The Quick and The Rest

About the Book

At the age of five, Tony Huarte receives a prophesy from an erotic gypsy woman –– a birthmark, he is told, reveals that he has a special gift of quickness. Pilar, the sensuous, spell-casting fortune-teller, is also a world-class flamingo dancer. She takes Tony under her wing and introduces him to 40s jazz music, inspiring his lifetime love of jazz. As early as ten, Tony’s elite quickness and determination, spurred on by Pilar and his uncle Pablo, enable him to have early triumphs in the youth boxing tournaments. Set against the 50s - 80s jazz scene, The Quick and The Rest is a 120,000 word fiction novel. It is the chronicle of a young boy of simple emigrant parents who discovers that he is gifted with elite reactions and hand-eye coordination. His profession as a boxer and the aftermath take him and his boyhood football companion Charlie on a wild odyssey through the brutal championship fights, the bright lights of the jazz world, the dangerous contacts with criminals, the adventure of an epic sail, and the encounters with many stunning, but problematic, women. Tony’s penchant and magnet for violence outside the ring leave him with a smashed right hand, several dead men and his challenge for the top of the professional boxing world severely, as well as his physical and mental well-being, jeopardized. These violent engagements are, for the most part, the result of his obsession with highly desirable women and the fast living that accompany them.

About the Author

The Quick and The Rest is a work of fiction that draws heavily on the author’s knowledge and experience in the fight world and his many sailing passages, as well as the eclectic group of fighters, sailors, jazz musicians and ladies that he has encountered. While attending the University of Notre Dame on a physics scholarship, he became the Light-Heavyweight Boxing Champion. He continued to develop his boxing skills and knowledge of ‘the-sweet-science’ by sparring in the fight gyms of Santa Monica and Los Angeles for a ‘dollar-a-round,’ for as many as 30-40 rounds a week for several years. Growing up in Los Angeles during the ‘jazz years,’ he frequently visited the many jazz venues of LA and came to love the music and value its messengers, both as artists and as very witty company. After seven years of amateur boxing, he replaced its excitement and electricity for the adventure and beauty of sailing. For over 30 years he sailed in Southern California waters and then spent 7 years cruising the Mexican Riviera and the Caribbean’s Windward and Leeward Antilles. His first book, Currents Beneath the Sea was written while living on his sailboat in Puerto Vallarta and Zihuatanejo. It is a blend of factual/fiction that parallels some of his own experiences and adventures in both the sailing and pugilistic worlds.