From Publishers Weekly
In a mixed effort, Toronto-based Jones chronicles a year of professional fights and learning the ropes as a neophyte ringside newspaper reporter for the newly formed National Post. In what is always a dicey move, he places himself squarely in the focus of his story. Rather than yielding interesting results, the exercise becomes a distraction that strays into a nuisance. Covering his first fight, Jones quotes a promoter saying that no matter what happens, the event will make his boxer "a bigger player." Jones adds, "Yes, I agree. Me too." Add to this photos of Jones's press credentials at the beginnings of chapters, a prevalent sense of awe at actually being a boxing writer and even a scene where Jones scolds Eddie Murphy for interrupting him and the self-absorption becomes tiresome. Jones's strength lies in his reporting skills, and he uses them aptly to paint vivid character portraits of the boxers, giving readers a vested interest in his descriptions of their bouts. But those descriptions themselves often lack solidity, as if Jones is still feeling the pinch of column inches instead of using the opportunity of a book to explore and elaborate. He writes, "The action is desperate. Both fighters consent to furious exchanges. Lefts and rights batter heads and bellies." At other times, the writing is much more effective, particularly when Jones ruminates on his first trip to Las Vegas and the sorry decline of Mike Tyson. Despite its flaws, the book offers enough flourishes of this kind and behind-the-scenes details to entice a fan of the sport to go the distance. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Having fallen into an unplanned career in journalism with the newly created Toronto National Post and then been placed in the sports department, Jones decided to hitch his young star to boxing and ride it to his destiny. Not unlike a legion of boxers who "coulda been contendahs," in his year covering the sport he discovered that while it has the ability to enthrall, even to uplift, it has a more than equal capacity to bring down, to break dreams and lives. Jones discovered in that short time that not only doesn't the good guy always win but often the right guy doesn't even win when judges' decisions are involved. Unlike many a boxer who hangs on for one fight too many, he left the boxing beat after a memorable year that included encounters with, in addition to some famous champions and promoters, the man who found part of Evander Holyfield's ear. This is not intended to be an expos of the sport, just a very personal and often entertaining account of boxing's power to seduce and betray. Recommended for all medium to large public libraries. Jim Burns, Jacksonville P.L., FL Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
*Starred Review* In 1998, Jones was about to receive a degree in urban planning when he landed a gig as a boxing writer for Canada's National Post. After immersing himself in the literature of the sport, Jones set out to follow in the footsteps of Liebling, Cannon, Mailer, and the other great boxing writers. As this account of his first year on the beat attests, however, Jones quickly found that boxing wasn't what he imagined it to be, nor was the sport going to provide a fast track to fame. He learns, as have so many others who write about the so-called sweet science, that for every act of shimmering grace and leonine courage in the ring, there are a dozen cynical double-crosses and a score of self-serving jackals lurking in the sport's smoky back rooms. Jones is fearless, though. He asks Don King, boxing's Darth Vader, if he paid off a judge to win a fight for his boxer. He finds himself in reach of Mike Tyson--a definite danger zone--and circling a post-fight dispute between Lennox Lewis and Evander Holyfield. He covers a tragedy in progress as former heavyweight champion Trevor Berbick bumbles his way ever deeper into boxing dementia. This is an extraordinary, very personal journey through a world that continues to both fascinate and repel the sporting public. The Jones who survives the journey is a very different person from the naive young man who embarked on it. Falling Hard ranks with Jonathan Rendall's This Bloody Mary Is the Last Thing I Own (1998) as one of the great boxing journals. Wes Lukowsky
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Book Description
Rookie reporter Chris Jones had no idea what he was getting himself into when he decided boxing would be his sports beat. In his first year ringside, the sport crept inside him, setting his heart pumping one minute and breaking it the next, making him stare at the violence-in himself and others-and daring him not to flinch. Jones gets dressed down by Don King, interviews the troubled guy who found Holyfield's ear, crashes Ali's birthday party, and watches Prince Naseem explode while Tyson implodes. Equal parts victory and defeat, FALLING HARD is an intoxicating mix of boxing distilled to its essence.
About the Author
Chris Jones has been a sports writer since 1998 and has won the Edward Goff Penny Memorial Prize for outstanding young journalists. He lives in Toronto.
Falling Hard: A Rookie's Year in Boxing FROM THE PUBLISHER
Rookie reporter Chris Jones had no idea what he was getting himself into when he decided boxing would be his sports beat. In his first year ringside, the sport crept inside him, setting his heart pumping one minute and breaking it the next, making him stare at the violence-in himself and others-and daring him not to flinch. Jones gets dressed down by Don King, interviews the troubled guy who found Holyfield's ear, crashes Ali's birthday party, and watches Prince Naseem explode while Tyson implodes. Equal parts victory and defeat, FALLING HARD is an intoxicating mix of boxing distilled to its essence.
