Among the legendary athletes of the 1920s, the unquestioned halcyon days of sports, stands Gene Tunney, the boxer who upset Jack Dempsey in spectacular fashion, notched a 77—1 record as a prizefighter, and later avenged his sole setback (to a fearless and highly unorthodox fighter named Harry Greb). Yet within a few years of retiring from the ring, Tunney willingly receded into the background, renouncing the image of jock celebrity that became the stock in trade of so many of his contemporaries. To this day, Gene Tunney’s name is most often recognized only in conjunction with his epic “long count” second bout with Dempsey.
In Tunney , the veteran journalist and author Jack Cavanaugh gives an account of the incomparable sporting milieu of the Roaring Twenties, centered around Gene Tunney and Jack Dempsey, the gladiators whose two titanic clashes transfixed a nation. Cavanaugh traces Tunney’s life and career, taking us from the mean streets of Tunney’s native Greenwich Village to the Greenwich, Connecticut, home of his only love, the heiress Polly Lauder; from Parris Island to Yale University; from Tunney learning fisticuffs as a skinny kid at the knee of his longshoreman father to his reign atop boxing’s glamorous heavyweight division.
Gene Tunney defied easy categorization, as a fighter and as a person. He was a sex symbol, a master of defensive boxing strategy, and the possessor of a powerful, and occasionally showy, intellect–qualities that prompted the great sportswriters of the golden age of sports to portray Tunney as “aloof.” This intelligence would later serve him well in the corporate world, as CEO of several major companies and as a patron of the arts. And while the public craved reports of bad blood between Tunney and Dempsey, the pair were, in reality, respectful ring adversaries who in retirement grew to share a sincere lifelong friendship–with Dempsey even stumping for Tunney’s son, John, during the younger Tunney’s successful run for Congress.
Tunney offers a unique perspective on sports, celebrity, and popular culture in the 1920s. But more than an exciting and insightful real-life tale, replete with heads of state, irrepressible showmen, mobsters, Hollywood luminaries, and the cream of New York society, Tunney is an irresistible story of an American underdog who forever changed the way fans look at their heroes.
From the Hardcover edition.
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说实话,一开始我被它相对晦涩的开篇劝退了一点点,感觉像是直接被扔进了一条奔腾的河流中央,水流太急,让人有些招架不住。但如果能坚持度过最初的几页适应期,你会发现下面涌动的是何等丰沛的情感和深刻的哲思。这本书的语言风格变化多端,时而冷静得如同科学报告,时而又热烈得像一首挽歌,这种风格上的强烈反差,恰恰反映了书中人物所经历的精神分裂状态。它探讨了记忆的不可靠性以及时间如何重塑我们的身份认同,这不仅仅是小说层面的探讨,更像是对存在主义哲学的一次艺术性呈现。我很少看到一部作品敢于如此直白地撕开社会光鲜亮丽的外衣,去直视那些被主流叙事系统有意无意忽略的阴影和痛楚。它没有试图让你感到舒适,恰恰相反,它要求你直面不安,并在不安中寻求一种更清醒的认知。读完后,我花了很长时间才从那种被重塑的认知中抽离出来。
评分这本小说情节跌宕起伏,我几乎是屏住呼吸读完的。作者对人物心理的刻画入木三分,每一个决定和挣扎都显得那么真实可信。尤其是主角在面对巨大困境时的那种坚韧与自我怀疑之间的拉扯,简直让人感同身受。书中对那个特定时代背景下社会风气的描绘也极为细致,仿佛能闻到空气中特有的尘土和旧家具的味道。虽然故事的走向常常出乎我的意料,但细想之下,所有的伏笔和铺垫都恰到好处,绝非故弄玄虚。我尤其欣赏作者在叙事节奏上的把控,高潮部分紧张到让人心跳加速,而那些平静的段落则像是一片宁静的湖泊,让读者得以喘息,并反思前面发生的一切。读完合上书本时,我有一种强烈的失落感,仿佛刚刚告别了一群认识了很久的老朋友。它不仅仅是一个故事,更像是一次深刻的人生体验,让我对人性的复杂性有了更深一层的理解。这本书绝对值得反复阅读,每一次重读都会有新的感悟,关于那些隐藏在字里行间未曾察觉的细节。
评分这本书的结构设计简直是鬼斧神工,简直是文学工程学的杰作。它采用了多线叙事,不同时间线、不同叙事视角的碎片信息,起初看起来像是杂乱无章,但随着阅读的深入,这些线索像被一只无形的手巧妙地编织在一起,最终在预设的关键节点上汇合成一股强大的洪流,那种豁然开朗的震撼感,是很多平庸之作无法给予的。我特别关注了作者是如何处理环境描写的——那不是简单的背景板,而是拥有生命力的角色。无论是阴郁的都市角落,还是阳光明媚却暗藏危机的郊外小镇,场景本身都在与人物的内心世界产生共鸣甚至对立。我注意到,作者对细节的把控达到了近乎偏执的程度,比如对某种特定年代服饰的材质描述,对某种地方方言的运用都极为考究,这极大地增强了故事的沉浸感和真实感。对于那些喜欢解谜和结构分析的读者来说,这本书简直是一场盛宴,值得仔细拆解每一个章节的布局。
评分这部作品的魅力在于其返璞归真的叙事力量,它仿佛回到了那个纯粹依靠口述历史和细腻观察来构建故事的时代。作者的笔触极为克制,极少使用华丽的辞藻去渲染情绪,而是通过一系列精确、冷静的事件陈述,让情绪自然而然地渗透出来,这种“少即是多”的叙事哲学运用得炉火纯青。我印象最深的是那些非语言的交流:一个眼神,一次沉默的对视,一个不经意的肢体语言,都被赋予了比千言万语更深刻的意义。书中那些关于社区关系、邻里守望的描写,细腻到让人想起自己童年时那些模糊却温暖的记忆片段。它没有惊天动地的阴谋,没有狗血的爱情纠葛,有的只是生活本身,是人们在琐碎日常中如何维持尊严和希望的艰难过程。这种对“平凡”的史诗般呈现,反而具有了最持久的感染力,它提醒我们,伟大的故事往往就潜藏在我们最不经意的生活缝隙之中。
评分坦白说,我对这种宏大叙事的作品一向抱持着审慎的态度,总担心会陷入空洞的口号和刻板的群像描写之中,然而,这本书完全打破了我的成见。它没有试图用宏伟的语言去概括一切,而是选择了从一个极其微小、甚至有些卑微的视角切入,然后像剥洋葱一样,层层递进地揭示出整个社会结构是如何运作,又是如何影响到每一个普通人的命运。文字风格上,它带着一种古典的韵味,句式结构复杂却流畅自如,大量的比喻和象征手法使得原本严肃的主题变得极富诗意。我必须承认,初期阅读时需要集中十二分的精力来跟上作者的思路,但一旦沉浸进去,那种被智力挑战和美学享受双重满足的感觉是无与伦比的。最让我称道的是,它成功地探讨了“何为正义”这一古老命题,没有给出简单的是非答案,而是留给读者一个充满思辨空间的开放式结局。这是一部需要用脑去读,更需要用心去体会的作品。
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