Book Review – Knockout: The Sexy, Violent, Extraordinary Life of Vikki LaMotta

From the beginning, I must say that I was prejudiced against publishing this book in the first place.

In the mid-1980s, Vikki LaMotta, who was a good friend of mine, asked me to write her biography. I was busy working on a novel at the time and told him I couldn’t do it. She then asked me if she knew Tom Hauser. I replied that she knew him a bit as we were both members of the Boxing Writers Association. I said that although I never read any of his writings, he had a good reputation in the business. I advised him to hire a lawyer to handle the contract to write the book. She told me yes and that she had the final say on whether the book would be published.

We had dinner together a couple of times a month, and she told me that she had started working with Hauser on the book, mostly at her apartment in Battery Park City, in midtown Manhattan. When she finished the first draft of the book, she was not happy with the result of the book and canceled the project. As far as I can remember, this was in 1987, or possibly 1988.

In 2005, Vikkie LaMotta died after undergoing heart surgery, and with the permission of her surviving family members, the book was released in 2009. Of course I had to buy it, to see if it did justice to a woman who was good friend of hers mine for a decade.

Not because of Hauser, who is a good writer, for me the book fails. She is never as interesting in the book as she was in real life.

But like I said above, this was probably a story best left untold anyway.

It is just my opinion.