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Smokin' Joe: The Life of Joe Frazier Audiobook
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A gripping, all-access biography of Joe Frazier, whose rivalry with Muhammad Ali riveted boxing fans and whose legacy as a figure in American sports and society endures.
History will remember the rivalry of Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali as one for the ages, a trilogy of extraordinary fights that transcended the world of sports and crossed into a sociocultural drama that divided the country.
Joe Frazier was a much more complex figure than just his rivalry with Ali would suggest. In this riveting and nuanced portrayal, acclaimed sports writer Mark Kram, Jr. unlinks Frazier from Ali and for the first time gives a full-bodied accounting of Frazier’s life, a journey that began as the youngest of thirteen children packed in small farm house, encountering the bigotry and oppression of the Jim Crow South, and continued with his voyage north at age fifteen to develop as a fighter in Philadelphia.
Tracing Frazier’s life through his momentous bouts with the likes of Ali and George Foreman and the developing perception of him as the anti-Ali in the eyes of blue-collar America, Kram follows the boxer through his retirement in 1981, exploring his relationship with his son, the would-be heavyweight Marvis, and his fragmented home life as well as the uneasy place that Ali continued to occupy in his thoughts.
A propulsive and richly textured narrative that is also a powerful story about race and class in America, Smokin' Joe is unparalleled in its scope, depth, and access and promises to be the definitive biography of a towering American figure whose life was galvanized by conflict and whose mark has proven lasting.
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“A spirited biography of the thunder-punching boxer…Kram pays appropriate homage to a fighter who, though lacking in finesse, dominated heavyweight boxing for nearly a decade. Bookish fans of the sweet science will flock to this biography.”
— Kirkus Reviews
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“Like Smokin’ Joe’s left hook, this book is a revelation, a powerhouse, a thing of beauty, and—OK, I’ll say it—a knockout.”
— Jonathan Eig, New York Times bestselling author -
“Gives this man of uncommon will and humanity his due.”
— Booklist
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About James Fouhey
James Dean’s art has been sold in more than ninety galleries and shops across the United States. He has devoted his paintings to Pete the Cat for ten years and has turned his natural love for cats into his life’s work. James published his first adult book, The Misadventures of Pete the Cat, a history of his artwork, in 2006. He illustrated his first self-published children’s book, Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes, in 2008, and the follow-up book, Pete the Cat: Rocking in My School Shoes, in 2011. James lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with his wife, four cats, and one dog.