The Contender

This is aexcellent book to read. it leaves you wondring wether or not if the young men will make it as a boxer or not. if you love to read books thats going to keep you on the edge of your seat then this is a good book that you just have to read.

This is an inspiring book about a teen boy growing up in Harlem who finds success and self-respect through training to become a boxer. An uplifting story that shows that peer-pressure can be overcome with realizing self-worth.

Alfred Brooks is a high school dropout with a job that is getting him nowhere. His life is nothing but a series of problems that seem to be getting worse. Now he is being hunted by gang members for something he did not do. One night as he is being chased, he slips into a gym and things start

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changing. This is a fast, paced book that details the life of a high school dropout. I highly recommend this for mature 8th grade & up boys.

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Alfred has just dropped out of high school and is staying with his aunt and cousins. He's former best friend has started hanging with a bad crowd. He's trying to do the right thing and make an honest living with his job. It is hard to do in his neighborhood after he's jumped by guys in the street,

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he decides he might want to train to be a boxer. The head of the gym, Mr. Donatelli, tells him that it's not enough to want to be a champion but instead he should hunger to be a contender. Although boxing requires lots of discipline and hard-work, it also introduces Alfred to a new network of people and positive role models. Alfred sees his best friend James take a different path that leads to getting strung-out on heroin. Although Alfred doesn't have the killer instinct to be a fighter, he proves himself to be a worthy contender in the ring and in life.

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Alfred is trying to figure out what to do. His best friend just got arrested trying to break into the Epstein’s store, where Alfred works. He did it because Alfred told him the cash register doesn’t get emptied on Saturday nights. What Alfred forgot to mention was the new alarm the Epsteins

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just had installed. Now, his friend is in jail. Alfred isn't sure why he entered Donatelli’s gym that night, and why he decided to try, even after Donatelli told him he probably wouldn’t make it, just like most other people. But Alfred tries anyway and eventually makes his way into the ring.

Robert Lipsyte’s classic novel about a young man learning how to box and live remains relevance today. At times the story is slightly moralizing but a great cast of characters and steady stream of action keep the pages turning. Readers will enjoy following Alfred as he struggles to find out if he is, in fact, a contender. Lipsyte’s fluid, succinct style makes the book approachable to all levels of readers.

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Reading this for my Young Adult Resources class. It takes place in the 1960s, in the "hood" and follows the identity crisis of a teen who can't decide how he feels about the political, racial and social turmoils surrounding the civil rights movement. I didn't like it all that much. I felt the

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emotional turmoil of the kid was well written and pretty accurate. However, the writing style itself was irritating and repetitive. Obviously the author tried to recreate how jumpy and disjointed time can seem in the midst of a boxing match by using paragraphs full of short, one word sentences. I found it bothersome but effective. Perhaps it was the subject matter. I've always hated boxing.

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SPOILER

Robert Lipsyte's The Contender is a YA classic. It is a raw, realistic look at life in Harlem. Albert dropped out of school and works in Epstein's grocery store. He and his friend James usually go to the movies on Friday night, but one night Albert finds James in a gang clubhouse with Major,

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Hollis and Sonny. The gang decides to rob Epstein's when Albert mentions that there's money in the cash register overnight. He forgets, however, about the new silent alarm, and James gets caught.

Albert meets Henry on the street. Henry is his age, with a bum leg, and works at Mr. Dontelli's gym. He invites Albert to train and Albert takes him up on it. Albert wants to be something special, a champion. Mr. Donatelli tells him he first needs to want to be a contender--work hard, to maybe be something, but maybe not.

On Albert's first morning run, he encounters two policemen who joke about him. He's afraid and discouraged but he keeps going. He has one slip-up, discourage that he hasn't had a fight scheduled--a night in the clubhouse because James is supposed to show up. Albert gets totally drunk. He sees James come in and Major slip him some white powder.

When he finally does get a fight, Mr. Donatelli sees that Albert doesn't have the fighter instinct for blood. In his second fight, Albert knocks out his opponent and then becomes worried about him. He schedules a last fight, just to see if he can stomach it. He can't.

Lipsyte has penned a raw, realistic look at boxing, Harlem and some teens that have growing up to do. Albert is smart but dropped out of school to work. James ends up with a gang.

Albert lives with his Aunt Pearl and her three daughters in Harlem, struggling to make ends meet contrasted against his other Aunt, Uncle and Cousin live in the suburbs. His cousin Jeff is going to college and has great prospects. This is contrasted against Epstein, the store owner. Major calls Albert a slave working for Epstein, with no prospects and no meaningful work. Meanwhile Major preys on the weak.

