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A.L. Kennedy

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On Bullfighting Paperback – March 20, 2001

by A. L. Kennedy (Author)

4.0 62 ratings

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An Anchor Books Original

One day, on the brink of despair and contemplating her own mortality, novelist A. L. Kennedy is offered an assignment she can’t refuse–an opportunity to travel to Spain and cover a sport that represents the ultimate confrontation with death: bullfighting.

The result is this remarkable book, which takes Kennedy and her readers from the living room of her Glasgow flat to the plazas del toros of Spain and inside the mesmerizing, mystifying, brutal, and beautiful world of the bullfight. Here the sport is death: matadors (literally "killers")are men and, increasingly, women who, not unlike the Roman gladiators before them, provide a spectacle to the crowd, a dance in which their own death is as present as that of the bull. Wonderfully relaying the elements of the sport, from the breeding of the bulls and the training of the matadors to the intricate choreography of the bullfight and its strange connection to the Inquisition, Kennedy meditates on a culture that we may not countenance or fully understand but which is made riveting by the precision of her prose and the passion and humor of her narrative.

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Perched on the brink of suicide, English novelist Kennedy (Original Bliss) clings to life by busying herself with an assignment to write about bullfighting. She treks to Spain, throbbing from the pain of a displaced disk, and tries "to discover if the elements which seemed so much a part of the corrida death, transcendence, immortality, joy, pain, isolation and fear would come back to [her]." Once there, she dives into the facts of the bullfight, describing its terms, tracing its history and plumbing its feeling. She examines the poetic and morbid ritual while studying Federico Garc!a Lorca's legacy and dwelling in her own recurring despair. She strives to create what Lorca referred to as duende, "any piece of art with 'dark notes.' " Thus, she parallels her personal crisis with the fear of the bulls, the precision of the matadors and the tragedy of Lorca's sacrifice in order to contemplate the connection between creativity and self-destruction. Unfortunately, Kennedy's own depression overwhelms the potential of her subject. At times she is so self-deprecating that it is difficult to continue reading, as when she writes: "Too many hotel rooms can cause depression if you count a room as empty with me inside it, which of course, I do." Still, although the reader never experiences the rush of invigoration inherent in the bullfight, Kennedy does find some solace in her project, illustrating that while life might be tenuous, it is also, thankfully, tenacious. (Mar. 27)
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

In many respects, it makes sense to assign a book on the ultimate blood sport to a creative writer who, critics say, isn't afraid to deal with pain in her work. Given Scottish novelist Kennedy's (Original Bliss, So I Am Glad) personal struggle with physical pain, her craft, and life itself, the book works successfully as a meditation on a sport that metaphysically deals with "urges to understand the termination of life and to celebrate survival." As an introduction to a sport, however, it fares less well. The author, who accepts the assignment of writing about bullfighting in the wake of the abortive suicide attempt that begins the book, spends much time reflecting on how the corrida ("bullfight") is less a sport than a religion. Readers may grow impatient with Kennedy's carping about present-day breeders producing more docile bulls, the animals' poor straight-ahead vision, tricks designed to slow or otherwise impair the beasts, and the excessive softening up of the bulls by the picadors' lances, complaints that leave scant room for any examination of other aspects of the sport. Recommended only for large sports collections. Jim Burns, Ottumwa P.L., IA
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From The New Yorker

Kennedy describes the Spanish bullfight, or corrida, with the same masochistic honesty and odd sense of humor that she brings to her novels. "On Bullfighting" begins with the author on a windowsill, and, except for the evidence of the completed book, it's easy to believe that she means to jump. The reasons for this are revealed slowly, amid much information about the corrida, including histories of the great matadors, the breeding of the toros bravos, and the psychology of the bullfight: "There's nothing like the death of a well-loved torero for showing the aficionado an uncomfortable self-portrait." Similarly, Kennedy's brilliant descriptions of the action in the ring are studded with sharp bits of autobiographical suspense, allowing us to take pleasure, like the audience at the corrida, in the artful communication of suffering.
Copyright © 2005 The New Yorker

From Booklist

In 1998, novelist A. L. Kennedy was offered a chance to travel to Spain to write about its national sport, bullfighting. Having fallen victim to depression and feeling suicidal, she decided to take on the task to "see if she could write again." And, boy, can she ever. For those who can't resist the comparison, rest assured that On Bullfighting is no literary knock-off of Hemingway's well-read tomes on the Spanish blood sport. In fact, Kennedy is almost anti-Hemingway in her approach: instead of emphasizing physicality and machismo as Hemingway was wont to do, Kennedy writes with sensitivity on the more spiritual aspects of ritual bullfighting. Nothing better highlights this point than the introduction, in which Kennedy begins, rather unexpectedly, by describing her desperate flirtation with suicide. She failed to carry it through but, in that momentary confrontation with death, learned to appreciate what the bullfighter must experience every time he steps into the ring. On Bullfighting is Kennedy's graceful meditation on the horror and beauty of a blood sport--the kind that comes close to religious mystery. Veronica Scrol
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"Odd, beautiful, and moving, On Bullfighting is one of the best books of the year."

