PIT! - Cockfighter: A Portrait of Sacrifice

Finishing Charles Willeford's Cockfighter: this has already become one of my favorite books. Willeford is a writer who is hard to pin down as he flirts with the crime drama through his protagonist's hard-boiled perspective, yet retains a range of references that surpasses many of his peers. His books are not to be relegated to the scrapheap of genre-fiction, but are downright literary. He offers first-person portraits of characters searching for their singular Macguffins (in the case of this novel, it's the Southwestern Cockfighting Championship) but, what is most revealing is the process of the protagonists contesting with their temporary rudderlessness.

Frank Mansfield is the greatest portrayal I've seen of a modern-day ascetic. He's a man that is so uncompromising and principled that he has given up the gift of speech as a form of self-flagellation from a cockfight gone bad in a hotel room. Yet, he has not lost his ability to shape his world; such is his strength and reputation. He frequently destroys what he loves most as not only a of matter of principle, but as a visceral sacrifice for what he wants most: to be the greatest cockfighter in the world.

The book is not for the faint of heart. There is blood, brutality, and backhands to women, but the source of all violence is the passion of the man himself. From Roy Hobbs (not the Malamud novel) to Rocky what we admire most in our fictive sports heroes is the discipline of the protagonist and their desire for glory. Frank is no different, and he may be the greatest sports hero to grace the fictional landscape ever created.  There is no doubt that the story still rankles feathers (the film version is still banned in England) and the subject matter will turn some readers away, but as a portrait of a man and perhaps even a definition of aspirational masculinity this book is unparalleled. Much like Frank Mansfield, I won't say another word.