jdvough 's review for:

Rope Burns by F.X. Toole

5.0

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I don't like boxing. I'm not drawn to stories about boxing. I thought the Rocky movies were just okay. Not that I am against boxing or anything. It's just not my thing. But I do like lists. And one of my reading lists is to catch up on the books that Oscar-winning Best Pictures are based on. I saw Million Dollar Baby at the time it was released and remember thinking it was a good movie, but still not one I would have chosen if it hadn't won the award. This book has the story that the movie was based on, and the story is so much better than I remember the movie being. That and the other stories in the book are far more about human drama than boxing. The writing put me in a place that I could appreciate the characters and the story, and even though it's a crucial part of each tale, the boxing somehow ends up not being what the stories were really about. I enjoyed this book a lot more than I expected, but I still probably won't be looking for more boxing books or movies.