From the Inside Flap

oks Original

One day, on the brink of despair and contemplating her own mortality, novelist A. L. Kennedy is offered an assignment she can t refuse an opportunity to travel to Spain and cover a sport that represents the ultimate confrontation with death: bullfighting.

The result is this remarkable book, which takes Kennedy and her readers from the living room of her Glasgow flat to the plazas del toros of Spain and inside the mesmerizing, mystifying, brutal, and beautiful world of the bullfight. Here the sport is death: matadors (literally "killers")are men and, increasingly, women who, not unlike the Roman gladiators before them, provide a spectacle to the crowd, a dance in which their own death is as present as that of the bull. Wonderfully relaying the elements of the sport, from the breeding of the bulls and the training of the matadors to the intricate choreography of the bullfight and its strange connection t

From the Back Cover

An Anchor Books Original
One day, on the brink of despair and contemplating her own mortality, novelist A. L. Kennedy is offered an assignment she can't refuse-an opportunity to travel to Spain and cover a sport that represents the ultimate confrontation with death: bullfighting.
The result is this remarkable book, which takes Kennedy and her readers from the living room of her Glasgow flat to the "plazas del toros of Spain and inside the mesmerizing, mystifying, brutal, and beautiful world of the bullfight. Here the sport is death: "matadors (literally "killers")" are men and, increasingly, women who, not unlike the Roman gladiators before them, provide a spectacle to the crowd, a dance in which their own death is as present as that of the bull. Wonderfully relaying the elements of the sport, from the breeding of the bulls and the training of the matadors to the intricate choreography of the bullfight and its strange connection to the Inquisition, Kennedy meditates on a culture that we may not countenance or fully understand but which is made riveting by the precision of her prose and the passion and humor of her narrative.

About the Author

A. L. Kennedy has published six novels, two books of nonfiction, and three previous collections of short stories. She has twice been selected as one of Granta’s Best Young British Novelists and has won a number of prizes, including the Costa Book of the Year Award (2007), the Somerset Maugham Award, the Encore Award, and the Saltire Scottish Book of the Year Award. She lives in Glasgow and is a part-time lecturer in creative writing at the University of St. Andrews.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0385720815
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Anchor; 1st edition (March 20, 2001)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 176 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780385720816
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0385720816
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 6.6 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.2 x 0.47 x 8 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #999,007 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #486 in Sports Essays (Books)
- #1,939 in Travel Writing Reference
- #3,249 in Travelogues & Travel Essays

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4.0 62 ratings

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A.L. Kennedy

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A.L. Kennedy has twice been selected as one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists and has won a host of other awards, including the Costa Book of the Year for her novel Day. She lives in London and is a part-time lecturer in creative writing at the University of Warwick.

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K. Rollins

Fascinating personal journey through the world of bullfighting

Reviewed in the United States on August 2, 2021

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The author takes the reader on a personal journey through bullfighting country, covering the history, mythology, and current status of this strange cultural phenomenon. Particularly interesting is her perceptive analysis of the inherent danger involved and the constant presence of death.

While Hemingway gives more details about bullfighting rules and practices in "Death in the Afternoon," this book provides a view without a specific bias for or against bullfighting. After reading this book, I came to see bullfighting as more than a combination of flash and gore.

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micah

A wonderful devices of autobiography

Reviewed in the United States on March 23, 2023

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I'm a huge fan of the literature of bullfighting. And interestingly enough, the best part of this book is Kennedy's descriptive narrative of the corrida she attended. Her writing is most enjoyable, very modern in texture and scope. I'd love to read a sequel, sans personal apologetics for having enjoyed the spectacle, just pure tauromachy! I've only rated this volume four stars, because her initial device, though extremally well thought out, doesn't deliver. Making this book neither an autobiography, nor a book on bullfighting. However, I recommend this book for those fainter of heart, who've only begun to dally with the bulls. I've not read any of her other works but imagine them as being finally crafted. Kennedy seems to push literature forward, its just that deep traditions find such progressions distasteful.

