To Swallow a Toad
New York: Donald I. Fine Inc., 1987. 1st Edition. Hardcover. 8vo. Fine / Fine. Item #007218
Orig. tan cloth. 201 pp. Slight age toning to rear of dust jacket, else fine. For Pete Watt, an eighteen-year-old whose home life is a domestic battleground, boxing is a kind of exorcism - a chance to purge the demons that prick the soul. His fear about not being able to cut it just makes him fight harder. It makes him fight with an animalistic intensity that brings him finally - after five gruelling, heartstopping qualifying bouts - to the finals of the New York Golden Gloves Championships. It is there, under the blinding lights of Madison Square Garden, in front of tens of thousands of spectators, with nothing to shield his ego except his fists, that Pete finally conquers is own deepst fear, coming to understand for the first time what truly constitutes the measure of a man. A riveting mix of thrill-packed fight scenes and poignantly rendered psychological drama that will pick the reader up and hurtle him to a gut-wrenching finish.
Price: $28.00