Sound and Fury: Two Powerful Lives, One Fateful Friendship

In this dual biography, the largeness and significance of The Greatest eclipses that of commentator and fan Cosell. Ali's rush to join the military to be stopped by entry written tests and then refusal to be inducted later becomes one of the many acts of an Ali as marionette to Nation of Islam's Elijah Muhammed. This includes voluntarily withdrawing from fighting for a year and expressing trepidation that the assassination that befell Malcom X could happen to Ali if he, too, crossed Elijah. Also interesting is the intersections with organized crime. Did the mafia fix the Muhammad Ali vs Sonny Liston 1965 fight?

Dave Kindred has done lovers of sports and history a favor with Sound and Fury.

Using two cultural giants – Mohammad Ali and Howard Cosell – he has produced a fresh and readable social history of the latter half of the Twentieth Century. Let me be clear. The Pointed Pundit loves Ali. Kindred refers to him as the most influential sports figure of the last century. In my mind, he understates the case; Ali is the most influential person of the last century.

Cosell, on the other hand, may have hesitated to tell you he was. He was not. Trained as a lawyer and gifted with the ability to articulate complexity, he brought a thinking man’s view to radio and television sports journalism.

Individually, they were interesting. Together, they show more were hypnotizing. They produced controversy, drama and comedy almost every time they appeared together.

Dave Kindred tells the story of this alliance from a unique perspective. As a newspaper and magazine sports columnist with nearly 40 years experience, he covered Ali’s early fight days as a reporter for the Louisville Courier-Journal before moving on to the The Atlanta Journal- Courier and The Washington Post. He draws upon his experiences to re-create the Ali-Cosell story in ways I have never seen attempted.

The result is a fascinating portrait of two outsized figures – their heroics and their demons. Drawing on personal observations, fresh reporting and interviews, Kindred writes a page-turning treatment of two lives that together changed sports, television and the Pointed Pundit would argue, the world, forever.

Penned by the Pointed Pundit
September 27, 2006
10:36:50 AM show less

Warts-and-all look at Ali and Cosell by someone who was there. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Hard to read some of the truths about this two but overall I found them more human after finishing.

This is a "triple" biography of Ali, Cossell and of their friendship. Parts are interesting. The writer has no sympathy for Ali's politics & thinks his opposition to the Vietnam war was some combination of Ali blindly following Elijah Muhammad & Ali not wanted to go to war. He makes Ali out to be a monster but a sometimes lovable one. That may be true, but the author doesn't seem able to put Ali in context.