Nick Tosches is wrongly labeled as a writer "rock" (which also means nothing) because he wrote among other Hellfire on Jerry Lee Lewis and a book about the country. It is far better that this label, contrary to Greil Marcus and / or Lester Bangs whose turgid and confused prose has no interest. As he had done to Dean Martin, the author focuses on a character, here the black boxer Charles "Sonny" Liston (whose favorite song is Night Train Jimmy Forest, hence the title), the more or less fictionalized biography is a pretext for a salutary demolition company of the American myth as we all swallowed at one time or another. Well written, well translated, this excellent thriller deserves a visit. SHUFFLE MASTER.
