The Greatest - Muhammad Ali

⭐ 10.0/10

(Originally written by Joseph)

This is one of those rare cases of a biography (autobiography in this case) where I'm not certain I like the main character but still love the book. Ali is, in many respects, very unlikeable. He is incredibly prideful and arrogant and easy to cheer against. Yet he also did things that were incredibly admirable that aged very well, such as being a civil rights advocate, and most of all refusing to participate in the Vietnam war at massive expense to himself. It's tragic that perhaps the greatest boxer ever lost a huge part of his prime for something so stupid.

Yet the best part of this book is it's authenticity. As arrogant as he is, he admits it all in his book, and goes very deep into all of it, never brushing any of it away. He was borderline abusive to his first wife, and he gives a detailed play by play of everything he did to her. You don't really see that in an autobiography. Additionally, he never really dwells on the good he did, but rather sticks to the facts and lets the reader know how often he nearly caved. It's a great work of self reflection that I was impressed by. Because the book only covers a few years, he can afford to go into more detail, recalling full conversations he had with people which adds to how genuine it all feels.

This is also one of the greatest narrating performances I've ever listened to. The narrator, Dion Graham, gets the voice and accent exactly right and brings you right into 60s America. It's not usually something I comment on, but this one was exceptional.

It's a unique autobiography because it is mostly topical rather than chronological and uses a lot of interesting devices to tell his story. It took me a chapter or two to adjust, but I appreciated it in the end as it felt almost cinematic and artistic. And speaking of which, I thought it was awesome how artistic the guy was. He has this dynamic warrior-poet thing going that I came to love.

I thought this book was a masterpiece. I'm not a boxing fan, but this made me interested in the sport. I'm didn't really like the person of Mohammed Ali, yet somehow he won me over. I thought this was a really valuable read... and should definitely make your black history month reading list!