Seconds Out is a very detailed account of the
1923 world heavyweight championship fight between the Argentinian Luis
Angel Firpo (nicknamed the Wild Bull of the Pampas) and the American
title holder, Jack Dempsey. The novel specifically focuses on the 17
seconds that Jack Dempsey was out of the fight, knocked out of the ring
by Firpo (who’d previously been knocked down himself). Now, providing an
extensive account of something that happened in such a short frame of
time really shouldn’t work, but Martin Kohan pulls it off here with
aplomb. It helps that the participants involved are such vivid
characters, such as the referee, Jack Gallagher, who’s haunted by the
woman who left him for another boxer when it was clear that he could no
longer pursue his boxing career. Thus his becoming a referee, surrounded
eternally by boxers, seems very much akin to self-flagellation. There
is also the photographer on whom Jack Dempsey lands, Donald Mitchell,
who purloined his family’s savings to buy his camera. And then there is
the figure of Jack Dempsey, who, like Icarus, seems to take a very long
time in falling. However, unlike Daedalus’ boy, Jack Dempsey does very
much manage to get back on his feet, albeit very controversially. It
seems here that Kohan is utilising the common perception that time seems
to slow down during an accident. Seconds Out is also a great account of the unexpected repercussions that can occur due to an unprecedented incident in sport.
The fight also provides some focus for a group of Argentinian journalists celebrating the 50th anniversary of their newspaper, founded in the same year as their compatriot’s fight against Dempsey. However, the sports journalist, Verani, is much more fixated on the story of a mysterious man found dead in a Buenos Aires hotel on the same night. Further investigation reveals that he was a cellist in Richard Strauss’ orchestra, who were there to perform Mahler’s First Symphony. Instead of a blow-by-blow account of the actual fight, what we get instead is a kind of verbal sparring between Verani and the paper’s more cultured journalist, Ledesma, as the latter tries to convince the former that Mahler had a genius that transcended ordinary mortals. Despite the notorious events of the fight still presenting a hot topic of conversation 50 years later, it is that mysterious death in the hotel room that haunts, especially since Verani and Ledesma become convinced that it was somehow connected to the fight. However, it’s left to the junior journalist, and sometime narrator, Roque, to finally uncover the truth… Seconds Out is a brilliantly composed novel, where every word is savoured – the skillful translation by Nick Caistor reads very smoothly indeed, with never a dull word. It’s quite a philosophical novel, with many engrossing narratives, such as that regarding the complicated interdependency that existed between Richard Strauss and Gustav Mahler. Seconds Out is, in short, a sublime novel.
The fight also provides some focus for a group of Argentinian journalists celebrating the 50th anniversary of their newspaper, founded in the same year as their compatriot’s fight against Dempsey. However, the sports journalist, Verani, is much more fixated on the story of a mysterious man found dead in a Buenos Aires hotel on the same night. Further investigation reveals that he was a cellist in Richard Strauss’ orchestra, who were there to perform Mahler’s First Symphony. Instead of a blow-by-blow account of the actual fight, what we get instead is a kind of verbal sparring between Verani and the paper’s more cultured journalist, Ledesma, as the latter tries to convince the former that Mahler had a genius that transcended ordinary mortals. Despite the notorious events of the fight still presenting a hot topic of conversation 50 years later, it is that mysterious death in the hotel room that haunts, especially since Verani and Ledesma become convinced that it was somehow connected to the fight. However, it’s left to the junior journalist, and sometime narrator, Roque, to finally uncover the truth… Seconds Out is a brilliantly composed novel, where every word is savoured – the skillful translation by Nick Caistor reads very smoothly indeed, with never a dull word. It’s quite a philosophical novel, with many engrossing narratives, such as that regarding the complicated interdependency that existed between Richard Strauss and Gustav Mahler. Seconds Out is, in short, a sublime novel.