Fat City - Softcover

Leonard Gardner

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1782272550 ISBN 13: 9781782272557

Publisher: Pushkin Press, 2017

'Tremendous' Geoff Dyer

'A pitch-perfect account of boxing, blue-collar bewilderment and the battle of the sexes' San Francisco Chronicle

A major cult film directed by John Huston

Stockton, California: a town of dark bars and lunchrooms, cheap hotels and farm labourers scratching a living. When two men meet in the Lido Gym - the ex-boxer Billy Tully and the novice Ernie Munger - their brief sparring session sets a fateful story in motion, initiating young Munger into the "company of men" and luring Tully back into training.

Fat City is a vivid novel of defiance and struggle, of the potent promise of the good life and the desperation and drink that waylay those whom it eludes. This acclaimed American classic tells of their anxieties and hopes, their loves and losses, and the ephemeral glory of the fight.

Review:

'A classic story about pugilists and poverty in 1950s California hits hard nearly five decades on' -- Nicholas Lezard, Guardian

'A terrific read' -- Irish Times

'Not a single word is wasted and Gardner here paints a very visceral picture of the despair but also the hope they just might make it out... It's a stunner' --RTÉ Arena

'Tremendous' -- Geoff Dyer

'A brass-knuckled sucker punch of a novel' -- Paris Review

'Fat City, Leonard Gardner's pitch-perfect account of boxing, blue-collar bewilderment and the battle of the sexes, is cause for celebration, and reflection' -- San Francisco Chronicle

'A slim, taut book that has earned its status as a classic' -- Slate

'Gardner has got it exactly right... but he has done more than just get it down, he has made it a metaphor for the joyless in heart' -- Joan Didion

'Gardner has laid claim to a locale that others have explored, but seldom with such accuracy and control... in a tone that is both detached and lyrical. The triumph of the book is its action. Running, fighting, loving, weeding, harvesting, these men stay in motion in order not to be doomed. So powerfully does Gardner record their actions that we recall their lives, not their defeats' -- New York Times Book Review

'Really a superior performance' -- Newsweek

'I wanted to write a book like that' -- Denis Johnson

'I have seldom read a novel as beautiful and individual as this one' -- Ross MacDonald

'Leonard Gardner wrote Fat City as a moody elegy to the wayward dreamers who fight i tank-town arenas, then retreat to flophouses and shotgun weddings, day labor and rotgut drinking binges' --Los Angeles Times

About the Author:

Leonard Gardner was born in Stockton, California. His short stories and articles have appeared in The Paris Review, Esquire, Southwest Review and Brick, among other magazines. His screen adaptation of Fat City was made into a film by John Huston in 1972; he subsequently worked as a writer for independent film and television. For his work on the series NYPD Blue he twice received a Humanitas Prize (1997 and 1999) as well as a Peabody Award (1998). In 2008 he was the recipient of the A.J. Liebling Award, given by the Boxing Writers Association of America. A former Guggenheim Fellow, he lives in Northern California.

• Publisher: Pushkin Press
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1782272550
• ISBN 13: 9781782272557
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 208