Muhammad Ali: A View from the Corner

Pacheco was Ali's doctor from the time the young boxer won a gold medal at the 1960 Olympics until the aging champion disregarded Pacheco's advice about quitting in 1977. He gives us an Ali who is warm, generous and kind, fond of the spotlight and handicapped by his inability to get close to white people, a heritage from his racist father fostered by the Muslims. Pacheco also pays great attention to what he terms the Ali Circus, the strange mix of individuals who constituted the fighter's entourage, ``a traveling menagerie of human flotsam and jetsam,'' and to the four wives and other women in the life of a man who almost literally had to fight off female admirers. The author also has his say about Ali's sad condition today, which he declares to be the result of too many ring battles. The biography is absorbing reading, and there are many superb photos. (June)