King of the World

By: David Remnick

Narrated by: Dick Hill

Length: 6 hrs

Publisher's summary

There had been mythic sports figures before Cassius Clay, but when he burst upon the sports scene in the 1950s, he broke the mold. Those were the years when boxing and boxers were at the mercy of the mob and the whim of the sportswriters. If you wanted a shot at a title, you did it their way.

Young Clay did it his way - with little more than an Olympic gold medal to his credit, he danced into Sonny Liston's baleful view and provoked the terrifying champ into accepting him as his next challenger. The rest is history.

Muhammad Ali has become a mythic hero, an American icon, and a self-invented legend. As both a mirror and a molder of his times, Ali became the most recognizable face on the planet, a key figure in the cultural battles of the times. This is the story of his self-creation and his rise to glory, told by a master storyteller.

©1998 David Remnick (P)2012 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Look at young Cassius / Carry the Fight

"It's just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people up."
-- Muhammad Ali

Pre-Review Smack Talk:

I will review this sucker tomorrow. David Remnick better quake. I'm coming for this book. I read it from cover to cover. I know the words better than Remnick could hope to ever know it. Of course he wrote it, because the words ran from him. I know Remick's words better than his mamma knows him.

Tomorrow. Yes. I'll give this book till tomorrow. And then I'm coming. I'm coming with a pen. I'm coming with poetry. I'm coming with the majesty of Muhammad Ali. The G.O.A.T.. The Greatest. The man who fought a nation. The man who fought for a people. A pretty man. So pretty. He was a butterfly that Nabokov couldn't catch or pin. Tomorrow I will take on this book and take my piece in three rounds. But the Man and the book will have to wait for tomorrow. Tonight I've got a bed to contend with. And I'm the greatest sleeper of all time.


Weight in:

I read the hardback version of Remnick's book, which was 306 pages (326 with acknowledgement, sources, and index). My edition was a 4th printing, 1st Edition from 1998. I also had the Audible/audio version which I debated about listening to because it was abridged and I really hate abridged books (in any format). No. Hate is far too simple a word. I despise abridgments. I abhor them. I abase and disdain them. It is a lazy and cheap way to do an audio-recording and all you end up with is an ugly, deformed homunculus of the original. Go all the way or go home David.

I mean for GOD's sake Remnick. Why would you let people abridge the audio version? Your audio choice was just stupid. It was a 6-hour abridgment which usually translates into cutting 1/3 to 1/2 of this book. So, I ended up listening while I did work around the house and at points where it jumped, I'd rn over to the book and read the gaps. Seriously. I had to read the gaps because you couldn't pay for Dick Hill to read the whole thing or Brilliance Audio thought it was only going to sell if you cut it from 12 hours to 6? Stupid. Reckless. Chump. IT wasn't like this was some William T. Vollmann 3000+ word book on Violence. This was a 300 page book on Muhammad Ali. The Greatest. Do you not respect yourself or do you not resect Ali? Or did you just let the producers talk you down?

And yes Remnick, I know you are the editor of the New Yorker, but really man. Besides a nice bio of Obama and your Russia books, what have you done for me lately? Get out there and write something more. Or hell, don't write. Just stop cutting. Stop leaving the bloody body of your own work on the audio floor.

Round 1: Poem by Ali

Clay comes out to meet Liston
And Liston starts to retreat
If Liston goes back an inch farther
He'll end up in a ringside seat.
Clay swings with his left,
Clay swings with his right,
Look at young Cassius
Carry the fight.
Liston keeps backing
But there's not enough room
It's a matter of time
Till Clay lowers the boom.
Now Clay lands with a right,
What a beautiful swing,
And the punch raises the Bear
Clean out of the ring.
Liston is still rising
And the ref wears a frown,
For he can't start counting,
Till Sonny goes down.
Now Liston is disappearing from view.
The crowd is going frantic,
But radar stations have picked him up
Somewhere over the Atlantic.
Who would have thought
When they came to the fight?
That they'd witness the launching
Of a human satellite.
Yes the crowd did not dream
When they put up the money
That they would see
A total eclipse of the Sonny!
I am the greatest!

Round 2: The Greatest!

