The Contender

I read a nice story today, The Contender by Robert Lipsyte.  The message, pretty simple, find a goal worth fighting for and you can contend against anyone, including yourself.  Great message.  The character development was the weak piece.  The author cut corners in the development of the relationship between Alfred and his friends.  It was almost like watching an abridged movie or an After School Special, remember those days, you “Tom’s generation folks” – certainly not something they show today.  This was a very weak read, probably too quick.  Wanted more in the change that took part in Alfred, much more.  So here’s the abridged version of an abridged story… Alfred (protagonist), a young black man, grows up in tough neighborhood  in NYC – quits school, in a bad crowd, finds an escape (the local boxing club), the trainer befriends him, challenges him to box, he does, wins a few matches, challenged more by bad crowd, fights last fight where he “sees the light”and finds a passion in his life (he is a high school dropout with limited future), befriends the bad crowd kid.  That’s it folks…  Again, great message but cuts the reader short in lots of ways.  The message is worth the read!