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April Recommendation: 'The Good Son - The Life of Ray 'Boom Boom' Mancini'
by Mark Kriegel
When Ray Leonard announced the first of his retirements in 1982, Ray 'Boom Boom' Mancini was thrust in to the spotlight as boxing's new cash cow and main young attraction, and Mark Kriegel does a pretty admirable job in telling how Mancini got to that position, and also how he fell away from it much, much sooner than was expected.
'The Good Son' is written in a very straight forward, matter of fact style. Kriegel isn't a particularly flamboyant wordsmith, but has the knack of getting key parts of the story across to the reader. Given that the first few chapters of the book centre around Lenny Mancini Sr - Ray's father who had been a Lightweight contender in the early 40’s before being drafted, badly injured while serving in France in WWII and missing out on the title shot which had appeared forthcoming as a result - in a fair bit of detail, it is a little surprising that none of Ray's fights have particularly long stanzas dedicated to them. In terms of what happened inside the ring in Mancini's career, 'The Good Son' really just gives you a decent once-over.
Instead, it's the mindset, youthful exuberance and pressure carried by Ray on his shoulders which takes up most of the pages. His burning desire for
his father to see him one day lift the world Lightweight title so that he could experience being a champion vicariously, his initial naivety towards the shady side of the business (which understandably erodes as the story wears on) and the expectation heaped upon him by the people of his home city of Youngstown, Ohio who'd had little to cheer about in the wake of organised crime and chronic unemployment casting a shadow over the city in previous years.
Kriegel seems to be making a point of never getting too bogged down on any one particular subject in Mancini's career or life for too long, even the shocking death of his older brother Lenny Jr or his tragic 14th-round TKO win over Duk Koo Kim, which saw the Korean lose his life shortly after. Instead, Krigel keeps the landscape of the book changing, and one thing he does well is intertwine Ray's own tale with those of the men and women around him. For everyone central to Ray's story - his trainer, his manager, his cut man, his promoters, his family members etc - there's a series of other mini-stories about them, spread randomly throughout the book.
Personally, while Krigel's style might be a bit simplistic and profane for some (every now and then you'll find the odd swear word thrown in there for no apparent reason, for instance), I thought it allowed the book to flow nicely, with the odd quirky use of profanity here and there giving me the odd little wake-up call so to speak and reminding me that in a book like this, there's always something coming up which will surprise you.
Kriegel lets his guard down a little as the book nears its end, and predictably the closing stages feature on Mancini, many years later, being introduced with Duk Koo Kim's son, Jiwan, who was still a few months shy of being born when tragedy struck. It doesn't quite escalate to gushy or particularly moving, but there is a nice sense of redemption and forgiveness about it.
I guess one of the main objectives of any books has to be to teach whoever's reading it a few new things about its protagonist and their environment, and 'The Good Son' doesn't disappoint in that respect, not least with some of the little details it gives out on the back room running of the sport in Mancini's time;
Not a particularly long or complex book, 'The Good Son' might be deemed a little bit simplistic (or maybe even lowbrow) by some, but personally I think as far as relatively light literary entertainment goes, it's an impressive enough piece of work. While a little low on pugilistic action, it's an excellent character portrait of a man who found fame and additional pressures at a very tender age and I'd recommend it to anyone whose interest in the sport covers the era that Mancini boxed in.