Subscribe to Read | $0.00
Join today and start reading your favorite books for Free!
Quick and Easy Sign Up!
It takes less then 1 minute to sign up, then you can enjoy Unlimited eBooks.
Join today and start reading your favorite books for Free!
Quick and Easy Sign Up!
It takes less then 1 minute to sign up, then you can enjoy Unlimited eBooks.
Read Anywhere and on Any Device!
Rate this book!
Write a review?
Towards the end of last year, astory of mine was published in a volume of ‘The Reader’. The other piece of fiction in that issue was by Vanessa Hemingway, granddaughter of the great man himself.On the back of ‘The Longshot’ Tom McCarthy says ‘Hemingway’s returned to life – and this time, he’s a woman’.Now steady on Tom, I thought when I read that. Let’s not get too carried away.Thing is, he didn’t.It’s an extra-ordinary debut. Quite astonishing.Like many a book on the fighting world, the ring an...
Katie Kitamura’s debut is one of those novels whose form neatly mirrors its subject. The Longshot is about mixed martial arts (MMA), and it’s as sharp and focused as a fighter on top form. Our protagonists are Riley, an MMA trainer; and Cal, his protégé of ten years. We join them as they arrive in Tijuana, where Cal is due for a rematch against the legendary Rivera, who beat him four years previously. Both Cal and Riley appreciate how significant this fight is going to be.The Longshot is a short...
The Long Shot- Four years earlier Cal had went the distance with Rivera, the only man to do so. Now at 29 Cal is almost done with the game but his trainer Riley sets up the long awaited rematch with Rivera.Instead of a story full of training and fighting we a get a story of first the love and caring for one another between a trainer and his fighter. We watch as each struggles in his own way with getting older and hanging on for one last chance.This was a short but interesting read but the ending...
On the surface, this is a sports novel, but the prose is so powerful and elegant that Kitamura makes Cal and Riley's tale universal. A really beautiful story about choice, sacrifice, success, and bravery.
I can't believe I read a book about mixed martial arts fighting and actually liked it, but I did! Anyone who knows me knows that I can't stand to watch this kind of violence on TV or in person, but for some reason I can read about it just fine. Analyze that! :)[return][return]Cal is a fighter who is a little bit past his prime mentally. He was winning everything until Rivera came along, a new fighter who rocked his world and destroyed him in the ring. Now Cal is back in peak physical condition a...
This was not a book that I would have picked up on my own. It's a book about a mixed-martial arts fighter named Cal and his trainer, Riley, going up as the "longshot" in a re-match fight set in Tijuana. But, it's books like this that reinforce the power of a word of mouth referral from someone with great taste in books!The style of the book creates a lot of dramatic tension right from the get-go. The writing is a little more rugged in its directness, which is appropriate for the characters and t...
In Katie Kitamura's amazing debut novel, the fighter Cal and his friend and trainer Riley travel to Tijuana for a fight that's the chance of a lifetime for Cal. Four years earlier, Cal went the distance with the champion Rivera, in their first match-up. But Rivera still won that fight, and has finally agreed to a rematch. Riley and Cal both know that Cal's hopes for a new start in the sport, and both their futures, rest on this one make-or-break match. I really loved this book. When I received t...
Among the pulp community there is often talk about pulp and literature. Even some of the best modern pulp writers out there sometimes express doubt that a novel can both be pulp and be literature. Other authors have set out to prove it’s possible. While no one was looking, someone did. And her name is Katie Kitamura. Kitamura isn’t a name famous to pulp circles, but she isn’t all that well know out of them either. Kitamura has only written a handful of books, but it is her MMA tale The Longshot
If you are going to read one book about MMA I'd probably recommend this one to you. I'm assuming you don't care about MMA, and probably think it's stupid/barbaric/a blood sport/gay/not a real sport like boxing/just another professional wrestling organization. Why this one? Because it's not really a book about fighting (or it is but not really about fisticuffs, if you want to call dealing with the demons in your head fighting, than yes this is about that). And it's also not the kind of book that
The LongshotThe book The Longshot was written by Katie Kitamura. The book is a fiction book about mixed martial arts. Cal and his friend/trainer Riley are on there way to a fight in Tijuana for a fight against a long time great fighter Rivera. The last time Cal fought Rivera he stayed in it for the whole match, making him the last person to survive an entire fight against Rivera. To prepare for the fight Cal took a lot of time to train. The day of the fight came and he was nervous, but ready. As...
As a reading teacher, I'm constantly on the lookout for books my students will enjoy.I saw this on the bargain shelf at my local bookstore, and I was drawn to it because of the cover.I teach disadvantaged high school students who are struggling readers, so I knew that the cover would grab their attention as well.Still, it's about substance, and this book has just that.The subject matter, ultimate fighting, is relevant to today's mainstream culture. The story is one that keeps you holding your br...
I haven't found many novels about MMA, so I was very happy to come across The Longshot. I highly recommend listening to the audiobook, as I did. The narrator really brings to life Kitamura's spare and affecting prose.
