Title: Muay Thai Fighter: A Farang's Journey to Become a Thai Boxer
Author: Paul Garrigan
Publisher: Maverick House
Year: 2012
223 pages
The title is a misnomer that I wouldn't pick at except that Garrigan identified the distinction between being a fighter and training. This is in some ways a shaggy dog story, in that Garrigan in fact never fights. "Muay Thai Training" would be a more accurate title. What happens here isn't a lot, and it could have been had Garrigan shifted his focus when it became clear that he wasn't actually going to fight. I think he could have had more to say about his relationship to Muay Thai, its effect on his life philosophy, and how, in the end, not fighting might be an anodyne to the all-or-nothing thinking that he notes as part of his addictive approach. Not-fighting as a triumph of moderation is an interesting story. Not-fighting because so then I didn't fight after all isn't.
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