Fat City

The third installment in writer Andrew Rihn's #HittingTheBooks series is Fat City by Leonard Gardner.

Ernie Munger, an up-and-coming boxer, and Billy Tully, a washed up veteran trying to hang on to his career, struggle through life in their own ways. Neither lives life; both seemingly exist in a dreary continuum. Their only agency comes in the form of self-sabotage. The fleeting moments of boxing triumph are quickly washed away by low-paying jobs, strained relationships, and low-rent living accommodations in Stockton, California. They are trapped in a perpetual rut.

Munger's career essentially begins when he out-spars a faded Tully. To save face, Tully vouches for Munger's talent. But the young prospect doesn't have Top Rank, Matchroom, the PBC, or Zuffa setting him up with patsies to pad his record. Trainer Ruben Luna gives his time and money to his fighters for nothing more than a dream at the big time. He's no power broker though, and puts Munger in fights that turn out to be losing propositions.

Both Tully and Munger begin to resent the women in their lives. Tully drinks to numb the pain, but his alcoholism only causes him more trouble. In many ways, boxing isn't much different; it provides a brief high, but in the end, it literally leaves Tully stranded in the desert at night.

After the Minnesota Vikings lost to the Miami Dolphins by a score of 24-7 in Super Bowl VIII, defensive end Carl Eller explained, "It seemed I could hear Scottish bagpipes in the distance, keeping time as they came after us, wave after wave, gaining ground so easily, they seemed to be floating in suspended animation. It was a weird surrealistic scene, as if we were on the sidelines watching our own struggle yet being powerless to do anything about it."

Munger, Tully, and Luna would have fit in well with the Purple People Eaters on that day. But instead of Jim Kiick, Larry Czonka, and Mercury Morris crashing down on them in waves, the main characters of Fat City faced something more existential.

The last book as part of this year's #HittingTheBooks is The Slip by Lucas Schaefer.