The St. Paul Phantom tells the life stories of Mike and Tommy Gibbons, Irish-American brothers and boxers who, in the early 20th century, were regarded as two of the best prize fighters in the business.

Author Gerard Gibbons is the grandson of Tommy Gibbons. As such, he had access to a box of “family treasures” that included photos, diaries and love letters belonging to his grandfather and great uncle. He also draws on a long list of books and newspaper articles for historical accuracy.

This isn’t a straightforward biography, but perhaps better described as a nonfiction novel. Gibbons evokes Mike and Tommy’s experiences — from their impoverished upbringing and illegal underground fights in St. Paul, Minnesota, to their professional success in the Big Apple — with a novelist’s eye for detail and characterization. There’s plenty of dialogue and readers spend a lot of time in the characters’ heads, viewing events from their perspectives.

Gibbons writes with zeal and exuberance, especially when describing his great uncle’s fights (Mike, not Tommy, is the central character). Fans of “hardboiled” novelists like Raymond Chandler will appreciate Gibbons’ wisecracking prose style, while others might find it overly clever, as when he describes a deputy sheriff as “apple-cheeked with a dutch [sic] boy haircut, a cherub in a cheap suit with chewed fingernails and a poorly-drawn necktie. If he wasn’t a copper, he’d have to be a clown.”

The broader metaphors are likewise hit-or-miss, with Gibbons occasionally overplaying his hand to lend the story a grandiose, cosmic air. That includes cosmic in a literal sense: Much is made of Halley’s Comet and its symbolic relevance to the Gibbons brothers’ lives. In another example, Mike’s arrival in New York is tenuously likened to the appearance of British General William Howe in New York during the Revolutionary War.
.
Nevertheless, The St. Paul Phantom is a moving and engaging story. It is likely to interest die-hard and casual fight fans alike.