The Longshot

June 22, 2009
Four years earlier, top Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighter Cal took on the powerful Rivera, who won the fight by judges’ decision. Now, at 29, Cal’s out to stage a comeback, à la Rocky Balboa. Spare and beautifully written, this debut novel follows Cal and his loyal trainer, Riley, as they head to Tijuana for the rematch. Cal and Riley privately wonder if they’ve made a huge miscalculation; Rivera this time is after a knockout, and Cal doubts that his body can withstand Rivera’s pounding, and questions if the fire in him is passion or just an overwhelming fear of retirement. In the world Kitamura creates, only these three men exist; there is no family or friends. She reveals Cal’s heart and mind as he struggles to understand himself as a man and as a fighter and paints the portrait of Riley as a loving but gruff friend and mentor. Kitamura, a journalist who for years has followed MMA matches, brings a physicality to her story with descriptions of the action so vivid the reader feels the pain of every punch and kick.

June 15, 2009
Down-on-his-luck fighter travels south of the border for the rematch of his life.

In her debut novel, journalist Kitamura indulges her interest in the mechanics of the mixed martial arts world with a sketch of two men at the edge of an emotional cliff. With throaty prose and peripheral detail, the author captures three decisive days in the lives of Cal, a wunderkind pugilist four years past a humiliating defeat, and Riley, Cal's trainer and protector, who knows quite well what it's like to spit out your own teeth. Their authentic, even touching partnership comes complete with the old arguments and terse verbal shorthand of longtime comrades. Their path has brought them back to the bloody rings of Tijuana for a rematch against Cal's nemesis Rivera, a bloodthirsty, one-punch titan whose claim to the championship has brought him acclaim and affluence. Cal, meanwhile, has been on unsteady psychological ground ever since Rivera beat him four years ago."Fighting was never easy again. He took some losses. He sat and waited for his head to get back into the game. He waited fight after fight and then it hit him how long he'd been waiting. It hit him, how far away the game had gone. He saw it for the first time and he was bewildered by it. That the whole thing could be so fragile. That it could fall away so quick." The plot resolution is all but inevitable, the narrative short on momentum and long on self-realization, but Kitamura succeeds in penning a satisfactory addition to the canon of fight literature. While neither as heady as Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club nor as visceral as Craig Davidson's The Fighter, this convincing meditation on combat skews admirably close to the stories of F.X. Toole as it plunges toward its harrowing ending.

A real shot to the heart—a resonant portrait of a man out to prove he can take anything the world throws at him.

(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

Starred review from June 1, 2009
Mixed-martial-arts fighter Cal is a gifted athlete who four years earlier lost a decision to Rivera, the unbeaten champion. Kitamuras debut novel picks up Cals story in the three days leading up to a rematch, focusing almost exclusively on Cal and his longtime trainer, Riley. In the sparest, simplest prose, the novel takes the reader into the minds, hearts, and bodies of these two highly dedicated and taciturn men. Her descriptions of mixed-martial-arts fighting are brutal yet beautiful. She builds tension, uncertainty, and even fear as the match approaches; the fear causes both Cal and Riley to consider whether Riley is letting down his friend by recognizing it. Kitamura makes the hours before the match drag excruciatingly, until Cal enters the arena and is stunned by the crowd noise, the blinding lights, and the pure clean madness of Riveras eyes. Her story is compelling, and her writing is spellbinding, both in its power and beauty. This is one of those novels that catches the reader by surprise. Kitamura is a genuine discovery. Expect to hear much more from her.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)