Best Sonny Liston Book?

"Night Train" by Nick Tosches is the only one I have read, it's okay.

 

I didn't like Nick Tosches' style, myself. Seemed like, in his mind, he was the star of the show not his subject. Too much going on stylistically.

Anyway @Charles White - Two good reads I have found are Bob Mee's Liston and Ali: The Ugly Bear and the Boy Who Would Be King and David Remnick's King of the World.

Both are more about Ali than Liston but have plenty of information on Sonny's early life, delinquency in St Louis and mob connections. There's a picture of a rural dirt road, shack and swamp in Mee's book with the caption 'To know this and only this' as in, had Sonny not fled Arkansas, that patch of land would have been all he'd ever known. It really brought home how crap life was for rural people, not just blacks but I fear they would have had it even harder, in the deep south.

Remnick is sympathetic to Sonny, He describes a friend buying Sonny a chicken dinner when he left prison and Sonny not knowing what to do with it. There's also a great chapter on the Kefauver hearings where Remnick is very scathing towards the attitudes of the senators, their being agog that a black boy born into poverty couldn't read. One of them asks Sonny how many children his father had and upon hearing it was 25 said 'Well, your pa was quite a champion.' Remnick comments how the senators had a good laugh at that.

As I was looking up the name of the enquiry, I came across this. Might be worth a look out for. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8611746/?ref_=tt_ch

 

Most Liston books are kind of kitschy. The 60s. Vegas. Mobsters. Casinos. But they can be quick, fun reads.

'The Devil and Sonny Liston' by Nick Tosches is a quick read. Same with 'The Murder of Sonny Liston: Las Vegas, Heroin and the Heavyweights' by Shaun Assael.

'King of the World' by David Remnick is a less glitzy and more grounded book about the series of fights between Patterson, Liston and Ali from 1962 to 1965 when basically they were the only people to fight for the title for four years.

They're all fine and basically tell the same story in different ways. Some have more gossip in them than others. Some are more colorful. But you can read them all and get a well-rounded picture.

 

I always felt bad for ragging on Tosches (including his other books). It gives me some relief to discover I'm not the only one disappointed in his work. He takes great subjects (Liston, Jerry Lee Lewis) and delivers sub par material overly clouded by his own personality.

 

Read McCarthy's Suttree again over Xmas,still holds up S.

 

Totally with you .. thumbs up !

 

As being mentioned, King of the world, has quite a bit about Sonny. It's a good book all round I thought.

 

I don't recommend the Tosches book. I've read two of his books (subjects Liston and Jerry Lee Lewis) and wish I hadn't. Christ, is that guy self-regarding or what? Recently bought Shaun Assael's book about Liston. Will read it before end of May, after I get through rereading Lonesome Dove. Happy to send you the Assael book when I'm done - provided you live in UK.

 

Will do. Meanwhile there are quite a few customer reviews of it on Amazon, most of them favourable. Will read them after I read the book. BEST, D. (There is a sharp upload on youtube of Liston's rematch with C Williams. Have a look, if you haven't already. Williams is even more built than Norton and Weaver - and Liston was formidable in every department that night.)

 

Agree with you re Tosches. Read his book about J L Lewis, disliked it, and STILL bought his book about Liston. So much for 'once bitten, twice shy'. Tosches was sacked from Rolling Stone for reviewing a Black Sabbath album he hadn't actually listened to. Not a hanging offence, perhaps, but not exactly a story to inspire confidence in Tosches, either...

 

Like this one. Makes me feel sorry for Sonny.

 

...finally got round to reading it, Charles. Don't recommend paying full price for it. Too speculative for my liking. Still better than the Tosches book, though. Best, D.