The Big Smoke

by Adrian Matejka Narrated by Adrian Matejka

Overview

Winner of the Anisfield-Wolf Award and finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry, the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and the National Book Award in Poetry-a collection that examines the myth and history of the prizefighter Jack Johnson



The legendary Jack Johnson (1878-1946) was a true American creation. The child of emancipated slaves, he overcame the violent segregationism of Jim Crow, challenging white boxers-and white America-to become the first African-American heavyweight world champion. The Big Smoke, Adrian Matejka's third work of poetry, follows the fighter's journey from poverty to the most coveted title in sports through the multi-layered voices of Johnson and the white women he brazenly loved. Matejka's book is part historic reclamation and part interrogation of Johnson's complicated legacy, one that often misremembers the magnetic man behind the myth.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

12/02/2013
The third book from Matejka (Mixology) covers the life of legendary heavyweight champion Jack Johnson, and like a fighter in the ring, these poems are fierce and fast on their feet: “It’s always better to whip than/ to be whipped, so I took the fight/ straight to the bigger boy. Not long// after, fighting became a way/ to make money.” This Jack Johnson, whose channeled voice dominates the book, resembles the real-life boxer in his lovers, opponents, enthusiasm for opera, and in the marks racism left on his life: “I always abide by the rules inside/ of the ring. Those dock fights were/ more about survival than winning.” The five sections here are woven with lyrics, letters, and brief interviews. Strongest are the shadow-boxing poems, titled alternately “Shadow-Boxing” and “The Shadow Knows,” because they go far beyond elaboration in verse to argue with the dominant narrative: “You’re not fooling me/ by quoting Shakespeare, Mr. Champion of the Negro/ World. No matter how/ carefully you enunciate,/ Tiny was a slave/ & the condition of the son/ follows the condition/ of the mother.” Matejka’s project straddles that risky line between life and art, and some readers may question whether it transforms Johnson’s life sufficiently into art, but others will find this to be a powerful and accessible poetry collection. (Nov.)

From the Publisher

Praise for The Big Smoke

“Just as we finally get a grip on the volatile Jack Johnson, Adrian Matejka, in his collection of poems, The Big Smoke, gives us a man wrestling with myth. He assays a figure bigger than life, and we see a legend shaped by American history—heroic and antiheroic—that is humanized by moments of poetic exhilaration as well as downfall. This poet’s Jack Johnson is made of sweat, blood, and vulnerability. Unadorned and honed, the poems in The Big Smoke are seasoned with easeful authority but jaunty as the Eagle Rock.” —Yusef Komunyakaa, author of The Chameleon Couch

“In this revelatory work, Adrian Matejka makes a chamber opera out of the highly mythologized and often deeply misunderstood life of Jack Johnson. Through the virtuosic interplay of voices, Matejka forces us to interrogate our own complicity in making histories that focus on the prize fights and the flashy cars while ignoring (and perhaps abetting) the intimate struggles and losses, the cruelties occurring in the places we call home, that make the rifts in our lives and our country deepen. This is a startlingly human book whose gorgeous language never keeps us from the harder truths and myths that make and unmake all of us.” —Gabrielle Calvocoressi, author of Apocalyptic Swing

Product Details

BN ID:	2940178328613
Publisher:	HighBridge Company
Publication date:	03/21/2023
Edition description:	Unabridged

Videos