Three-Fer

This is going to be a three-fer in that this post is going to provide a first line, a last line and a review of a book that I read most recently. It was a bit of a short story or novella, so there wasn't too much to it. That being said there were some gems there that I wanted to point out. The first and last lines weren't stunning, at least not as stunning as some of the analogies which are near the end of this post.

First line:


"That's the last time you break a date with me, Jimmy Gallagher. I'll thank you not to call on me again!" 

Me and Ruby were sitting in Charley's on Figueroa, where Ruby waits tables. She wasn't working at the moment, though. She was busy being steamed and I couldn't blame her. She doesn't like me fighting, and the night before I'd been in a bout set up by a pal, Kenny Spivey. He was moving a lot of dough and needed me for the card. He's got a little girl with polio and that can run into money, so I thought I'd help him out by taking on a local boy making his way up the ladder. He was a big kid, young and strong, but I know a few things after twenty-five years of lacing up the gloves (I started when I was ten back there in Boston, Golden Gloves).


Last line:


“I’m so sorry I’m late,” she said. “Forgive me?” I put my hand under her chin, tilted her head up and kissed her lips. I looked into her deep blue lamps and said, “I will this time, honey. But don’t let it happen again.”

Bell, James Scott- Fight City

Like I said there are a lot of great analogies in this sucker. It takes place in the 1950's with a first person point of view and the patois of that time. My favorite I put up at the top. The others are short and sweet like rabbit punches that are thrown in throughout the novel.



I looked up and saw a big side of beef coming at me. He wore an open collared short-sleeved shirt. His arms had muscles in places where most men don't have places.

Then there were these three:


My thoughts were oatmeal, sloshing around in my skull.


Jack Walsh hit me in the stomach with a fist made of reinforced concrete.


Time ticked by as slow as a Scotsman counting his coins.

One of the things I hate is figuring out what to read between novels. I will get to the end of a long book and have really enjoyed it, then I'll want to get to the next good novel, but I'm not quite ready to make the switch. This is a switch book. It's short, fun, and made for a great switch book. The one thing I didn't like was that it read like a series of disparate vignettes and there was no circling back and linking it all together into fully cohesive story. There was no sum up. It was just Jimmy trying to make a date and overcoming the hurdles that the world threw at him. I would have liked to see a bit more cohesiveness to all the hurdles and challenges.

Still, anyone who is looking for a switch book or a inbetweener book, this was a good one.