. But he is writing during the meteoric rise of Marciano, an unorthodox, instinctive fighter to whom the basic thesis of the book does not even apply! Other skilled technical fighters and tacticians go down to the basic physical realities of youthful men taking on older and more experienced, but physically less capable lions, a mythic struggle of old trying to hold off the advance of the young with strategem after strategem a failing body cannot execute.

The main theme of the book is, therefore, age and the inexorable decline of the body, a universal complaint which humanizes boxing into a spectacle of human life. Sep 04, Andy rated it it was amazing Shelves: I enjoyed this thoroughly despite not knowing much about boxing at all. A collection of boxing essays from A. Liebling, a writer for the New Yorker from the first half of the 20th century, that are similar but enjoyable. Somewhat cantankerously narrated and dryly observed, Liebling spends time not only watching fights but visiting training camps, sitting at bars with old-timers, chatting about fighters with the man-on-the-street, and periodically referring to the pugilist culture of 19th centu I enjoyed this thoroughly despite not knowing much about boxing at all.

Somewhat cantankerously narrated and dryly observed, Liebling spends time not only watching fights but visiting training camps, sitting at bars with old-timers, chatting about fighters with the man-on-the-street, and periodically referring to the pugilist culture of 19th century Britain as depicted in Boxiana , a British writer of those times whom Liebling admires. A running joke in his essays is to lob a bombastic line of praise for Boxiana at some point near the beginning.

While Liebling clearly loves the sport of boxing, he avoids over-reverence, a trap that has snared thousands of mediocre sportswriters. His love is instead communicated through nitty-gritty detail, countless little things that catch his eye and that he then relates to you. This is, for me, the best way to write about sports - don't make it bigger than it is it's entertainment , don't make mythologies out of the athletes they're just people , basically don't try too hard.

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If you love the sport, just write about the sport , and it'll come through. Nov 10, Robert S rated it liked it Shelves: The Sweet Science is often cited as one of the greatest sport books of all time, a tall order among boxing books alone. Liebling's collection of essays through the s come at an interesting time for the sport of boxing.

It is beyond the "glory" days of the sport during the Great Depression but it is before the time where giants like Muhammad Ali or Joe Frazier would bring new life to the sport. Liebling's prose is like few others who decide to pen essays about two men beating each other to a p The Sweet Science is often cited as one of the greatest sport books of all time, a tall order among boxing books alone. Liebling's prose is like few others who decide to pen essays about two men beating each other to a pulp in the ring.

His insights are interesting, particularly the idea of television's impact on boxing. It isn't difficult to see his point about how television as a medium negatively impacted it and the point does translate to other sports as well. Baseball immediately comes to mind as something I find far more enjoyable sitting at Fenway Park than at home. Sometimes I feel that while the prose in The Sweet Science is rich, the material itself on the other hand can leave the reader wanting more from the book.

Liebling understands the sport, but its a different story to get to the foundation of what really drives an individual enjoyment in watching it. If you enjoy boxing, this book is definitely worth reading. Dec 10, Ryan rated it it was amazing Shelves: I have a fascination with the rough and tumble sports of earlier days - the old grit and romance of F1, the days when horse racing was a major draw with celebrities such as Bing Crosby owning horses, the six day races and endurance track cycling events in smoke filled velodromes often accompanied by raucous live music.

The Sweet Science by A.J. Liebling

Add pre-television era boxing to that list. Though Liebling's volume spans the transition to the television age, he looks at the present through an antiquated - or, more accuratel I have a fascination with the rough and tumble sports of earlier days - the old grit and romance of F1, the days when horse racing was a major draw with celebrities such as Bing Crosby owning horses, the six day races and endurance track cycling events in smoke filled velodromes often accompanied by raucous live music.

Though Liebling's volume spans the transition to the television age, he looks at the present through an antiquated - or, more accurately, anachronistic - lens. His wit is wry, occasionally barbed, but he also has the capability to turn a beautiful phrase - referring to an old boxer's "hand stitched face" or wondering of a superior boxers approach to his inferior "how will he interpret him. Sep 17, Rick rated it really liked it. Liebling is a great essayist who wrote on a wide variety of subjects. This book is a collection of essays produced for the most part for the New Yorker on the Sweet Science boxing.

Liebling died in but these essays on the fight game are prescient in their prediction about the decline of boxing brought on by television and changing economic times. The standard format of each essay centers around a particular bout between two fighters. Noteworthy fighters included in these pages include A. Noteworthy fighters included in these pages include Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano and Sugar Ray Robinson but the stories of lesser pugilists are just as sparkling as are the profiles of trainers, managers and assorted hangers-on.

