Review: Counterpunch by Aleksandr Voinov

How much you love this book will depend on a couple of things. Firstly, whether you like sports-themed books, and in particular the world of boxing, and whether you can buy into a world where slavery is part of society.  Those of you who have read Rachel Haimowitz's book Anchored: Belonging, will recognise this world as Aleks has taken the world she created in that book and used it as a background to this book.  However, this story is very different to Rachel's book.  In Belonging, Rachel focused on a man who was born into slavery (or at least had been a slave from a very young age) in Counterpunch Aleks takes a man who was sentenced into slavery after he murdered a woman.  Thus Brooklyn is a man whose very personality fights against  his slavery  and as such is a wholly different man from Daniel from Belonging.

The story opens with Brooklyn winning a boxing match. After he became a slave he was bought by a boxing syndicate, called the management, and since then he's risen through the ranks of slave boxers.  He's only a couple of matches away from winning the slave heavyweight title and all his aggression and focus is on winning that prize.  As well as boxing, Brooklyn's owners pimp him out after matches to rich people who want sexual favours from such a strong man.  One of those clients is Nathaniel who surprises Brooklyn with his gentle nature. After a few times together the two men form a bond, but secrets and the legality of slavery mean that things are not easy for them.

Let's face it, the character of Brooklyn is pretty magnificent.  He's a man who fights with all his being against what he has become but also recognises that he has to play the system or suffer the consequences. He likes boxing, taking pride in his boxing achievements, and yet he also knows that without his slave status he would never have had the discipline or opportunity to excel in the sport, a thought that sits uneasily with his frustrations.  He's also essentially a good man, despite his pent up aggression. He grieves for his lost life, his past actions which led him to this point, and suffers from flashbacks to the time when his life changed completely.  One of the things I found particularly clever about the book was the way that our perceptions of Brooklyn slowly change as more and more is revealed about him.  This information is drip fed through the book until by the end my understanding of Brooklyn as a person had been turned on its head.  It was skilfully done in a way that avoided dumping information, and also allowed for a development of Brooklyn which left him a complete and realistic character by the end of the book. I love it when authors can surprise me like this and it showed a maturity in the writing which I admired a great deal.

I have to admit, I'm not too keen on sports books. I'm also not a huge fan of boxing, as I find it rather a brutal sport.  The boxing side of things is described very vividly in this book with some matches shown almost in full, and some only alluded to.  These scenes were visceral and blunt in the way that the fights were shown, so much so that they made me wince a little inside.  The book is from Brooklyn's point of view so we get his thoughts during the boxing scenes. In a way this was helpful as there was a good mix of cold analysis, as Brooklyn plotted his next punch, and almost bestial emotions because Brooklyn is so filled with raw adrenaline, that he reacts with instinct.  Other aspects of the boxing life are dealt with in detail too, from Brooklyn's interactions with his trainer to how his fights are managed and publicised.  Those who like boxing will find this aspect fascinating, and it certainly adds considerably to the almost flawless setting and background to the novel.  Brooklyn is immersed in the boxing life, and the detail in the setting allows us to see how the structure of boxing dominates his life.  Having said all that, for someone like me who isn't particularly interested in the sport, I found myself less engaged when the fights were taking place, or when we were shown what life for a boxer is like.  This is just a personal preference though and not really a criticism of the writing, as I can see how some people would find those parts very interesting, and the fights thrilling.

It's slightly unfortunate that when compared to the very much larger than life Brooklyn, Nathaniel fades a little into the background.  I can understand their attraction, and I thought it rather clever the way that Nathaniel was able to see what Brooklyn needs and gain his trust by exploiting that.  We don't get Nathaniel's thoughts and so it wasn't always easy to understand his motivations. That possibly could have been the point - we, along with Brooklyn - don't know whether to trust him or not, but even by the end when all the secrets have been revealed, I wasn't completely convinced of his feelings for Brooklyn.  However,  I liked the fact that they are opposite in personality and lifestyle, and some of the dynamics of their relationship especially in terms of power play, was very intriguing.

I do have one niggle about the story which involves Brooklyn's trainer, Les.

This bit might be a bit spoilerish so skip this paragraph if that bothers you.

At the beginning of the story, Les and Brooklyn get on well, and there's even a bit of sexual attention between them.  Then later, after an incident where Brooklyn and Les are separated, Les turns on Brooklyn and treats him with coldness and disdain, even allowing others to physically hurt Brooklyn.  For the life of me, I couldn't figure out why this is.  Was it because Brooklyn had broken a slave 'rule'? In which case that didn't reflect on Les because he wasn't even in charge of Brooklyn at the time.  Was it because Brooklyn had been taken away from him and he was jealous that another person had trained Brooklyn? In which case it wasn't Brooklyn's fault because he's a slave and has to go wherever anyone tells him.  I just wish there had been a conversation between Les and Brooklyn which gave us some indication of why his feelings had changed so dramatically.  Brooklyn seems to accept this change and doesn't question it, although he is surprised at first.  This was an, albeit minor, blip in the characterisation which bothered me a little.

Those people who read Belonging and found it a little too much in terms of the slavery theme shouldn't be put off this book.  Brooklyn's feelings towards his slave status are explored thoroughly, as is the legal side of slavery in England, where this book is set.  There were a lot a little incidental details about life as a slave which built to provide a decent picture of the way slavery works in the book.  However, those who want to know more about the history of how slavery had developed won't find it in this book.

How to sum up my feelings for this book when they had been rather varied!  On one hand I loved, loved, loved the character of Brooklyn and the detail in the setting was breathtaking in its scope and breadth.  The story was complex with a high emotional content which made the story very engaging at times.  On the other hand I wasn't keen on the scenes in the boxing ring, found the sports stuff didn't hold my attention as much and thought Nathaniel a little dull compared with Brooklyn.  Overall, despite those few misgivings, I can still recommend this book, especially if you are a fan of boxing and it gets a grade of Very Good'.

Buy this book HERE.