Archie Moore, The Ole Mongoose by Marilyn G. Douroux was an attempt to write a great book about a great man and a great Champion. However, the author wasn't able to go the distance in this one.

Douroux knows her subject very well, and the book was written with Archie Moore's blessing, but the story of Archie Moore and his life is much more interesting than this book eventually proved to be.

Douroux tells the story of the young Archie Moore from the time he was born dirt poor in Mississippi, and details Moore's travels throughout his boxing career and life through such locales as Australia and South America in his quest to get a title shot that was denied him for so many years by the boxing establishment.

The problem with this book is that it is not very entertaining. While there are some anectdotes and "Moore-isms" throughout the book, Douroux commits a major faux pas by glazing over the details that surrounded some of Moore's biggest fights with Rocky Marciano, Yvon Durelle and Floyd Patterson. It was these bouts that helped Moore become who he was and build his legend, yet nary a few pages is dedicated to these historic events. It leaves the reader feeling shortchanged when Douroux skims over the most exciting part of Moore's life without much more than a few words of type.

What I'm trying to say is that Douroux wrote a book about a great boxer without including enough boxing related material. Douroux seemed much more interested in Archie's junkets to Australia and Argentina - in particular his hob nobbing with the Eva Peron and her husband.

The book is nice because the author seemingly had full access to Archie Moore and there are several pages of pictures and press clippings that one won't see anywhere else but this book. Also, Douroux goes into Moore's life after boxing quite deeply and fully explains Moore's hugely successful attempt to save young people from crime with his own ABC program.

However, by and large, the book leaves the reader wanting more. More details, more stories, more punch! If you're looking to learn more about Archie Moore then this isn't a bad book, but if you want the full story on Archie Moore and the career that helped make him great then this book doesn't make it to the last round.

You pick up this book hoping, and even expecting, that something riveting will meet you inside. But nothing does. Just a heavy dose of reporting who Archie meets, where, and when. This must be how intelligence reports read.

But it was better for Archie, as the extra contemplative son of TR, to do something cool with his life. I guess he did play a role in the Iranian activities of the CIA having something to do with the Shah. Which had to be more interesting than hanging around Oyster Bay reenacting scenes from his childhood.

It's just that this report of what he did, well, is just not that interesting to read. I keep it on a certain shelf in a certain place in Florida. I'll let you know if it hits me differently in the future.

This book is not at all what I hoped it would be. While the title entices, the content disgusts. The deer that Mr Philips writes of are dead. Who would want to do such things to as beautiful an animal as a deer? However, in spite of the horrible content, the wonderful pictures of the magnificent creature warrant two stars.