"Pound for Pound"

One of Esquire's "Six Most Remarkable Things in Culture This Month" is Pound for Pound, a novel by F. X. Toole. The magazine's favorite jab from the novel:

"Cooley felt something give in his ribs, wasn't sure if it was a separation or a break. Garza came back with another left to the ribs, and Cooley felt something crack on his right side, sensed it in his spine, gagged, had to fight off shock like it was another opponent. Cut flesh doesn't hurt like broken bone. Stab and horn wounds cause delayed hurt, but broken bones are quick as a bumblebee bite."

—From the posthumously published boxing novel Pound for Pound, by F. X. Toole, author of Million Dollar Baby

Learn more about Pound for Pound here. Click here to read an excerpt.

David Abrams has a thorough appreciation of the novel and its author in January magazine: click here to read it.

A few of the other august August cultural finds in Esquire involve books. Click here to check them out.

--Marshal Zeringue