POETRY MOTION

Now in his mid-40s, Tonio Franco will be stepping into the MMA cage one last time. His opponent is the current bantam and featherweight champ, Lenny “Linc” Carrera—his nickname is short for “Lightning in a Cage.” Franco travels cross-country with his friend/trainer Joey, as the match is set in Los Angeles. Along the way is a stop in Las Vegas, near the residence of Randall Starks, the pedophile who years ago assaulted Franco’s then-teenage son, TJ. Now that Randall is out of jail after serving little—perhaps not enough—time, Franco plans to confront him with a Glock. TJ, meanwhile, is a 26-year-old rapper with a moderately successful debut album. The studio isn’t giving him much artistic freedom for his follow-up and pressures him into singing producer-approved lyrics. These include racial slurs for shock value. But TJ, whose orphan father’s origins are unknown, is “more Bieber than black.” As Franco struggles with both the 155-pound weight requirement and his moral predicament concerning Randall, TJ fights to record songs steeped in art rather than commercialism. Sheridan once again skillfully showcases his “lyrical prose,” in which narrative descriptions occasionally boast vibrant rhymes and/or wordplay. Franco, for example, had “an angry young man past where he was more goodfella than good fella.” But the poetic story also involves thoroughly absorbing characters. Enhancing the protagonists’ main objectives are smaller dilemmas: TJ and Linc are pals; Franco finds himself attracted to Joey’s assistant coach, Khloei, while the competitor’s wife, Julie, is back home in New Jersey. Notwithstanding the serious drama, this bracing tale has a superb, consistent sense of humor, particularly in the footnotes that are more wisecracking than informational.

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