Loading ...I was prepared to dislike Eric Raskin. After all, he wrote an oral history for Grantland about the 1987 mega-fight between Sugar Ray Leonard and Marvelous Marvin Hagler and somehow managed to ignore the only book solely about the fight. Which happens to be my book, “Sorcery at Caesars: Sugar Ray’s Marvelous Fight”.
So I sent a note and a copy of ‘Sorcery’ to Raskin. He returned an e-mail with an apology and an explanation that he had never heard about my book. Not a surprise – most haven’t – I’m still waiting for it to catch fire among the two billion people in China, the Indian sub-continent, and Omaha. Even I forget about it – which is not to say it’s forgettable. It just missed the zeitgeist that seems to be tethered to Bill Simmons – the guy who tabbed Raskin for Grantland. You might say Simmons has a monopoly – Occupy Grantland! – on the zeitgeist. Until it moves on – which is a funny thing about zeitgeist.
Raskin proved to be more than courteous and likable. He revealed a vulnerable side in expressing the desperation of life as a free-lancer. He wrote in his e-mail: “I have two kids under the age of five and I’m scrambling my ass off to make a living as a writer – and failing because of how much money it takes to raise a family these days…”
When I asked him to do the interview, and elaborate on his life as a free-lancer, he agreed. As hard times deplete the spirit of working Americans, Raskin and other free-lancers are pushed toward an economic precipice. Raskin talks about life on the edge in this interview.
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