The book does a nice job of painting a broad picture of Muhammad Ali (and young Cassius Clay) while focusing primarily on the Liston - Clay fight that made him famous. It touches on a lot of the major points of Clay's life: Growing up in Kentucky, Finding Boxing, High School, the Olympics, The Louisville Syndicate, First Fights, the Liston Fight #1 (FL), the Liston Fight #2 (ME), the Nation of Islam, the Women of Ali (or the Pelvic Missionary) Malcolm X, the Vietnam War, Floyd Patterson, Later Years, Parkinson's Disease.

Some of these were new things, but many were just told well and told with details that were both surprising and intimate. I loved the whole early relationship between Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali. It is hard to walk away from this type of book without loving the subject a bit more, no matter where you started from.

Round 3: The Knock-out

The end of the book was sad and beautiful. Remnick talking with an Ali that is saddled with age and disease. The Man, however, is also at peace. Remnick does a good job of exploring not just the limits of boxing, but the largeness of man:

There is a beauty in it--there is terrible beauty in battle, too, particularly for the noncombatant--but if you meet enough former boxers, if you try to decipher their punch-drunk talk, you begin to wonder. What beauty is worth this?

Ali is an American myth who has come to mean many things to many people: a symbol of faith, a symbol of conviction and defiance, a symbol of beauty and skill and courage, a symbol of racial pride, of wit and love. Ali's physical condition is shocking not least because it is an accelerated form of what we all fear, the progression of aging , the unpredictability and danger of life. In Ali we see the frailty even of a man whose job it was to be the most fearsome figure on the globe.

Coda: RIP!

Asked how he would like to be remembered Muhammad Ali once remarked:

"I'll tell you how I'd like to be remembered: as a black man who won the heavyweight title and who was humorous and who treated everyone right. As a man who never looked down on those who looked up at him and who helped as many of his people as he could--financial and also in their fight for freedom, justice, and equality. As a man who wouldn't embarrass them. As a man who tried to unite his people through the faith of Islam that he found when he listened to the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. And if all that's asking too much, then I'd guess I'd settle for being remembered only as a great boxing champion who became a preacher and a champion of his people. And I wouldn't even mind if folks forgot how pretty I was."

Doesn’t follow book

I don’t know where the audible is reading from. It does not follow the book I have.

Not the whole book!

The Audible book begins at Chapter 5 of my copy of King if the World!

Why?

And the first 4 chapters are an excellent history of pre-Cassius boxing and boxers-

Ali, Liston and the Fight with Uncle Sam

I loved this short, abridged story of one of the greatest athletes and personalities of the 20th century.

The author covers Ali's youth, his conversion to boxing and Islam. The story really packed a knockout when it got to the fights with Liston, which made Ali the heavyweight champ and changed his life.

The second fight in Maine was particularly dramatic and the author made me feel like I was there.

The book also covers Ali's relationship with Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam, as well as his refusal to fight in Vietnam and his match against Floyd Patterson.

I wish Audible had an unabridged version and more Ali titles. All I found was a collection of essays.

Are we reading the same book?

This book does not match ! I’m sad to see as my son really wanted to hear this one!

Not the right book

I don't know where this guy is reading from, but it's definitely not from the book.

This is book is legendary like its subject!

Thank you Bomani Jones for introducing me to this masterpiece! I loved the narrator mispronouncing Dr. Pecheco's name throughout and doing terrible Ali impressions. Made this book even more engaging. I have listened to it 3 times already in one weekend. A true example of a timeless classic. Way to go Remnick!

Icon

The stories told of this one man will live on forever. He changed how me and so many other people of color looked at themselves. #GOAT

Be warned NOT THE WHOLE BOOK!

I bought the paperback to read along with the audiobook . The book has a great ! but very abridged audio. Be warned!

Why is this not disclosed and why is there not a full version? Many of the parts that are cut out add so much to the story. Very disappointing this is not 5 star audio for a 5 star book

ESPN Bomani Jones Summer reading club got me here

At this juncture we know all the Ali stories and this was a mostly fun listen to minus having to hear Dr. Fernie Pah-Chee-Koh said by an individual who thinks table salsa is an raging inferno.