By Scott Wilkerson[email protected]Book Review: Gloves: A Boxing ChronicleRobert AnasiNorth Point Press 331 pp $24If the nature of sport is to stage metaphoric representations of the human drama, then it follows that boxing is the sport from which all others derive their symbolic force. And to its distinguished list of commentators throughout history, we may now add Robert Anasi who, with his book, Gloves: A Boxing Chronicle, affirms the notion that the fight-game is not merely a projection of human experience, it is a return to human experience. Gloves is, ostensibly, a detailed account of the author’s pursuit of a Golden Gloves title. Like a fighter who emerges from obscurity to become champion, Gloves is, at once, a revelation of new ideas and a summation of archaic wisdom. Gloves is both a street-wise introduction to the realities of the boxing world and an elegant, wistful surrender to its dreams.