cover image Buttercups and Strong Boys

Buttercups and Strong Boys

William Plummer. Viking Books, $17.95 (288pp) ISBN 978-0-670-80321-7

Mickey Rosario and his wife Negra run the gym in East Harlem where Plummer ( The Holy Goof ) went to learn about the subculture of boxing. The Rosario gym trains boxers for the Golden Gloves, a 60-year-old New York amateur tourney that early on attracted Irish and Jewish contenders and now lures blacks and Hispanics. Plummer analyzes what gets the young men involved and reports their struggles. His writing is dazzling, with a fine sense of metaphor and a splendid ear for the vocabulary and rhythms of speech. He conveys the hopes of these youngsters, noting that they ``denied themselves easy pleasures in quest of something bright and austere and symbolic of heroic endeavor.'' (Feb.)