THE FIGHT by NORMAN MAILER

One of the best pieces of sports reportage stems from an original and established genre of deep penetrating psychological workings devised by a generation of writers of which Mailer was a major founding contributor.

"D’Amato the boxing trainer and Doctorow the novelist share the same conception of professionalism, and both believe Mailer meets it. D’Amato, who describes Mailer as “someone who was curious not only about boxing but also about people’s minds,”"

In the Book Mailer becomes an almost spectral presence in a tight scene that comes close to a prose fly on the wall type treatise on the moods , feelings and sensory biography of the participants.

As the reviews point out this style can be seen as the Author giving himself the centre stage as much as the participants , but they miss the point that in order to "be with them" he has to adopt the persona of being and moved with them in very close physical and emotional ways.

The video below gives a brief reading from the Book by Alec Baldwin