One of her six favorite books, as told to The Week magazine:Fat City by Leonard GardnerRead about the other books on the list.
The most realistic account of boxing I've ever read. There is no televised bout or belt to be won, no such thing as the "one big fight." There is only a poster nailed to a whitewashed wall and a trainer so burned out on domestic life that, "when his children ran across the street without looking, he said nothing." To me, Fat City is a story about unending loss: what happens when the little things — splintered bones, damaged noses, swollen brows — add up.
Fat City is one of Markus Zusak's top ten boxing books.
Gerald Haslam nominated Fat City as the Great California Novel.
Raymer's Lay the Favorite is one of Matthew O'Brien's five notable books on Las Vegas.
--Marshal Zeringue