Cockfighter

Cock fighting, is a fierce, take-no-prisoners battle. At times, as we discover in Frank Manley's lean, movingly drawn debut novel, coming of age can also be a protean struggle. Twelve-year-old "Sonny," the only name he is given, lives with his parents in a trailer beneath the shadow of Snake Nation Mountain. His momma longs to hold him close; his daddy, Jake Cantrell, raises fighting cocks for a living, and wants the boy to emulate him. Sonny is so anxious to oblige, to be a man that he views his mother as "...a hundred-pound weight dragging him back. If she had her way, he'd be a girl." Paying the ultimate compliment, Jake gives Sonny his prize cock, a champion, a three-time winner, and is going to allow the boy to pit him. The cock is a Gray; Sonny names him Lion because his daddy had told him that "Of all the animals in the world, the cock and the lion are the only ones steadfast." Explaining that "the wilder they are, they better they fight," Jake orders Sonny to stay away from the cocks lest he tame them. Nonetheless, the boy loves Lion, and when he lifts the cock out of his cage to put him in a traveling case, he can't resist holding him in his arms, "pressing him against his chest with both hands the way he would a cat or a puppy." Surely there can't be many more dismally offensive places than the low bleacher banked buildings dotted with sawdust sprinkled pits where gamecocks fight to their deaths. Mr. Manley projects these scenes, as well as the fierce battles during which the animals gaff one another, with unsparing reality. As plans are made for Sonny to present Lion, Jake hopes to win big, gaining the sympathy of the crowd with a boy handler. Homer, his momma's alcoholic brother will help them by taking bets. The telling moment comes when Sonny and Lion are on their own in a hogwire fenced pit facing a cunning snakeskin booted Tennessee handler who twists the gaff each time he pulls it from Lion's body. As Lion's wounds increase in severity, Sonny looks to a referee who refuses to interfere. Perhaps for Sonny the events of this day will be a landmark in his life, as that is when he realizes that he is not like his father nor would he wish to be. The beauty and the answer, he discovers, is found in each of us being different. That's hard won knowledge for the boy and how he expresses this realization is found in the story's disturbing but perhaps inexorable conclusion, leaving the reader at a loss as to whether to smile or weep at Sonny's loss of innocence. With The Cockfighter Mr. Manley offers a psychologically deep, fully imagined coming-of-age tale rife with pain and possibility. - Gail Cooke

This was a whole lot different than the DVD of the same name I bought from an African guy on 10th Avenue.

You can't really relate to another man's (or woman's) obsession, but "Cockfighter" does a impressive job of drawing the reader into the psyche of Frank Mansfield, the single-minded hero of this pretty intense novel. Frank's goal in life is to win the Cockfighter of the Year award, and he's taken a vow not to speak another word until he does so. In relating silent Frank's journey, the author takes us on a memorable trip through the cockfighting pits of the Southern U.S. and allows us a close-up look at the rugged, obsessive, fiercely individualistic types who haunt them. You will learn from this novel virtually everything you could conceivably wish to know about cockfighting; the details feel absolutely authentic. Above all, though, it's a convincing portrait of a man driven half-mad by his private demons.

I read it years ago and I still haven't recovered. When you are through, you will understand how gambling becomes insanity, its rituals imposing a twisted order on full blown psychosis. As a work of first person narrative, it's breathtaking. The other books by the same author will not prepare you for the intensity of this story. If Jim Thompson is too dark for you, don't read this: you will be jumping right out of the window.

Every once in a while we realize, as a former professor once told me, that the perfect destroys the good. Cockfighter is not perfect, nor does it attempt to be. Willeford, as in all his other novels, dissects a slice of blood and guts Americana, without apologies and with no holds barred. The story of a man who chooses to remain silent until he redeems his status as a champion cockfighter is as unusual as it is simple. Like Moby Dick we learn all or too much of what we wanted to know about the subject. But if you want to take a trip to the redneck South of fifty years ago and get all dusty and sweaty and drunk and maybe killed--and still be home for dinner, then you'll find this book will do the job. More importantly, Willeford knows people and knows how to paint them so you'll never forget them or the sport they so ritualistically followed. If you, like many of us also have a visual need, find the video of the movie. In it, with a small part by the author, you'll get a complete picture of this unique aspect of our culture.