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___________________
I
regard having someone try and hit me in the head as almost a
friendly gesture. In fact I have made some friends that way
and really only lost them when we stopped hitting each other.
Mischa
Merz
Boxing
Clever, SMH blog 18 Sep 2009
Mischa
has recently returned from
a successful 5-fight tip to the US
Review
by Bernie McCoy July 20, 2009
Mischa
Merz on Bruising: a Boxer’s Story
___________________
 Bruising
is the story of Merz’s long love affair with the art of
boxing - from throwing and receiving her first punches - to
competing in an Australian amateur title fight and beyond. Boxing
opens her to new ideas about what it means to be a woman, it
tests her courage as well as her physical limitations and connects
her with others in unexpected ways. It provides her with the
thrilling and often hilarious background against which to examine
myths about feminine virtue and physical weakness.
Bruising,
which was short listed for the Dobbie Award in 2001, and this
latest edition is updated with new material based on a trip
to New York where Merz spent time training with the women at
one of America’s oldest and most famous boxing gyms.
Mischa
Merz is a journalist and author of both fiction and non-fiction.
She has worked for newspapers and magazines for twenty years.
Bruising, originally published by Picador Australia, has been
reissued with updated material, by Vulgar Press. She lives in
Melbourne with her husband Peter.
www.mischamerz.com
Click
here to buy
Bruising
Bruising
takes us deep into the illicit realities of female anger and
aggression, and then by way of the male stronghold of the
boxing gym into the ring . . . Merz makes her own body, discipline
and courage her subjects of experiment as she explores the
terrors and the exhilarations of the female capacity for violence
with startling honesty. You can almost smell the sweat.
Inga
Clendinnen
Author of Tiger’s Eye
Every
now and then a book comes along that invites you to shake
off your dusty old prejudices, and stop thinking along dichotomous
lines . . . it's a gripping read and a timely call to re-examine
both sanctioned and unsanctioned violence.
Sian
Prior
The Age
The
work fits comfortably within the stylish non-fiction popularised
by writers such as Dava Sobel, Helen Garner and Janet Malcolm.
Mary Rose Liverani
The Australian
I
like writing that explores experience in a naked way. I
particularly like it when the writer uses words with the
fidelity of a harp string. This is a book about a young
woman with an intellectual orientation to life who takes
up boxing. I can honestly say I have never read anything
like it.
Martin Flanagan
The Age
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