Author Biography: Chris Jones has been a sports writer since 1998 and has won the Edward Goff Penny Memorial Prize for outstanding young journalists. He lives in Toronto.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
In a mixed effort, Toronto-based Jones chronicles a year of professional fights and learning the ropes as a neophyte ringside newspaper reporter for the newly formed National Post. In what is always a dicey move, he places himself squarely in the focus of his story. Rather than yielding interesting results, the exercise becomes a distraction that strays into a nuisance. Covering his first fight, Jones quotes a promoter saying that no matter what happens, the event will make his boxer "a bigger player." Jones adds, "Yes, I agree. Me too." Add to this photos of Jones's press credentials at the beginnings of chapters, a prevalent sense of awe at actually being a boxing writer and even a scene where Jones scolds Eddie Murphy for interrupting him and the self-absorption becomes tiresome. Jones's strength lies in his reporting skills, and he uses them aptly to paint vivid character portraits of the boxers, giving readers a vested interest in his descriptions of their bouts. But those descriptions themselves often lack solidity, as if Jones is still feeling the pinch of column inches instead of using the opportunity of a book to explore and elaborate. He writes, "The action is desperate. Both fighters consent to furious exchanges. Lefts and rights batter heads and bellies." At other times, the writing is much more effective, particularly when Jones ruminates on his first trip to Las Vegas and the sorry decline of Mike Tyson. Despite its flaws, the book offers enough flourishes of this kind and behind-the-scenes details to entice a fan of the sport to go the distance. (May) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
Library Journal
Having fallen into an unplanned career in journalism with the newly created Toronto National Post and then been placed in the sports department, Jones decided to hitch his young star to boxing and ride it to his destiny. Not unlike a legion of boxers who "coulda been contendahs," in his year covering the sport he discovered that while it has the ability to enthrall, even to uplift, it has a more than equal capacity to bring down, to break dreams and lives. Jones discovered in that short time that not only doesn't the good guy always win but often the right guy doesn't even win when judges' decisions are involved. Unlike many a boxer who hangs on for one fight too many, he left the boxing beat after a memorable year that included encounters with, in addition to some famous champions and promoters, the man who found part of Evander Holyfield's ear. This is not intended to be an expos of the sport, just a very personal and often entertaining account of boxing's power to seduce and betray. Recommended for all medium to large public libraries. Jim Burns, Jacksonville P.L., FL Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
Entertaining if glib account of a neophyte journalist's year on the boxing circuit. Jones's prologue recounts how he started writing on a whim at age 25, covering boxing for a new Canadian newspaper, the National Post. Such insouciance informs this narrative; Jones adheres to the greenhorn's tactic of inserting himself unnecessarily into the action (as at Muhammad Ali's birthday reception: "He casts his wide eyes toward me. ﾽHappy birthday, champ,' I say. Even though he can't hear me, I'm sure he feels the reverence. My present to him"). Fortunately, Jones's prose moves crisply in this spare volume, and often registers clever or darkly amusing hits, as in his interpretation of boxing's corrupted priorities: "Break a man, that's good. Break a rule, that's bad. . . . [Mike Tyson] can fall as far as he likes, because his woe makes for stories that sing." Jones is at his best when examining the sport's many overlooked or over-the-hill contenders, like Trevor Berbick, a rough-hewn 48-year-old journeyman who seems washed up, yet knocks out Shane Sutcliffe in a brutal Canadian championship. Jones covers seven major fights during his year of boxing journalism, and detects an unsavory pattern in which soulful, dedicated athletes are doubly undermined, by the sport's physical toll and by the chicanery of promoters like Don King (whom Jones even questions, about whether he'd rigged the first of two contested Lennox Lewis-Evander Holyfield bouts). He's also attuned to the sport's uneasy multiracial future, represented by "Prince" Naseem Hamed, a grandstanding Yemeni-English featherweight who fights Mexico's Cesar Soto in a blasted Detroit, once a major boxing town, now dependent for an economicboost on this infrequent bout which turns "disappointing, brutish, and inelegant." Overall, Jones offers crisp portraits of contemporary boxing's noirish desperation (he even finds the fellow who recovered Holyfield's ear after Tyson's infamous chomp), but is too often preoccupied by the lesser personal dramas of a young reporter on the road. An astute if youthful take on a violent, timeworn subject.
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