Table of Contents

* Preliminaries * Little Fairy Boy * The Discoverer * Cus * The Catskill Years * Turning Pro * Contender * The Youngest Heavyweight Champion * Unification and Robin Givens * Hello, Robin Good-bye, Jimmy * Don King Only in America * Wedded Bliss, Managerial Problems * Tyson-Spinks: The Making of a Fight * The Summer of Discontent * Those Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer * To Russia With Love? * Divorce and Don King

About the Author

Peter Heller is the author of Bad Intentions: The Mike Tyson Story. A sports producer for ABC News, he lives in Putnam Valley, New York and Boca Raton, Florida.

Reviews

The proliferation of publications focusing on successful boxer Mike Tyson continues with this comprehensive account of his life both in and out of the ring. The author, who is a television sports producer, concentrates on the characters and personalities that helped shape the man; they range from street toughs to tutors, trainers, business associates, and relatives. He particularly dwells on the players left behind (dumped)--the many who assisted in Tyson's transformation from neighborhood bully to world champion. Whereas Phil Berger's Blood Season ( LJ 6/15/89) focused more on the business battles and Jose Torres's Fire and Fear see Prepub Alert, LJ 3/1/89 on Tyson's highly publicized character traits, Heller's book presents the entire package, providing the most definitive account yet of the young fighter's life.-- William H. Hoffman, Ft. Myers-Lee Cty. P.L., Fla.

Born and raised in a Brooklyn ghetto, then sent to a reform school where he learned the rudiments of boxing, Tyson at age 14 became the protege of legendary manager Cus D'Amato, who offered training in fisticuffs and social behavior. The former training succeeded, as D'Amato predicted, in Tyson's becoming the world heavyweight champion; the latter, according to ABC sports producer Heller ( In This Corner ), has proven less satisfactory. Heller traces the champion's meteoric rise to the top, examining the role various boxing associations have played in Tyson's life. Also discussed are individuals important in Tyson's history, including Don King, his current mentor, and ex-wife Robin Givens and her mother, whose alleged venality Heller tends to soft-pedal. The result is a thorough, rather bland book. Photos not seen by PW. (Sept.)