F.X. Toole

[Sagacious Lu]

Is anyone else a fan of F.X. Toole's writing? For those that don't know "Million Dollar Baby" was based on a collection of his short stories that was originally called "Rope Burns" but which has been renamed "Million Dollar Baby" since the movie. I thought the short stories were amazing, and now I'm about half way through his novel "Pound for Pound" which is so good I'm having trouble putting it down. Toole worked as a cut man for years so his writing always revolves around boxing and is full of the kind of vivid details that only an insider could supply.

[bdipab]

Rope Burns was a great book, he's definately a talented, if not completely polished writer (some small bits were trite, but overall every story was entertaining and worth rereading). I never knew he wrote a novel, thought he died around when rope burns was published. well now I something to pick up next time I'm at the bookstore.

[Sagacious Lu]

Originally Posted by bdipab

Rope Burns was a great book, he's definately a talented, if not completely polished writer (some small bits were trite, but overall every story was entertaining and worth rereading). I never knew he wrote a novel, thought he died around when rope burns was published. well now I something to pick up next time I'm at the bookstore.

He died with about 900 pages of manuscript that still needed the finishing touches. His family had it edited and published, and it's now down to 350 pages or so give or take. If you liked "Rope Burns" I don't think you'll be disappointed. It's just too bad that his career was cut short so soon after he found his writing style.

[bdipab]

well, he's had his "style" down for a while, wasn't he shopping around rope burns for a couple of decades before it was published. I figured he had to have written some stuff that wasn't published. I'm definately picking up "pound for pound."

[Sagacious Lu]

Originally Posted by bdipab

well, he's had his "style" down for a while, wasn't he shopping around rope burns for a couple of decades before it was published. I figured he had to have written some stuff that wasn't published. I'm definately picking up "pound for pound."

I sure hope he has more work that will be published post-humously but that isn't the impression I got from the "about the author" stuff I read.