by Jack Johnson
The autobiography of boxing great Jack Johnson. The man had a
fascinating life – marrying four women, two white; opening a cabaret
that allowed both blacks and whites; escaping prison through a clever
ruse; traveling the globe engaging in various business and athletic
exploits; spying for the U.S. government; going back to prison willingly
– and so on, all in the early 1900s. His book (and I don't see why he
couldn't have written the bulk himself) is very repetitive, patchy,
insufficiently explanatory in places, and jumps around chronologically
so as to be very confusing. However, it's still readable, and I did
enjoy it. There's one section that deals with moderation in diet, the
role of "the new woman" and how she should stay home, and the decline of
the world due to cabarets and jazz music; this section I cannot believe
Johnson wrote as he lead a very strenuous life himself, was hardly
temperate, took his wives everywhere with him, and was in fact a jazz
musician and cabaret owner. Other than that passage, the book was
interesting throughout, and had a touching epilogue by his last wife
attesting to his gentleness with women. Now, of course, I have to read a
biography of him, to find out what of what Johnson wrote were lies...
three stars
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