Looking for a Fight

Looking For a Fight

Reviewed by Saad T.

Lynn Snowden’s book entitled Looking for a Fight, is a captivating, emotional story about a young woman named Lynn trying to find a way to let go of her anger. The story has somewhat a form of suspense and is filled with humorous quotes. Lynn soon feels the need prove to her friends and family that she can take care of herself. She also learns that once learned, violence cannot be forgotten.

The story starts off with Lynn, a marathon runner who just finished the New York Marathon, telling about her divorce and how her friends and family feel she is vulnerable; in reality, they are just trying to take care of her as she just got through a divorce but her anger gets the best of her. She decides the best way to let go of her anger is to take up boxing, and that’s what she does. After learning a bit more about it, she tries to get into the gym Gleasons, a world renowned boxing gym known for training champions such as Mohammed Ali and Mike Tyson. As she goes into the gym, she gets a new perspective of boxing, what she thought would be an easy way to relieve pressure turns out to be the challenge of her life. As she notices that the rings have spots of blood, the boxers are moving at inhuman speeds, and that the training are going at each other at full force, she realizes this place isn’t for cowards.

After getting a trainer, who is a Hispanic named Hector with a thick accent; she proves she is up to the challenge of going into a real fight to face off an opponent. As Hectors training proves to be tough, she shows she isn’t ready to give up despite all the bruises, blisters, and scars she gets. She learns the reason behind Hector’s tough training is due to the fact he is a past winner of the Golden Gloves, a boxing tournament where boxers from all over come face to face in a brawl to see who gets crowned champion.

As the story progresses, you learn more about her life and begin to understand her view of the world. She soon starts to have health problems for unknown reasons. Her body starts to respond to hr training as her legs become more muscular, her back becomes more profound, and her stomach becomes harder. After months of training and multiple visits to the doctor, the week of her big fight finally shows up and after she win, she quits due to her not feeling right about boxing.

All in all, the book is great. The story is well written and shows how complicated and difficult it can be to face your fears. The way she describes her opponents’ jabs to her feel so intense and life like, you can practically feel them. The training starts to affect her life as well since she develops a “hit not think” reflex that reacts never she is nervous. It can get a bit boring at times since the chapter to chapter recounts of her sparring become monotonous, but it soon picks up the pace with hard hitting action. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to get into the depth of the human mind to see how far one would go to prove they have a place in this world.