Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #149446 in Books
• Published on: 1999-12-10
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
You'd think there wouldn't be much left to say about a living icon like Muhammad Ali, yet David Remnick imbues King of the World with all the freshness and vitality this legendary fighter displayed in his prime. Beginning with the pre-Ali days of boxing and its two archetypes, Floyd Patterson (the good black heavyweight) and Sonny Liston (the bad black heavyweight), Remnick deftly sets the stage for the emergence of a heavyweight champion the likes of which the world had never seen: a three-dimensional, Technicolor showman, fighter and minister of Islam, a man who talked almost as well as he fought. But mostly Remnick's portrait is of a man who could not be confined to any existing stereotypes, inside the ring or out.

In extraordinary detail, Remnick depicts Ali as a creation of his own imagination as we follow the wilful and mercurial young Cassius Clay from his boyhood and watch him hone and shape himself to a figure who would eventually command centre stage in one of the most volatile decades in our history. To Remnick it seems clear that Ali's greatest accomplishment is to prove beyond a doubt that not only is it possible to challenge the implacable forces of the establishment (the noir-ish, gangster-ridden fight game and the ethos of a whole country) but, with the right combination of conviction and talent, to triumph over these forces. --Fred Haefele

Amazon.co.uk Review
You'd think there wouldn't be much left to say about a living icon like Muhammad Ali, yet David Remnick imbues King of the World with all the freshness and vitality this legendary fighter displayed in his prime. Beginning with the pre-Ali days of boxing and its two archetypes, Floyd Patterson (the good black heavyweight) and Sonny Liston (the bad black heavyweight), Remnick deftly sets the stage for the emergence of a heavyweight champion the likes of which the world had never seen: a three- dimensional, Technicolor showman, fighter and minister of Islam, a man who talked almost as well as he fought. But mostly Remnick's portrait is of a man who could not be confined to any existing stereotypes, inside the ring or out.

In extraordinary detail, Remnick depicts Ali as a creation of his own imagination as we follow the willful and mercurial young Cassius Clay from his boyhood and watch him hone and shape himself to a figure who would eventually command centre stage in one of the most volatile decades in our history. To Remnick it seems clear that Ali's greatest accomplishment is to prove beyond a doubt that not only is it possible to challenge the implacable forces of the establishment (the noir-ish, gangster-ridden fight game and the ethos of a whole country) but, with the right combination of conviction and talent, to triumph over these forces. --Fred Haefele, Amazon.com

Synopsis
This evocation of the heavyweight champion and 20th-century icon concentrates on Muhammad Ali's early career, when he was still fighting as Cassius Clay. It begins with the fight between Floyd Patterson and Sonny Liston in 1962 and goes through to 1967 when Ali refused the Vietnam draft.

Customer Reviews

Remnick delivers knock out story
As a young boy Ali was my first hero. I can vividly remember all the hype before the first Liston fight and seeing the legendary 'Tale of the Tape' section in my local paper, and then watching the fight highlights on tv the next evening. Liston was superbad, the bookies didn't give Ali a chance, the rest is history. I've read just about everything ever written in book form about Ali, and this book is at the top of the pile. The book is more than a story of a boxer and a few of his most famous fights. It's about race, injustice and bigotry. It's also about boxing, and has great insights into what kind of people Liston and Patterson were. We will never see another like Ali, there is not a boxer in this world who is fit to lace his elegant white boots. I can only hope that Remnick goes the whole hog and does another book on Ali. Ali is probably the most famous and recognisable person alive in the world today. One would think that everything that could be has been written about Ali in the past, but Remnick has gone way beyond round 15 and conjured up another victory in the fight for justice in life, race and understanding why men go into the ring and risk everything just to be King of the World.

A Fresh Look on a Legend
What more could be written about this man? everyone thinks they must know all bout Ali but after finishing this book in record time I now appreciate Muhammad Ali even more so. We are led through the different ages of boxing from the mob-controlled years through to the age where boxers took more control of their own purse and destiny. The similarities between him and Jack Johnson. Liston's life being mirrored in Tyson's. His battle with the draft board against being sent to Vietnam at a time when the voice of The People was being heard for the first time.

A magnificent piece of work that puts into the shade all of the other biogs I have ever read.

Superb
I did not believe that Thomas hauser's famous effort could have been beaten, but by concentrating on a relatively brief period this wonderful biography captures both the remarkable spirit and personality of this great fighter as well as capturing the essence of the early sixties which were such a pivotal period Superbly written, intelligent and unputdownable