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The soul of a butterfly : reflections on life's journey
2004
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Library Journal Review
Fans of boxing great Muhammad Ali might not know quite what to make of this book. Despite its loosely autobiographical structure, the emphasis is not on Ali the warrior. His triumphs are touched on, but it is a softer side of the man that shows through: an exhausted Ali staying up until dawn doing card tricks for a group of Kinshasa children after his 1974 fight with George Foreman; a repentant Ali including a poem of apology to Joe Frazier. This book is devoted more to homilies, aphorisms, and poems on such matters as love, living a good life, and true happiness-to the extent that it might seem as if Ali is channeling Kahlil Gibran. Readers anxious for a more straightforward work of autobiography like Ali's The Greatest (o.p.) might be disappointed. But those who forgave Ali his cruel toying with Floyd Patterson, joining the controversial Nation of Islam, and verbal abuse of Frazier will forgive him here and be glad that this book affirms the essential decency we always saw in the man. Because it's Ali, there will be demand, so this is recommended for most public libraries. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 2/15/04.]-Jim Burns, Jacksonville P.L., FL (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publishers Weekly Review
Few lives have been more zealously recorded in movies, photography and literature than Ali's. So it's fortunate that this book is not so much a memoir as a collection of the supreme athlete's spiritual contemplations. Structured as a series of minichapters on abstract virtues-love, friendship, peace, wisdom, understanding, respect, etc.-it consists of Ali's religious reflections, buttressed by personal anecdotes, Sufi parables, aphorisms, personal letters and poetry. What might be seen as mawkish or cloying from someone less universally beloved has real poignancy coming from boxing's brashest champion ("The Mouth" was one of his many nicknames), who is slowly being driven behind a wall of silence by Parkinson's. The book has the intensity of a deathbed confessional. Ali is settling his accounts, apologizing to Joe Frazier and Malcolm X for hurting them. But primarily he is giving advice to his many children, for whom he obviously feels an overwhelming love. (His daughter Hana addresses her love for her father directly in the book.) Besides Ali's love, readers will be struck by his remarkable faith. With the Black Muslims, he found not only an expression of his own pride in being black but also a personal relationship with Allah, which served as the wellspring for the remarkable courage he displayed both inside ("The Rumble in the Jungle") and outside (refusing the Vietnam draft) the ring. It's hard not to be moved by Ali's spirit. Photos. Agent, Susan Crawford. (Nov. 16) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
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