#10: ‘A Man’s World’ by Donald McRae

I LOVE THIS BOOK!!

‘A Man’s World (The Double Life of Emile Griffith)’ by Donald McRae is an utterly absorbing and, at times, distressing account of the life and boxing career of Emile Griffith.

The book follows Griffith’s arrival in New York from the Virgin Islands, his beginnings as a boxer, the sad death of Benny Paret after their bout in 1962, through to his often chaotic retirement.

The book also explores Griffith’s sexuality from the perspective of 1950s and ’60s America, a time at which men had to conceal being gay or bisexual. Donald McRae tackles this particular subject with great sensitivity and his usual compelling prose.