Fat City (1969)People toil for little pay with success unlikely in many pursuits: acting, music, electoral politics. But the sting is especially harsh for boxers, who face constant physical peril in a business uniquely primed to exploit. In this winner-take-all industry, fighters lose through literal defeats in the ring and through material setbacks in the economy. As one boxer described it to me, opponents are workhorses sent to the slaughterhouse. That's today's world of boxing. Now imagine what it was like before we became such an affluent society. Or just think back to Rocky Balboa in the first film. And consider the sorts of men who would believe that this was the optimal profession and their best way to make a living. The revered novel, Fat City by one-hit wonder Leonard Gardner, which spawned the cult hit film version directed by John Huston, tells the story of two such men in Stockton, California. One is an up-an-comer--though we're abundantly aware he's headed nowhere--18 year-old Ernie Munger. and 29-year-old Billy Tully, who is well on his way downhill, though he never made it very far up. The reason other writers are so attracted to Garment is easily explained by his spare but colorful prose. But the novel is pretty relentlessly depressing. The two men mix bad choices with too much liquor and Billy works a series of farm laborer jobs that are truly horrifying both for their back-breaking physical demands and their low pay. (How hard could it have been even then to at least get a job as a store clerk, like Edna Ferber's Bush League Hero?) The effect is to rob the characters of our sympathies. After all, they are wasting their own agency. Incredibly enough, the most likable figure is the manager/promoter who keeps trying to help them, even if his motives are not altruistic. More than anything else though, the novel stands as a rebuke to anyone who idealizes America's supposed post-war Golden Age, when an economic boom gifted us a putative egalitarian dream time. You'd think simply watching any late-60s/70s tv show or movie would cure this delusion, but if anyone still labors under it they should read this book. It is a virtual update of the classic Depression noir, They Shoot Horses, Don't They?. Maybe don't make America this great again, huh? (Reviewed:) Grade: (A+) Tweet Websites:-WIKIPEDIA: Leonard Gardner -FILMOGRAPHY: Leonard Gardner (IMDB) -SHORT STORY: Christ Has Returned to Earth and Preaches Here Nightly (Leonard Gardner, FALL 1965, Paris Review) -WIKIPEDIA: Fat City -PROFILE: In California, Finding ‘Fat City’ With the Man Who Wrote It: Stockton inspired Leonard Gardner’s acclaimed 1969 novel. On the streets with him now, it’s clear much has changed. But boxing endures. (KAREN SCHOEMER, MAY 30, 2017, NY Times) -INTERVIEW: : Fat City, Fifty Years Later: An Interview with Leonard Gardner (David Lida, February 6, 2019, Paris Review) -PROFILE: Epic novel and writer still endure (Stockton Record, Mar. 5th, 2016) -REVIEW ESSAY: Personal Best: Fat City by Leonard Gardner (DENIS JOHNSON, 9/30/96, Salon) -REVIEW ESSAY: One of the All-Time Great One-Hit Wonder Novels: On Leonard Gardner’s Fat City (Aaron Gilbreath, August 28, 2015, LitHub) -ESSAY: The Minimalist: A Boxing Story (Springs Toledo, APRIL 21, 2021, Plough) -ESSAY: THE UNSUNG HEROES OF THE BOXING WORLD: Mismatched Fighters Help Up-and-Coming Champs Bolster Their Records in a Winner-Takes-All Industry (Rudy Mondragon, 5/02/24, Zocalo Public Square) -REVIEW: of Fat City by Leonard Garment (Nicholas Lezard, The Guardian) -REVIEW: of Fat City (Motion Sick Lit) -REVIEW: of Fat City (Intermittancies of the Mind) -REVIEW: of Fat City (JC Gabel, Book Forum) FILM: -WIKIPEDIA: Fat City (film) -FILMOGRAPHY: Fat City (1972) (IMDB) -FILMOGRAPHY: Fat City (1972) (Rotten Tomatoes) -FILMOGRAPHY: John Huston (IMDB) -SCRIPT: Fat City [PDF] -REVIEW ESSAY: 70s Rewind: FAT CITY, Broads, Booze and Boxing, Bleakly (Peter Martin, 4/04/18, Screen Anarchy) -REVIEW ESSAY: Down & Out for the Count: ‘Fat City’ at 50 (Johnny Restall, JULY 28, 2022, Film Cred) -REVIEW ARCHIVE: Fat City (Lettrboxed) Book-related and General Links: |
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