Like the "Rumble In The Jungle" it chronicles, The Fight gets off to a scrappy start. So many exclamation points! So many half-finished thoughts and nonsensical sentences ("Large rooms twice the size of motel rooms but equally depressing in mood commanded the air"). Mailer's reflections on race and boxing are often distracting and self-indulgent - the book's impact is diminished by his need to make himself the primary subject.
It isn't until the fight draws near that Mailer finally steps aside for the real focus of the action - Ali and Foreman in the ring. He builds the tension effectively and evokes a vivid sense of the mood of that fateful night in Kinshasa. And yet, one is left with the sense that a potentially brilliant piece of sports journalism is spoiled by Mailer tripping over his own enormous ego once again. ( )

I read a Mailer book about ten years ago (The Naked and the Dead), but all I can really remember about it is that I did not completely understand it (but war novels have a tendency toward complicated incomprehensibility, in my opinion). At the tender age of 17 (?), I think I must have been too young because The Fight was both clear and memorable. I learned of this book from an American Libraries magazine article, and as a boxing fan I was intrigued.

It is the true story of the match between challenger Muhammad Ali and current heavyweight champion George Foreman that took place in Zaire, Africa (The Rumble in the Jungle). The style is narrative nonfiction or nonfiction novel, and Mailer refers to himself throughout in the third person. Mailer's social analysis of Africa, African Americans, Islam, and political leadership is as gripping as his interviews and recounts of encounters with the major players involved in the fight and the play by play of the fight itself. He provides an intimate portrait of the fighters and other characters that his style of writing is known for and celebrated.

This book is a classic of recent times. It's a joy from start to finish. Mailer's love of the sport, the genius of Ali, the brutality of Foreman and the magnitude of the occasion conspire to make this book a joy. I once waited on a pavement in Amsterdam while Norman Mailer walked in front of me, slowly with the aid of a stick, from his car to the door of the building he was entering. The glow I could see coming off him was from this book. ( )

Mailer has access to Ali's camp in this short exposition on the famous Rumble in the Jungle fight with George Foreman. Mailer makes good use of his priviledged position to give us more than just a recount of what happened in the ring. The story of how this event came to be held in Zaire is told as well as how the combatants coped with a fight time that met the demands of American TV moguls. An intriguing insight into where the power in sport lies. Although this is good journalism one still puts the book down with a feeling that sport is not a major passion of Mailer's. ( )