''The Big Blow'' is a 2000 novel written by American author

Joe R. Lansdale Joe Richard Lansdale (born October 28, 1951) is an American writer and martial arts instructor. A prose writer in a variety of genres - Western, horror, science fiction, mystery, and suspense - he's also written comic books and screenplays. Se ...

. It tells a fictional story of real life

boxing Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermined ...

great Jack Johnson.

Plot summary

It's the year 1900 and a major Hurricane is brewing in the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of ...

. Future real life boxing champion Jack Johnson is training for an upcoming fight the promoters have no interest in him winning. The boxing fans in

Galveston, Texas Galveston ( ) is a coastal resort city and port off the Southeast Texas coast on Galveston Island and Pelican Island in the U.S. state of Texas. The community of , with a population of 47,743 in 2010, is the county seat of surrounding Galvesto ...

are incensed since an

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

fighter(Johnson) has soundly defeated the local white champion. So they send north to import John McBride, a dirty fighting

racist Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...

hired to do one thing: defeat Johnson and restore the championship to a white fighter. All the while the

1900 Galveston Hurricane The 1900 Galveston hurricane, also known as the Great Galveston hurricane and the Galveston Flood, and known regionally as the Great Storm of 1900 or the 1900 Storm, is the deadliest natural disaster in United States history and the third-d ...

is moving north towards the Texas coast. The

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...

on which this novel is based – which was originally published in the 1997 anthology edited by

Douglas E. Winter Douglas E. Winter (born October 30, 1950, in St. Louis, Missouri) is an American writer, critic and lawyer. Winter grew up in Granite City, Illinois. He graduated from Harvard Law School in 1975 and became a lawyer in Washington, DC, currently w ...

called ''Revelations'' – won a 1997 Bram Stoker Award.

Editions

This book was published as a

limited edition The terms special edition, limited edition, and variants such as deluxe edition, or collector's edition, are used as a marketing incentive for various kinds of products, originally published products related to the arts, such as books, prints, r ...

and trade hardcover by

Subterranean Press Subterranean Press is a small press publisher in Burton, Michigan. Subterranean is best known for publishing genre fiction, primarily horror, suspense and dark mystery, fantasy, and science fiction. In addition to publishing novels, short stor ...

and is long out of print.

Film Adaptation

Currently a film based on this novel is in production. Giannina Scott and

Ridley Scott Sir Ridley Scott (born 30 November 1937) is a British film director and producer. Directing, among others, science fiction films, his work is known for its atmospheric and highly concentrated visual style. Scott has received many accolades thr ...

are producing at Scott Free.

External links

Author's Official WebsitePublisher's Website

References

Novels by Joe R. Lansdale 2000 American novels Fiction set in 1900 Novels about boxing Biographical novels Novels set in Texas Culture of Galveston, Texas Cultural depictions of Jack Johnson Works by Joe R. Lansdale Bram Stoker Award for Best Long Fiction winners Subterranean Press books {{2000s-bio-novel-stub