The Upward Blue Curve (This Bloody Mary is the Last Thing I Own - Jonathan Rendall)

Member Name: Jake Speed

Product:	This Bloody Mary is the Last Thing I Own - Jonathan Rendall
Date:	30/07/08 (274 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: An interesting look inside the boxing world

Disadvantages: Not for those with zero interest in boxing

'This Bloody Mary Is The Last Thing I Own' was first published in 1997 and written by Jonathan Rendall. It's a little known book that I'd never heard of until I picked it up in a second hand bookshop and charts Rendall's adventures in the world of boxing as both a journalist and advisor to former WBO featherweight champion Colin 'Sweet C' McMillan. The book is billed as Rendall's exit from a sport dying in an explosion of dollars and populated by high-rollers, lowlifes, and fascinating characters and personalities.

This is a fairly short book and my copy runs to 186 pages. It's decently written and always interesting but nothing great. There have been far better boxing books written in this vein in recent years but Rendall has a reasonably interesting story to tell and does it quite well.

The book begins with a slightly pretentious prologue in Las Vegas, a city where the author will return later in the book. He's been to the Oliver McCall v Larry Holmes fight and is being asked to part with $200 by an unattractive prostitute (that he has no interest in) in a bar. The scene is a metaphor for the faded glamour of boxing, the underbelly of the glitz:

"The colours of the Sahara lounge merged, but it was ebbing away, they were ebbing away, curled devious lips casually talking, and the fighters, next Sugars, new Sugars..."

We quickly move onto a potted history of Rendall's background, family, his going to Oxford University and doing a bit of boxing, going to the Bruno v Witherspoon fight and getting the boxing bug etc, and this reader was stifling yawns as he manfully blustered on hoping that the entire book wasn't going to be about Mr Rendall, who, I must admit, I wasn't that familiar with before buying this book. Thankfully though, This Bloody Mary Is The Last Thing I Own becomes a lot more readable.

Rendall's story becomes a lot more interesting when he introduces Jackie 'Kid' Berg. Berg was one of the greatest British boxers of all time and in the twenties and thirties conquered America with his all action style and became known as 'The Whitechapel Windmill'. Rendall is trying to locate one of Berg's most famous opponents 'Kid Chocolate' for an article in Ring magazine. He ends up meeting Berg, now a very spry and energetic pensioner, and begins hanging around with him at fights. They even go back to Harlem together where Berg remembers the nightclubs from the roaring twenties. Berg is slightly bewildered by the passage of time and change and can't quite grasp the concept that all these things happened sixty odd years ago. It's very interesting though to read more about Berg's career and life and gain some sort of insight to him while he was still alive.

Rendall helps Berg bring out an autobiography and it makes you ponder on the fact that a giant of his day like Jackie 'Kid' Berg was pratically ignored by Britain for most of his life while they now hand out gongs to mediocre sportsman like Paul Collingwood and pudgy footballers are millionaires with autobiographies in their early twenties.

Rendall also travels to Cuba to look for Kid Chocolate and the results are very interesting and very sad.

The main story in the book is of course Rendall's time with boxer Colin McMillan. McMillan is a skilled but light-hitting boxer who no one is interested in signing. Rendall ends up running McMillan's career himself after taking a liking to the boxer and, along with McMillan's eccentric trainer Howard, they form an unlikely team that is soon attracting attention. It's a fascinating glimpse inside the world of a fighter.

McMillan still works for British Telecom when they meet and sits in an office all day dreaming of escape and being Sugar Ray Leonard. He's articulate and not your stereotypical boxing personality and his artistic style in the ring reflects this. The ups and downs, laughs, heartbreaks and day to day life working with a boxer are well handled by Rendall. He writes about trendy writers like Zoe Heller turning up asking to interview Colin when he gains more and more publicity and seems to be the 'British Sugar Ray' and then how they all vanish when things don't go according to plan. There is a bit where McMillan dislocates his shoulder in a bout and sits in a hospital corridor for hours because the staff are snotty about treating boxers . The author writes about the 'upward blue curve' and how you can tell when you've fallen from it.

What else do you get in this book? More adventures in Las Vegas, a sobering account of Jim McDonnell's near tragic last fight and battle to regain his boxing licence. There is a slightly chilling incident where Rendall is at a nightclub function and everybody is sort of taken hostage by a group of bouncers who want their money with the diminutive streetsmart and connected Frank Maloney their only hope of rescue.

There is also a nice vignette where the author is in Paris to meet Angelo Dundee, the legendary trainer of Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard, who he wants to work with Colin. Dundee is training Michael Nunn, the (then) world middleweight champion, to defend his title agaisnt the faded former welterweight great Donald 'Cobra' Curry. The author finds himself more drawn to Curry and ends up having a poignant chat with the 'Cobra'. "You know, " says a tired Curry. "The thing with boxing is I never wanted to turn pro. I wanted to go to college. You know how they get you? It's the things they give you. When they want you to turn pro they give you a car. Then an allowance. I never wanted to be a pro." This is one of the best passages in the book and provides a moving contrast between two boxers heading in opposite directions.

The book also ends well with an interesting epilogue based around the comeback of Herol 'Bomber' Graham. It's nicely done and you'll find out why the artful Graham was called 'Bomber' despite the nickname not seeming to suit him.

This Bloody Mary Is The Last Thing I Own is not the best boxing book out there but it is an interesting little oddity with some nice sections that will be of interest to boxing fans. It's fun to read about Jackie 'Kid' Berg and get the inside story on Colin McMillan from a man who was there. McMillan and the author were also there the night Frank Warren was shot too and a chapter called The Hooded Man is very interesting and about this incident.

The book only really tested my patience when the author veered away from boxing and talked about himself, such as a Las Vegas section where he writes about having some sort of nervous breakdown or something.

Overall though, I'd recommend this book, but it goes without saying, it's really for those interested in boxing.

Summary: Interesting