Golden Boy

People are inclined to laugh at Joe, the protagonist of Clifford Odet’s Golden Boy and a moody young Italian with “cockeyed” notions. At heart a musician – he has a real talent for the violin – he longs to be “top man” in some other field. So he goes into the prizefighting racket and becomes surprisingly good at it. In each fight he becomes more and more brutish and finally in a big match he kills his opponent.