Lipsyte's characters are great. Jelly Belly, a fighter who'd rather eat and fight. Spoon (Witherspoon) a former boxer turned teacher who shows Albert that there is something after boxing. Henry, a disabled kid who begins training Albert. They help each other, without realizing it. Albert gave Henry his chance to train. Henry gave Albert the courage to train. Mr. Donatelli is the atypical trainer who cares about his boxers and won't let them go beyond their capabilities. And surprisingly, Epstein, who was a boxer in his day and who bonds with Albert when he learns Albert is training.

The Contender is real but hopeful. There's no hope for Major. James, who is strung out, is hurt trying to rob Epstein's but Albert comes to his aid and promises to ride out the storm (both his probable arrest and his kicking his drug habit) with his best friend. Albert decides to finish high school. All in all, The Contender deserves to be a classic.

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Growing up in the rough and tumble streets, Alfred is doing what he can to stay out of trouble. To escape the world of drugs, booze, and theft, he ventures into the world of boxing, training to give purpose to his life. With the help of his fellow boxers, lamed trainer, and the brusque owner of the

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gym, he finds out if he has what it takes to be a contender. Author Lipsyte, young adult writer specializing in sports, writes the difficulty of growing up in a rough neighborhood, and how to overcome the social constructs.

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The Contender tells the story of Alfred, a high school drop out living with aunt and his three young female cousins. Alfred decides to learn to box. His spirits begin to rise and he even decides to go back to school. The book is told in thirst person, but follows Alfred's perspective. The book

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would be appropriate for teens ages 14-18.

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As a black high-school drop out, Alfred has it hard. His only job is to work in a grocery store sweeping floors, and stocking shelves. If that is not enough, his best friend is a new addition to a gang, getting severly addicted to drugsand becoming an alcoholic, wasting away at life. After being

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beat up by his best friends gang, Alfred decided that he was going to box.

Donatelli's Gym was a run down gymnasium with shabby mats, old punching bags, and a blood stained boxing ring. When Alfred walked up the cold, slippery steps for the first time, he was not sure if this was the right place. After meeting and talking to Donatelli himself, a trainer of champions, Alfred gets told he must be a contender before a champion.

By meeting many people along in the gym, and support from his whole family, Alfred learns what the word contender relly means, inside and outside of the boxing world. And once he understood the true meaning of contender, he helped other people learn too.

I loved this book because it is very inspirational. It shows that no matter where you come from, or how bad you have it, you can always help someone, and make the world a better place. This book told about a boy who was judged by the color of his skin, and he turned that around and he made it good and he set an example for members of gangs and children. I think that this book sets a good example for everyone.

Another reason that I liked this book is because it showed how a boy who made a wrong decision about quitting school turned his life around and made things good, and he lived a good life after that. This shows how you can have second chances in life, but you have to earn them.

I would recommend this book to anyone who loves an inspirational read, and anyone who loves happy endings.

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I read this as part of Denison High School's English 10 curriculum. A high interest novel, The Contender, is set in the inner city of Harlem during the 1960's. Alfred Brook's, a high school dropout, must make his way in a world in which his best friend is falling victim to drugs, alcohol, and

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violence, and the Civil Rights Movement is in full swing forcing African-Americans to make choices regarding equality. Amidst this turmoil, Alfred finds that his loyalties are tested between the owner of the Jewish grocery store where he works and a life long friendship. When Alfred stumbles into Donatelli's gym and begins training for boxing matches, he finds out that it takes much more than physical training to really become a contender.

Nicely written, The Contender is a book that anyone can enjoy regardless of their opinion about boxing or even sports. The message of the novel is very inspirational and is an interesting read for both young and old. However, given it's rather simple plot, easy vocabulary, and easy to understand themes, I'm not sure this is the best book to read at the 10th grade level.

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Alfred is a highschool dropout. His best friend struggling with drug addiction and his job isn't a career path. He decides to join a Donatelli's Gym, a local gym that trains boxers. Here Alfred learns that boxing is a better path than gangs and drugs which his neighborhood is full of.

I was surprised by how much I liked this book. I don't normally read sports fiction and I would never have picked this up if I didn't have to read it for school. I found the training scenes to be really interesting although I have no sense of how accurate they are because I know nothing about

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boxing. I did find some of the actual fight scenes to be difficult to follow, but that didn't bother me at all. Alfred's journey to manhood (with boxing as the metaphor of choice) was engrossing and sympathetic. If I can find the time, I think I would actually be interested in reading the rest of Lipsyte's works.

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