The Devil and Sonny Liston

While the negative reviews here hold a certain amount of water, it must be understood that this is certainly not a "traditional" biography, if a biography at all. I came upon this book from the opposite direction as previous commentators, as an fan of literature with a passing interest in boxing. Tosches' entire ouevre reads much the same way as this text: pop cultural riffing, hyperbolic spiritual send-ups, flourishes of bizarrely germane quotes. But it all works. I can safely admit that this won't serve as an effective biography for anyone hoping for detailed accounts of Liston's fights, but it is a wonderfuly tempered, passionate work. In terms of boxing studies, if you care at all for the style of Oates' "On Boxing," this is certainly worth a paltry $0.19.

In 1987 I had the pleasure of having a half-hour chat with Floyd Patterson, Floyd was convinced Liston threw both fights to Ali. Ali's cut man for the first Liston fight contacted his friends and relatives and told them the fight was fixed and to bet everything on Ali (this was mentioned in a casino sports betting paper in 1991). Six months after supposedly knocking out Liston with a six inch right hand, Ali could not finish off a badly injured Patterson (who foolishly went into the fight with a very bad back).Liston's facial features clearly show he was around 40 when he knocked out Patterson on a brisk Chicago night in 1962. Liston was the best heavyweight for at least five years before he won the title. The powers-that-be knew a long Liston reign would just about kill off boxing, much like Evander Holyfield whose fights drew poorly unless he fought a Tyson/Foreman/Bowe. Top contender Henry Cooper openly stated in a 1971 Ring magazine interview that he refused to fight Liston under any circumstances.This author refuses to "dumb down" his writing, which means he wrote over the heads of most boxing fans. A local talk radio host reported there was a rumor that Liston was supposed to have thrown the Chuck Wepner fight and that he angered certain organized crime types when he did not. Wepner was manuvered into an undeserved shot at Ali in 1975. This same radio host reported that Liston was courteous and reasonably friendly in person. A good book about an ignored man, hopefully someone will do one about tragic Jerry Quarry.

At first, I thought that I could not quite understand why everyone seems to be so judgmental of Nick Tosches's writing style in The Devil and Sonny Liston, but I think I have figured it out.We've been trained by Hollywood and cheap drug store fiction to just bite into one interpretation, one solid answer, one unavoidable truth that we savor for about two minutes after turning the last page, and then we go pour a cup of coffee and turn on the tube.No, Tosches does not say "and Ali's punch missed his chin." He does not say "and it was a phantom punch." No, instead, Nick Tosches is patient, artful and lets the weight of the evidence tell the facts.What we are told is this by the one and only Joe Louis: "Nobody's gonna beat Sonny Liston 'cept old age." We are told this by one of Liston's handlers: "If you knew anything about boxing, you knew there was no way that Clay could hurt Liston." And then, we get the knockout punch from Tosches himself. Tosches writes: ""One thing was certain: in that rematch...when Sonny lay down in the first, he showed less acting ability than in the episode of Love American Style in which he later bizarrely appeared."Hello? Am I the only one who read this book with some sort of discernment? What more do we need? THE MAN LAYED DOWN IN THE FIRST ROUND BECAUSE THE MOB TOLD HIM TO, AND HE LISTENED. YES, IT WAS A FIX. YES, IT WAS A PHANTOM PUNCH.What we have here are the opinions of an era in which stories that are not told in two minutes are just no good, and tales that leave themselves open to interpretation are simply burdensome or, as one reviewer claims, "melodramatic."Some reviewers opine that the book leaves us without an answer as to the cause of Liston's death. Again, I just don't see the confusion on this one. Here are the author's own words: "he took too much dope and died (page 253)." Hmm...sounds like a rather conclusive answer to me, folks.Well, Nick, looks like your kind are an endangered species. No time for poetry, no time for artful metaphor, this is the age of "give us ten minutes, we'll give you the world." Truth is, The Devil and Sonny Liston is one of the best biographies I've ever read. It is suspenseful, yet poetic, informative and conclusive, yet open-minded and expansive. Nick Tosches took one ugly, shady life and turned it into a brutally honest piece of poetry that guarantees to leave readers unsettled at the book's end. In all truth, that's how you know that this is a great book, people were left thinking after the last period. As for myself, I went out and bought three Nick Tosches books after I read The Devil and Sonny Liston, because Tosches instantly became one of my favorite writers. If you're patient with him, he'll do the same for you.

Nick Tosches is not a conventional biographer, which may eitherdelight or disappoint you as you read this book. Depending on yourattitude about life, as an old friend of mine used to say.I was delighted. I didn't really set out to be a Tosches fan, but I realized a couple of years back that I own and have read every single book he's ever written.The thread that runs through all of Tosches writing, fiction and non, is that "the real history isn't in the books." Yes, a straightforward facts-and-dates biography would be a useful companion piece to this book, but Tosches would say that the real truth about Sonny Liston is the subterranean truth, the truth that didn't make it into print, or if it did, only as hints and rumors.As for the charge that this book is just a re-hash of old magazine articles, clearly it is not. Tosches tracked down and talked to a large number of people who knew Liston in various stages of his life, and obviously consulted primary sources as well. The book is not a "fight biography" with gripping accounts of blows traded. It's more like a series of flashlight stabs into a nightmare.Fourth-rate Mailer? Nah, Tosches has little of Mailer's self-importance (God love him). More like a Northeastern relative of music jouranlist Stanley Booth. As he did in "Dino," Tosches uses a novelist's technique to draw a portrait of a man who remains unknowable. END

As boxer Chuck Wepner said, "Nick Tosches writes like Sonny Liston hit." This book is a visit to the depths and mysteries of a hell most of us hope never to see. Forget any notion you might have of a sports biography. Tosches throws the genre right out the window with this killer story of a man who remained a mystery to his last breath. You can watch a hundred boxing matches with a hundred commentators, and you'll never see the world of boxing as Tosches presents it. This book was so good, I had insomnia: I couldn't sleep until I finished it. And when I finished it, I went back to the beginning a day later and read it again. The Devil and Sonny Liston is cunning and daring, a blazing performance.