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'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
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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'
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Dedication: To the mothers of the neighbourhood
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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The Fighter Review : Arnold Zable Goes the Distance with a Carlton Character
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: Brisbane Times , 22 July 2016;
— Review of The Fighter : A True Story 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
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 11-12 June 2016; (p. 19)
— Review of The Fighter : A True Story 2016 single work biography -
Struggletown
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , June-July no. 382 2016; (p. 57)
— Review of The Fighter : A True Story 2016 single work biography -
[Untitled]
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 21 May 2016; (p. 36)
— Review of The Fighter : A True Story 2016 single work biography -
Arnold Zable, The Fighter
2016
single work
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 7 May 2016;
— Review of The Fighter : A True Story 2016 single work biography
-
Arnold Zable, The Fighter
2016
single work
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 7 May 2016;
— Review of The Fighter : A True Story 2016 single work biography -
[Untitled]
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 21 May 2016; (p. 36)
— Review of The Fighter : A True Story 2016 single work biography -
Struggletown
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , June-July no. 382 2016; (p. 57)
— Review of The Fighter : A True Story 2016 single work biography -
Going the Distance with a Hazy History
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 11-12 June 2016; (p. 19)
— Review of The Fighter : A True Story 2016 single work biography -
The Fighter Review : Arnold Zable Goes the Distance with a Carlton Character
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: Brisbane Times , 22 July 2016;
— Review of The Fighter : A True Story 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. ...'