Charles Farrell – författare

“Charles Farrell’s many personal encounters, questions, insights, andexperiences as an observer of the sport… add a multifaceted richness to [this]essay collection…. Readers will find its vibrant psychological, social,political, and personal revelations are just the ticket for a read that issolid in its facts, unexpected in its focus and connections, and thoroughlydelightful in its novel approach to boxing.”—Midwest Book ReviewMitch "Blood" Green hadmore things going for him to make big money in boxing than nearly any fighterin history. A six-foot-six, 225-pound heavyweight with a chiseled physique anda traffic-stopping look, Green had ironclad street credibility—he was the gang leaderof the Black Spades—and four New York Golden Gloves heavyweight titles.But his penchant formayhem, drugs, and chaos, while keeping him in the news, torpedoed his pro boxingcareer. He lost a high-profile decision to Mike Tyson at Madison Square Garden,got into a tabloid-grabbing late-night street fight with Tyson at anafter-hours boutique in Harlem, and then disappeared.Until Charles Farrellfound him.In The Legend of Mitch "Blood" Green and Other Boxing Essays, Farrell captures life in the boxingbusiness from its deepest interior, and offers additional portraits of charactersas wide-ranging as Donald Trump, Floyd Patterson, Bert Cooper, Charley Burley, PeterMcNeeley, and Muhammad Ali. Trenchant, fearless, and often flat-out funny, there has neverbeen a boxing book like this, and there will never be another.

“Unbelievably good... amazing scenes, heartbreaking scenes. The dialogue is so good in this book. I mean, people talk about the dialogue of Don DeLillo, how authentic it is… the dialogue in a book like this is better than the dialogue in Don DeLillo... Literary masterpieces in storytelling... Just fucking nailing it, again and again.”—Book Rants“With deadpan humor, whip-smart insights and some damn fine sentences, Charles Farrell has written a classic chronicle of life in the twilight world, on par with masters of the genre like Damon Runyon, Mezz Mezzrow, Nat Hentoff and Nick Pileggi. A truly great read.”—Debby Applegate, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher, and author of Madam: The Life of Polly Adler, Icon of the Jazz-AgeA world-class jazz pianist, Charles Farrell made his living working Mob clubs from the time he was a teenager in the 1960s. He later moved from music to the complex world of professional boxing, managing dozens of fighters, including former heavyweight champion Leon Spinks and former gang leader Mitch “Blood” Green, who famously went toe-to-toe with Mike Tyson—once in the ring and once in the street.A fight-fixer and gangster, Farrell ran afoul of New York mobsters in the 1990s and retreated to the mountains of Puerto Rico, coming home only after an infamous boxing legend brokered his safe return.Retired from the fight game, he returned to jazz and, among other collaborators, played frequently with his friend Ornette Coleman, the godfather of “Free Jazz” and one of the greatest musicians of the twentieth century.(Low)life is a singular book by a singular man.