Night Train: The Sonny Liston Story - Hardcover

Tosches, Nick

3.75

130 ratings by Goodreads

9780241140390: Night Train: The Sonny Liston Story

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0241140390 ISBN 13: 9780241140390

Publisher: Hamish Hamilton, 2000

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In the figure of Sonny Liston - the most violent, seemingly undefeatable, and tragic heavyweight champion in the history of boxing - Nick Tosches has found a character to stand at the heart of a book that will endure as one of the greatest Mafia stories ever told, and as one of the most enthralling and frightening journeys ever undertaken through the dark, unexplored places, not only of lowlife culture, but of the human soul as well. Based on his acclaimed story on Liston in VANITY FAIR, this much awaited book by the author of the best-selling DINO (Secker/Vintage) is more than a biography. It is a murder mystery, a tale of twentieth-century enslavement to forces of evil, and a lethal neon tragedy told as only Tosches could tell.

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Product Description:

Biography of Sonny Liston. 8vo. 266pp. Dust-wrapper, very good.

Review:

Dazzling, unforgiving... Tosches and Liston smash their way through fights and beaten men... Tosches understood the large heart and vicious ways of Liston and together they take an unforgettable journey to some of boxing's darkest places (Steve Bunce, author of 'Bunce's Big Fat Short History of British Boxing')

Shooting from the hip, Nick Tosches brings Liston and the lurid underworld of boxing brilliantly to life... The fullest portrait yet of this troubled man. Told in the spare, muscular prose Tosches is known for, Liston's story is the tale of a man who "died on the day he was born" (Esquire)

Liston's story comes alive though hard facts and breathtaking writing... As much about boxing as it is about the darkest side of the American Dream (Time Out)

Tosches has a talent for getting inside the skin of men [and] drawing out meaty stories... The prose sizzles - hard, tough writing suited to a hard, tough subject (New York Times Book Review)

Crackling [and] unmissable... A warped fairy tale and a dark murder mystery (Maxim)

Brash [and] astute... Tosches gets in the ring and slugs it out from the first bell as if he were the twin reincarnation of John L. Sullivan and Jack Dempsey. [He] picks the dirtiest, ugliest, saddest man the fight game has thrown up in a hundred years and rides the story all the way to the grave (Observer)

A fantastic book about a life that started in darkness and continued to go deeper into the darkness until the only light was death. Nick Tosches is an extraordinary writer (Hubert Selby Jr, author of 'Requiem for a Dream')

A profound voyage into the twisted psyche of a sportsman... Brings you face to face with [a] hard life and ugly death (FHM)

Tosches is a remarkable reporter... While Liston demolishes opponents with the brutality of his blows, Tosches goes down the mean streets of professional boxing, ventures into the shadowy corners of mob dealings and dares to reveal the fixed fights... A great story (Salon)

[A] hyper-noir meditation on the devil and his relationship to Sonny Liston... Tosches has attitude to spare, agile and sublime, smooth and cool... A captivating, tragic tale (Austin Chronicle)

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