The best part of these essays is really their depiction of how different America was 70 or 80 years ago. One can feel nostalgic for these by gone days at least as described by Liebling. A time when everybody smoked and most men wore hats. Liebling is second to none when it comes to crafting well written sentences. His prose is masterful and his observations about people great and small are spot on and entertaining to boot. There are few writers who i enjoy as much as AJ Liebling Jun 25, Mark Greenbaum rated it it was amazing. I wasn't alive to read Ring Lardner or Jimmy Cannon, or to listen to Mel Allen or Red Barber, but I can still read Liebling, a voice from the distant past, and that voice, even in boxing recaps that go back over 60 years, is alive: His reports can be repetitive -- the same trips to training camp, the same bull sessions on bar stolls in midtown, the same stooped trainers with miens so grizzled and voices so crusted they I wasn't alive to read Ring Lardner or Jimmy Cannon, or to listen to Mel Allen or Red Barber, but I can still read Liebling, a voice from the distant past, and that voice, even in boxing recaps that go back over 60 years, is alive: His reports can be repetitive -- the same trips to training camp, the same bull sessions on bar stolls in midtown, the same stooped trainers with miens so grizzled and voices so crusted they hark back before the caricatures were caricaturized, the results all long known, and he seems too to be attempting to emulate his colleague Joseph Mitchell's yearning for connection to the common man without having quite Mitchell's humanity or hope.

Here was a voice, deeply original, with a mastery of the language no reporters alive today can aspire to. His work here is far superior to Earl of Louisiana written closer to the end of his life when Liebling was perhaps tired and felled by his physical addiction to heavy foods and rich wines. A lot of fun. Jun 19, Jeff rated it really liked it Recommends it for: Keep in mind that Liebling wrote these stories individually without intention of compiling them into a single tome and you'll be able to endure the repetition of his epithets for Pierce Egan his predecessor whom he unabashedly idolizes.

I enjoyed Liebling's voice and his objective viewpoint. He provides a deep and rich history of the fights he covered by telling us about the people involved and bringing us into the world they inhabit.

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A full experience of the time that i doubt any reporter nowa Keep in mind that Liebling wrote these stories individually without intention of compiling them into a single tome and you'll be able to endure the repetition of his epithets for Pierce Egan his predecessor whom he unabashedly idolizes. A full experience of the time that i doubt any reporter nowadays can replicate. Liebling openly avowed any prejudices he had about a fighter's style or chances up-front, and so i could trust his assessments of each fight.

Is there a single living sports journalist who does this? I read the book's last, best and most important sentence only 30 minutes ago, and already it dissolved in my habitual cynicism. I felt the satisfaction because it proved that the world is not going backward, if you can just stay young enough to remember what it was really like when you were really young.

Apr 01, David Ranney rated it really liked it. Brown looked at me with placid, obliging condescension. Brown here took the stance of a confident standup boxer.

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Brown here stepped back. Meanwhile, Marciano is still coming in. Charles hits him a good right to the jaw, and Rocky hits him with a left hook and a right. First thing Charles knows, he is grabbing, and then he is just trying to hang on. He don't know why. It is not like football,' he said, kindly, like one trying to convey to little children. May 04, Robb Bohannon rated it really liked it. I bought this book solely because it was ranked by Sports Illustrated as the best sports book ever written and I'd read the number two book "The Boys of Summer" years ago and thought it was phenomenal.

Also, I have more than a passing interest in boxing, and do follow it somewhat. It wasn't what I thought - I thought it would cover some of the big fights on boxing' golden era - which it does some, particularly related to Rocky Marciano, but is more a detailed following of what makes fighters g I bought this book solely because it was ranked by Sports Illustrated as the best sports book ever written and I'd read the number two book "The Boys of Summer" years ago and thought it was phenomenal. It wasn't what I thought - I thought it would cover some of the big fights on boxing' golden era - which it does some, particularly related to Rocky Marciano, but is more a detailed following of what makes fighters good based on observations in training gyms and undercard fights at Madison Square Garden.

And there's a lot of theory thrown in from a writer who followed the sport religiously. However, I did enjoy reading what it was like to take the subway to big fights at the Garden or Yankee Stadium, and the lead up and post-fight analysis. Learn more about boxing's ancient history with iSport's History of Boxing. Libeling was a writer for the The New Yorker who wrote a collection of boxing articles from to He titled his collection The Sweet Science in homage to Pierce Egan, and he published the collection as a book in Within The Sweet Science , Libeling covers popular boxers and bouts of the day, providing precise observations throughout.

The Sweet Science

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