By: Neil J. Smith
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“Your book—colossal power, sharp, spot-on writing. Issues of rape and fratricide are explored with the dialectical seriousness that echoes Old Testament and Dostoyevsky. You break through the ‘cool’ that infects our modern world and show the human soul in deepest wrestling with itself.”
— William Packard, late poet, editor, professor, playwright, and writer
On the Ropes is a book of strength, the fight for social justice, and the overcoming of all sorts of impediments. The writing is incisive and bold, heartfelt and piercing, and it speaks to the striving of the human being, no matter what or who the adversaries are. It has a great deal to teach us about prejudice, suffering, disappointments, prevailing, and conquering. On the Ropes is deeply personal but deals with grand human themes, especially here in a deeply divided America, rife with racism and injustice. The socio-political issues are addressed head-on. Poignant and powerful right to the last page -- and beyond
On the Ropes takes place in the heady times of the sixties, rife with racism, disregard for everyday humanity, and the endeavors of the Black Panther Party. Fortunately for the reader, Mr. Smith deftly balances the worst impulses of a man with deep, heartfelt love and honor. Reading On the Ropes is like stepping into another place and time - rough and lovely, and thought-provoking to the last page. A fine read.
This book is perfectly suited to the times we are in even though it is set in another era of high stress in American culture and politics. One implicit lesson is how little distance we have come since the 1960s, and how capitalism, racism, and American exceptionalism continue to conspire to protect and insulate the world of white privilege. The cover image of America [the Statue of Liberty] On The Ropes couldn't be more appropriate, though it also fairly represents the ups and downs of the protagonist's struggle to live his moral imperatives in a nitty-gritty world full of known and unknown dangers. But that's just context. The story that Neil Smith spins out here is gripping, authentic, comic, sweaty, sentimental, and full of the moral ambiguities that keep life from being a long parade of object lessons. While the book is long it is never ponderous and Smith succeeds in telling a tale full of twists and turns that carry the reader forward in repeated arcs of surprise and satisfaction. It opens a world of experience that typically doesn't find its way to the pages of books. Overlook the copy-editing errors and take a narrative journey that informs, challenges affects, and involves the reader and deposits him or her at the end with a sense of self-discovery. Hopefully, the cliffhanger ending means there are additional stories from Mr. Smith to anticipate.
An ex-boxer and an organizer for The Black Panthers, Neil J. Smith has written a gripping and informative portrait of the 1960s. A page-turner, his writing is extraordinary and beautifully crafted. Each paragraph is a tour de force of poetic and emotional description. He gets you right into the head of Percival, the boxer and main character. Then we jump to the death of Dr. King and the riots. We encounter Rufus, a Vietnam vet, and a plethora of characters, so authentic that we know that the author has been there. A poignant and timely novel, with great insight into a time the author knows well. The novel arrives at a crucial time for America and the history of Black Lives Matter.
A master storyteller. He captures the essence of each character and brings each one of them to life through the written page. A fascinating work that relives the sixties again for those who once lived them. This book is provocative, absorbing, and intelligent!
Your book evocatively surfaces the challenges of that time and the history of ‘black daring’ in the face of white supremacy and its use of state violence to suppress and kill. What a harrowing narrative with so much unexpected happening in these pages... it brings up so much in terms of my own memories of that time and of the perils we face today. It is also an incredible character study of Percival in particular and his own recognition about how the violent ugliness of American racism has turned him into something it would seem he didn’t want to be but had to in order to survive. There is much pain in these pages - an infant’s death, a mother’s suicide, panthers being locked up and/or killed by police, the arrival of the west coast folks, the eruption of protests and strategy meetings. The detail you provide is both incredible, giving insight into the torturous days of the panthers, and seemingly unique as I know of no other literary text that marks the spaces you reveal. What a book!
I have been lingering on the part in upstate New York near Saratoga. I found that Percival became a new character there. It was amazing how you took him, the characters he encountered, and the reader through a transition where nothing was what it seemed. They have so much in common, but it’s not obvious to them. I absolutely loved the conversation with Amelia, the family with Haitian parents, and Percival over dinner. I didn’t know what was going to come of it. You had so much patience keeping the conversation interesting and allowing the characters to reveal the motivation beyond their facades as well as their inner convictions in a conversation that placed each one of them into the hot seat. Sszzzizzle! Then come through the ordeal with more knowledge about him or herself as well as about the others and an expanded comfort in the group. And Lisette and her family being more approachable out in the country than might have been possible in the city. However, the hierarchy of the farm has to be overcome-so a death on the night of meeting the parents is a turning of the dynamic. Then Dominick gives the ultimate hierarchy dismantling when he recognizes Percival and shares the courageous, skilled combatant dimensions of the character in their midst as well as the two families’ similar tragedy of losing their brother. Oh my gosh and McCoy Tyner, and Percival flattening Julius with an inside contact on the cheek. Whoo! Hot stuff. Loved it all, including the erotic/love Union in the lake. So interesting too that you take us into Percival’s feelings in the boat on the lake. That was on another night, before the swim. How he is alarmed by the closeness that Lissette wants and her loving him possibly because she doesn’t know him. How Percival is able in his pivoting between trepidation and release to bring up quantum theory. Turning the energy to delight. Then it is closeness. A man and a woman in tight embrace seeming to create the vast majesty of the expansive stars for the world and each other. Such an unnerving then beautiful tableau.
“Your book—colossal power, sharp, spot-on writing. Issues of rape and fratricide are explored with the dialectical seriousness that echoes Old Testament and Dostoyevsky. You break through the ‘cool’ that infects our modern world and show the human soul in deepest wrestling with itself.”
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