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y separately published work icon The Fighter : A True Story single work   biography  
Issue Details: First known date: 2016... 2016 The Fighter : A True Story
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'So it’s come to this. Sixty-seven years old and he labours on the docks. Cropped grey-white beard, ex-boxer’s pug nose, he is wiry, rotund and short. His strength is sensed rather than seen, belied by age and excess weight. Vigour is the word. Henry Nissen exudes vigour. His life force is strong. It animates his gestures, powers his determined little walk.

'HENRY Nissen was a champion boxer, the boy from Amess Street in working-class Carlton who fought his way up to beat some of the world’s best in the 1970s. Now, he works on the Melbourne docks, loading and unloading, taking shifts as they come up. But his real work is on the streets. He’s in and out of police stations and courts giving character statements and providing support, working to give the disaffected another chance. And all the while, in the background is the memory of another fighter, his mother—and her devastating decline into madness. The Fighter is a moving and poetic portrait of a compassionate man, but also a window onto the unnoticed recesses of Melbourne.' (Publication summary)

Notes

  • Epigraph:

    Sometimes I feel like a motherless child

    A long way from home

    –African American Spiritual

    And that road was long - long - long amidst the

    Solemn and crystal

    Stillness

    Of Siberia's earth.'

    – Anna Akhmatova 'Poem Without a Hero'

  • Dedication: To the mothers of the neighbourhood

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Melbourne, Victoria,: Text Publishing , 2016 .
      image of person or book cover 5691815720232946076.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 208p.
      Note/s:
      • Published : May 2016
      ISBN: 9781925355062

Works about this Work

The Fighter Review : Arnold Zable Goes the Distance with a Carlton Character James Ley , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: Brisbane Times , 22 July 2016;

— Review of The Fighter : A True Story Arnold Zable , 2016 single work biography
'In his eighth book, The Fighter, Arnold Zable returns to the mid-century Carlton he celebrated in Scraps of Heaven (2004), a nostalgic novel that depicted a time well before the suburb was sterilised by gentrification, a time when it was still a knockabout working-class enclave and home to a first wave of postwar European immigrants. ...'
Going the Distance with a Hazy History Tom Gilling , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 11-12 June 2016; (p. 19)

— Review of The Fighter : A True Story Arnold Zable , 2016 single work biography
Struggletown Michael McGirr , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , June-July no. 382 2016; (p. 57)

— Review of The Fighter : A True Story Arnold Zable , 2016 single work biography
[Untitled] Nick Hopton , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 21 May 2016; (p. 36)

— Review of The Fighter : A True Story Arnold Zable , 2016 single work biography
Arnold Zable, The Fighter JD , 2016 single work
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 7 May 2016;

— Review of The Fighter : A True Story Arnold Zable , 2016 single work biography
Arnold Zable, The Fighter JD , 2016 single work
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 7 May 2016;

— Review of The Fighter : A True Story Arnold Zable , 2016 single work biography
[Untitled] Nick Hopton , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 21 May 2016; (p. 36)

— Review of The Fighter : A True Story Arnold Zable , 2016 single work biography
Struggletown Michael McGirr , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , June-July no. 382 2016; (p. 57)

— Review of The Fighter : A True Story Arnold Zable , 2016 single work biography
Going the Distance with a Hazy History Tom Gilling , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 11-12 June 2016; (p. 19)

— Review of The Fighter : A True Story Arnold Zable , 2016 single work biography
The Fighter Review : Arnold Zable Goes the Distance with a Carlton Character James Ley , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: Brisbane Times , 22 July 2016;

— Review of The Fighter : A True Story Arnold Zable , 2016 single work biography
'In his eighth book, The Fighter, Arnold Zable returns to the mid-century Carlton he celebrated in Scraps of Heaven (2004), a nostalgic novel that depicted a time well before the suburb was sterilised by gentrification, a time when it was still a knockabout working-class enclave and home to a first wave of postwar European immigrants. ...'
Last amended 26 Apr 2017 15:46:14
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