12 Rounds in Lo's Gym: Boxing and Manhood in Appalachia

by Todd D. Snyder

Questions of class and gender in Appalachia have, in the wake of the 2016 presidential election and the runaway success of Hillbilly Elegy , moved to the forefront of national conversations about politics and culture. From Todd Snyder, a first generation college student turned college professor, comes a passionate commentary on these themes in a family memoir set in West Virginia coal country.
 

12 Rounds in Lo’s Gym is the story of the author’s father, Mike “Lo” Snyder, a fifth generation West Virginia coal miner who opened a series of makeshift boxing gyms with the goal of providing local at-risk youth with the opportunities that eluded his adolescence. Taking these hardscrabble stories as his starting point, Snyder interweaves a history of the region, offering a smart analysis of the costs—both financial and cultural—of an economy built around extractive industries.

Part love letter to Appalachia, part rigorous social critique, readers may find 12 Rounds in Lo’s Gym —and its narrative of individual and community strength in the face of globalism’s headwinds—a welcome corrective to popular narratives that blame those in the region for their troubles. 

240 pages, Paperback

Published February 16, 2018

Reviews

[Kim Donehower]

A lovely hybrid of academic and deeply personal writing, exploring issues of masculinity in Appalachia, while at the same time delivering a beautiful and complex portrait of a father by his son. And the boxing scenes are poetry.

[Jonas]

You can smell the blood, puberty, and tears dancing with the vapors of a recently disinfected mat. The sweet taste of victory makes a fleeting appearance, but it’s the raw determination of the fighters and a downtrodden, mountain variety of hope all covered in a thick patina of coal dust that leaves you full. Thanks, Todd. Finally, the bad taste of Hillbilly Elegy has been exorcised from my mouth.

[Rachel]

I read this book in less than two days. It's about boxing and manhood in Appalachia, but it's also about forging our identity and the fight to become who we are meant to be. It's about family, and work, and systems of oppression, and the hard cold world, and giving .... so many themes here to resonate with. BTW - chapter 6 introduces my father, who died just two months before I was born.

[John Julius]

In the first section, Todd D. Snyder really puts on a clinic. Impressive stuff. Although he was born a trailer park kid in a West Virginia coal town, his writing style reminded me of the NYC “deadline artists” Pete Hamill and Jimmy Breslin. I discuss the book in full here: https://youtu.be/XPZy6DI7t9k

[Megan]

Sometimes the timeline was a bit difficult to remember for context, but I really enjoyed the book and the author’s inclusion of historical/cultural notes. I see it’s pretty universal in strangers asking you to condense this stuff into a 30-second answer when they ask you why West Virginia is so poor/so unhealthy/so whatever. 🙃

[Christopher Shawn]

An extremely personal and well-written look at both the human and societal legacies of the coal mining industry and the tough-guy culture of a small Appalachian town. An interesting and unique twist on the new "Hillbilly Elegy" genre.

[Olav Nilsen]

Denne var kanon bra. Liker du boksing, er du interessert i sosiale forhold i USA, har lest og likt Hillbilly Elegy av Vance er denne midt i blinken for deg