The Abysmal Brute by Jack London. Century Company (1913), 169 pp.
Sam Stubener, veteran San Francisco boxing manager, gets a summons from legendary fighter Pat Glendon, who’s been living up north in lumber country for years. The old man has a can’t-miss prospect -- his own son, also named Pat. He’s raised the young man to live with nature and trained him in the pugilistic arts. Sam is soon convinced. Young Pat is big, muscular and skillful. But he’s also taciturn, sensitive and innocent. What will happen when he enters the ruthless and corrupt fight game?
In this short book, which was first published as a magazine story, London offers a view of prize-fighting dramatically different from the one he put forth in The Game (1905). In that book he sees boxing as the quintessence of masculinity. Here it’s a racket in which crooked insiders corrupt fighters and bilk fans. Since the author is writing an exposé, he has no interest in character development. Young Pat, nothing like the nickname of the title, remains impossibly strong and virtuous throughout the novel. The climactic match creates little tension, especially since London divulges what happens before he begins describing it. Although the book is short on literary merit, it’s been adapted for the screen twice and might still be of interest to some boxing fans.
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