Playing in time - Carlo Rotella

From jazz fantasy camp to running a movie studio; from a fight
between an old guy and a fat guy to a fear of clowns-Carlo Rotella's Playing in Time delivers
good stories full of vivid characters, all told with the unique voice
and humor that have garnered Rotella many devoted readers in the New York Times Magazine, Boston Globe, and Washington Post Magazine, among others. The two dozen essays in Playing in Time,
some of which have never before been published, revolve around the
themes and obsessions that have characterized Rotella's writing from the
start: boxing, music, writers, and cities. What holds them together is
Rotella's unique focus on people, craft, and what floats outside the
mainstream. \u201cPlaying in time\u201d refers to how people make beauty and
meaning while working within the constraints and limits forced on them
by life, and in his writing Rotella transforms the craft and beauty he
so admires in others into an art of his own.Rotella is best
known for his writings on boxing, and his essays here do not disappoint.
It's a topic that he turns to for its colorful characters, compelling
settings, and formidable life lessons both in and out of the ring.He
gives us tales of an older boxer who keeps unretiring and a welterweight
who is \u201cabout as rich and famous as a 147-pound fighter can get these
days,\u201d and a hilarious rumination on why Muhammad Ali's phrase \u201cI am the
greatest\u201d began appearing (in the mouth of Epeus) in translations of The Iliad around
1987. His essays on blues, crime and science fiction writers, and urban
spaces are equally and deftly engaging, combining an artist's eye for
detail with a scholar's sense of research, whether taking us to visit
detective writer George Pelecanos or to dance with the proprietress of
the Baby Doll Polka Club next to Midway Airport in Chicago.Rotella's essays are always smart, frequently funny, and consistently
surprising. This collection will be welcomed by his many fans and will
bring his inimitable style and approach to an even wider audience.