Thrown

" Thrown is Kerry Howley's masterful debut. A work of rigorous nonfiction that's sure to be branded experimental, but that's as involving and page-turning as any book I've read in a while." Gary Shteyngart "Who can explain what draws a young brilliant writerand a woman no lessto be mesmerized by the sight of a young man being pummeled in the ring? But out of this passionmaybe obsessioncomes a great American story about overlooked heroes, the nature of violence, hope, love and nearly everything else that matters." Hanna Rosin, author of The End of Men Out of the dank basements and glitzy arenas of a brutal sport, Kerry Howley has created a story that is virtuous, rapturous, and utterly consequential. In language thats as daring as it is astute, she tells the story of two young guys from the middle of America, and overachiever and an underachiever, whom the world, it turns out, has equally little use for. Its a story weve read about a thousand times, and one weve seen nothing else like. This is a gloriously heartbreaking debut. John D'Agata, author of The Lifespan of a Fact Lyrical and brutal in its subject matter, the poetic voice within offers humor, heart, and grace from the first page and kept me in awe until the end. This is a powerful book reminiscent of Hemingways early work. Frank Bill, author of Crimes in Southern Indiana and Donnybrook In this darkly funny work of literary nonfiction, a bookish young woman insinuates herself into the lives of two cage fightersone a young prodigy, the other an aging journeyman. Acclaimed essayist Kerry Howley follows these men for three years through the bloody world of mixed martial arts as they starve themselves, break bones, fail their families and form new ones in the quest to rise from remote Midwestern fairgrounds to packed Vegas arenas. With penetrating intelligence and wry humor, Howley exposes the profundities and absurdities of this American subculture. Kerry Howley 's work has appeared in The Paris Review , New York Times Magazine , the Atlantic , Wall Street Journal , Slate , and frequently in Bookforum . She holds an MFA from the University of Iowa's Nonfiction Writing Program. Review A New York Times Book Review, NPR, Slate, and Time Magazine best book of the year It probably started with Homer.Writers ever since have been probing athletes for signifiers, for metaphor amped by grit under pressure. Now the erudite essayist Kerry Howley makes her full-length debut in this sweaty but honorable tradition. She endows it with sly humor, trenchant vision and a curious twist on our concepts of genre. . . . Howley depicts it all with piercing skill. . . . Thrown is compulsively readable, informative, hilarious. . . . It is also a ferocious dissection of the essence of the spectator. New York Times Book Review The most bizarre and fascinating book Ive read this year. . . . The precision of Howleys prose reminds me of Joan Didion or David Foster Wallace: shes so involved with the fight, its as if she were trying to eat it with words. Howley writes like someone whos been flayed, all nerve endings exposed, no barriers between her and the world around her. Lev Grossman, Time magazine "This sui generis debut threatens to remap the entire genre of nonfiction. . . . Howleys brilliant prose is as dexterous and doughty as the fighters she trails, torquing into philosophy, parody, and sweat-soaked poetry." Publishers Weekly , starred boxed review Three years in the lives of two Midwestern cage fighters as seen through the eyes of a neurotic academic. A poetic portrait of a bloody American subculture, and a knockout of a nonfiction debut. O, The Oprah Magazine Kerry Howley embarks on a quest for ecstasy delivered in an unexpected forum: MMA fights. This transfixing nonfiction narrative combines bloody play-by-play with philosophical inquiry, delivering serious punches. Welcome to the Octagon. Playboy In her highly original memoir, Thrown , Howley follows two local fighters at very different points in their careers, from their training gyms in Iowa to big events in New Orleans, Las Vegas and New Jersey. Hilarious, sometimes tragic, and philosophical, Howleys first book is remarkably innovative and self-assured. Its a sly, unexpected and endlessly promising debut. NPR.org "Howley manages to conjure the moments that make fights so thrilling. And it is striking that she manages to do so in a book that is also a very funny satire of the ways in which elites including, famously, Norman Mailer often make a fetish of violence and the people who commit it. . . . as dark and funny as anything I have read this year." Washington Post A truly gripping account of the insular world of MMAthe history, the personalities, the injuries, the money, the white-hot fighters and the foundering ones. . . . Howley stepped into the cage and stepped out of it with something new and stunning." Salon Engrossing . . . . Thrown is a sympathetic book about people who might otherwise be written off as dirtbags. . . . an intimate, artful look at violence on the smallest scale. Chicago Tribune "In Thrown, a fresh, funny, and highly cerebral treatise on the philosophical merits of cage fighting, she challenges not only the stigma surrounding the sport but the conventions of literary nonfiction itself." Boston Globe An exciting brand of nonfiction depicting the darker side of the American dream. . . . Kerry Howleys