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JohnChaplyn

Intelligent succinct summation of the cultural activity

Reviewed in the United States on May 25, 2018

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First book I finished quickly in a while.
Intelligent succinct summation of the cultural activity.

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weston

“On Bullfighting” by A. L. Kennedy

Reviewed in the United States on October 20, 2014

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The author was rescued from a female funk by her editor’s offer to write a book on bullfighting. She dutifully read Hemingway, Conrad and others on the subject, went to Madrid for one fight of novilleros and to Seville for the real thing, then wrote a report of how bulls were actually weakened to the point that a man with a sword could kill them interlaced with a few nasty remarks about Hemingway and a true confession of her attempts to end it all while surviving on painkillers, concluding with a glossary of bullfighting terms. Apparently, the rest of life has been better for her.

2 people found this helpful

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Victor Williams

Good Book

Reviewed in the United States on April 10, 2014

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This book is pretty informative and entertaining. It successfully brought my imagination to universal Spain. The bit of violence is pretty intriguing.

Reviewed in the United States on April 29, 2019

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One would think a book called “On Bullfighting” would be written by someone knowledgeable about bullfighting. Not the case here. This book is a pathetic combination of a third rate book report on Hemingway’s Death in the Afternoon and a therapy journal cataloging a depressed Scots woman’s struggles with back pain. Near the end, she attends a few bullfights, where she manages to insult everyone from Hemingway, the people in the stands and the matadors. Whoever assigned this task to this person should be fired. Whoever recommends this book as any sort of a guide to bullfighting didn’t read it.

One person found this helpful

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Adagio

a rather shallow treatise. only useful for the ignorant

Reviewed in the United States on April 11, 2023

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the above says it all

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CeeBee13

Woman's Perspective on Bullfighting

Reviewed in the United States on October 9, 2013

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Not often does a woman get involved in the ritual of bullfighting. This book is moving, emotional and cathartic. Couldn't be written better.

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Top reviews from other countries

Mr. R. D. Wilson

beautifully written

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 22, 2014

Verified Purchase

I'd never read any AL Kennedy before, but I will certainly be reading more. I really liked the way that she interspersed her own frailties with her subject matter - making the book all the more accessible. I've only been to two corridas but her account of the 'messiness' - a mix of ballet, butchery, bravado and blood is just about how I remember it. Fascinating spectacle for a fascinating country.

One person found this helpful

Robi

Balancing on a pinhead

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 24, 2013

Verified Purchase

A notable attempt to explain Tauromaquia to a culture which will never accept it. The quirky twisting of the strands of Kennedy's disasterous personal life, physical and psychic pain, with the technical information on the art and telling historical anecdotes makes for a fascinating tapestry which I felt explained the world of the bulls much more satisfyingly than Hemingway's Death in the Afternoon.

One person found this helpful

Mr. P. G. Mccarthy

Strnagely moving

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 9, 2011

Verified Purchase

A.L. Kennedy's book is a very good work of literature, and very revealing; there is however as much in this book about her state of her mind as there is about the corrida; but the book is not likely to add much to your knowledge of bullfighting. It has a lot of personal reflections about the corrida that you may find interesting, as well as very interesting biographical material on famous matadors (especially Juan Belmonte, and his well-known technique of drawing the bull close to his body). Kennedy favours a 'ritualistic' interpretation of the corrida and much of what she says supports this view. She also has some very interesting things to say about bull breeding, and the abuses employed to make bullfighting safer for the bullfighters. Hemingway, in his day, was aware of this and used the word 'decadent'. What was exciting, he thought, was that a man would actually get in a ring with a strong bull. Something seemed to be lost with the breeding of smaller and more docile bulls.

In this book there are also some quite philosophical reflections about risk-taking and facing death. The book begins with a personal account of her own aborted suicide attempt, and the theme of death is kept in focus throughout the book (with a brilliant account of the life and death of Lorca, whom she has an affinity with, as well as Joselito). The real success of this book is the beauty of the writing and the sensitivity of the writer. I found it strangely moving.

One person found this helpful

Ant

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 9, 2014

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A poetic introduction to bullfighting which gets to the heart of the matter.

Ali Says

A good book but misleading text

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 9, 2018

Verified Purchase

A good book but misleading text. Yes it contains bullfighting experiences but authors depression eclipses the art of what these men face with the awesome power of the bull and the pitting of wits and connection therein.

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