At Home with Muhammad Ali

April 8, 2019
Ali (Ali on Ali) crafts a compassionate and intimate memoir of life with her father, championship heavyweight boxer Muhammed Ali (1942–2016). In her telling, Muhammad was the epitome of a doting father to his nine children— especially the outspoken, determined Hana, who was born to Muhammad’s third wife, Veronica Porche. Ali depicts her father as a deeply religious Muslim who was dedicated to helping those he encountered—whether it was a man he didn’t know who was contemplating leaping out of a ninth-floor window, or a friend and minister advocating for the release of American hostages in Iran in the 1980s. A family man who grew up in Louisville, Ky., during the height of segregation, Muhammad kept extensive audio diaries throughout his life, as well as tapes of his daughters’ lighthearted giggles and his buoyant phone calls to friends like fellow fighter George Foreman. Ali, however, doesn’t shy from discussing her father’s Achilles heel—women—a subject he didn’t talk about on the recordings. Through frank talks with her mother, Ali learned of their courtship and the events that led to their divorce (“Listening to my mother, I felt like a whole new world was revealed to me”), and it is through her mother that she relived the early stages of her father’s Parkinson’s disease. Ali’s tender memoir is a heartfelt tribute to her father.

May 1, 2019

What was boxing's "The Greatest" like when he was out of the ring or the cameras weren't rolling? The answer according to daughter and author Hana Ali is simply and unquestionably: the greatest. Here, the third youngest child of Muhammad Ali (1942-2016) draws from a treasure chest of previously unseen material to paint a picture of the private Ali. Included are extensive audio tapes he made in the late 1970s and early 1980s of himself interacting with Hana, her sister Laila, and his third wife, Veronica, at their Los Angeles home. There are also published and unpublished photos; journals, poems, and notes; undelivered love letters from Muhammad to Veronica, written even as their marriage was slipping away; and memories from the time the family broke apart until Ali's death. VERDICT Scholars of the sweet science won't find much new here, but Ali's fans and general readers will enjoy a charming glimpse into the private life of one of the most public of men (and few will come away from the author's description of her last visit to their old home with dry eyes).--Jim Burns, formerly with Jacksonville P.L., FL

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2019
The author is the third youngest of Muhammad Ali's children. Sometime in the late seventies, her father began keeping audio diaries, which Hana inherited. Along with excerpts from the diaries, Hana Ali provides context and details about domestic life in the Ali household. For example, when a young Hana announced that Jesus was the son of God. Ali, a devout Muslim, immediately enrolled her in a school affiliated with a nearby mosque. But he could bend, agreeing to have a Christmas tree in the house. The Ali who emerges here is just a dad with a grade-school daughter, desperate to learn the identity of the boy she was infatuated with. Hana also explores her father's role as an unofficial diplomat for the U.S. This is a wonderful look at an Ali we haven't seen much of in the past. He's funny (loved to do magic tricks), affectionate, and kind, and even when he was conflicted, as he was with Christmas for his Muslim family, he found a gentle, knowing path forward. Dozens of family photos are included.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)