index index index index I got this book for free in a Wal-Mart deal when i bought the movie "Million Dollad baby". I loved these stories and they are quick reads, sometimes a bit crude but gives a nice show of the inside world of boxing.

I would recommend this book for any sport fan and anyone who loves boxing must read this.I saw the film "Million Dollar Baby" and it hurt. I then read a review that the author of that story, F.X. Toole, had written some little gems about the boxing world entitled "Rope Burns". These short stories are brilliant .. an insight into a world most people don't know (boxing), and set in a time that now dates back. Too bad Mr. Toole died before he got recognition for his contribution to the arts.The stories in this collection are all surpisingly good. Of course, "Million Dollar Baby" is the first one read due to the great movie of the same name. Although it is very short, it is well-written and faithful to the emotions of the picture. A little different detail is given in the story, especially noting the Irish background of the protagonist. Other stories are also a treasure. Well worth the read.This is a classic read. I have many books I read again and again. I learn something new every time. I will reread these stories for years to come.
Wish Toole was still alive.Great stuff here! If you are a boxing fan like me, you couldn't ask for any better than this. Toole's language, dialouge, and characters are all on the money. This man knows what he is talking about! As I read through the stories, I could smell the cigar smoke that always hovers over the crowds watching a fight and feel the sweat as it slung off the boxer's bodies. That is how great Toole captured the ambiance of boxing. My hat is off to this 67-year-old who finally got his first book published.

Seventy-year-old F.X. Toole has exploded onto the literary scene with this astonishing first collection of stories drawn from his own experiences in boxing. In these powerful and moving tales, he reveals a complex web of athletes, trainers, and promoters and their extended families, all players in an unforgiving business where victory, like defeat, comes at a dark and painful price.

F. X. Toole breathes life into vivid, compelling characters who radiate the fierce intensity of the worlds they inhabit. In "The Monkey Look," an aging cut man with an incorrigible sweet tooth works the corner for Hoolie, a featherweight "bleeder" with attitude. "Black Jew" brings Reggie Valentine Love and his camp to a brutal elimination bout in Atlantic City, where they are treated like second-class citizens by a promoter. In "Million $$$ Baby," seasoned trainer Frankie Dunn faces the most daunting challenge of his life when he agrees to aid the fearless Maggie Fitzgerald in her quest to become a champion boxer. "Fightin' in Philly" and "Frozen Water" are stories in which youthful dreams of glory and celebrity are threatened by the harsh realities that suffuse both of these narratives. The novella "Rope Burns" is the crowning achievement of the collection, offering a gritty, heartrending account of the indestructible bond that develops between a devoted fighter and his trainer.

In Rope Burns F.X. bole exhibits the skill of a miniaturist: in precise and exquisite detail, he peoples a world rich in unforgettable characters, like Señora Cabrera, the owner of the Acapulco café, who makes low-fat refried beans to keep a local fighter in top form, and an anonymous museum guard with a soft spot for Michelangelo. Toole's faithful dialogue crackles and bites, and the flawed characters he creates cannot help but remind us of our own too fragile humanity. He brings a new understanding to the violence and purity of the sweet science and the world it engenders, opening a window into the fighter's soul that can never he closed. suria review reviews analysis analyze