Denis Johnson on "Fat City"

Adam remembers a Denis Johnson essay about a sleeper boxing novel.

Backlisted Pod has published an episode discussing the 1969 Leonard Gardner boxing novel, “Fat City.” I read that book about 20 years ago. I remember liking it enough that I might recommend it to someone — otherwise, it hasn’t stuck with me at all.

What I do remember is how I learned about the book: a short essay in which Denis Johnson raves about “Fat City.” Could any Johnson fan read these words and forget about the book?

The stories of Ernie Munger, a young fighter with frail but nevertheless burning hopes, and Billy Tully, an older pug with bad luck in and out of the ring, parallel one another through the book. Though the two men hardly meet, the tale blends the perspective on them until they seem to chart a single life of missteps and baffled love, Ernie its youth and Tully its future. I wanted to write a book like that.
My neighbor across the road, also a young literary hopeful, felt the same. We talked about every paragraph of "Fat City" one by one and over and over, the way couples sometimes reminisce about each moment of their falling in love. […]
When I was about 34 (the same age Gardner was when he published his), my first novel came out. About a year later I borrowed "Fat City" from the library and read it. I could see immediately that 10 years' exile hadn't saved me from the influence of its perfection -- I'd taught myself to write in Gardner's style, though not as well. And now, many years later, it's still true: Leonard Gardner has something to say in every word I write.

Do not take my word for it. That would be ridiculous. Take Johnson’s. He cites Gardner’s perfection as the influence for “Jesus’ Son.”

While reminiscing about “Fat City,” finding the Johnson essay, and preparing this post, I remembered something else: It has been given at least three stunning covers over the year.