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New Paltz, NY 
In the 1970s, Janet Hurley’s older brother, Brian, was the teenage protégé of a World  Heavyweight Champion who lived in their hometown. Brian was a young man of brilliance and wit. His talents were broad, yet boxing was the path he chose. And, soon enough, family life revolved around his training, his bouts, his future: Olympic medals? A pro career?
Glove Shy is a tender-tough memoir, a loving look at how a sport as elemental as boxing can obscure the powerful forces this family never saw coming. 
Hurley is a talented writer, with strong and vivid prose, and willing to get in the ring with her own past. Glove Shy is a well-told story of what happens when the blows hit far beyond the ropes.

Praise for Glove Shy…

  • Janet Hurley's Glove Shy is indeed a grace of reckoning. Exquisitely written, this tale of sibling love, of talent, character and addiction, chronicles the pain, the scars and the secrets that slowly tear a family apart. And like in a boxing match, Brian Hurley’s brilliant insights are the opening bell that announces each round. The narrative bears witness of his tortured journey as a gifted young boxer, mentored and trained by the great Floyd Patterson to be a future champ. It’s a story of his life of promise and of pain, both a blessing and a curse to him and to the many who love him. For anyone who loves the sweet science, the ancient sport of boxing, this books brims with the sweat and years of discipline it takes to reach those pure “moments of possibility” that frame the human story. Says fellow boxer Andy Schott to the author: “If we’re all here on earth for two blinks… and Brian was here for just one, isn’t that still worth something?” In a haunting memoir whose reticence weighs and measures for value and relevance each emotion and each word, Janet has made sure that her brother’s single blink matters in ways not counted by the victories, but by the words we leave; by the endurance of love and the fidelity of the human spirit.

    —Rachel Manley, author of Drumblair: Memories of Jamaican Childhood, Slipstream: A Daughter Remembers, Horses in Her Hair: A Grandaughter's story, In My Father's Shade

  • “The searingly sad story of a younger sister watching her brother— a gifted boxer— fighting powerful addictions. Her helplessness and frustration, along with the ring-smart power of her prose, all hit the reader like an overhand right to the face. Finish reading this book, then take a standing eight-count, blink your shattered vision back into focus, try to stop your eyes from watering.”

    —Jim DeFilippi, author of FORTY STEPS TO OLD SPARKY and THE MULES OF MONTE CASSINO

  • Janet Hurley's stunning memoir Glove Shy is an unflinching portrait of her Hudson River Valley family, centered on her older brother Brian, a boxing phenomenon trained by two-time World Heavyweight Champion Floyd Patterson. Brian's arc becomes part Icarus, part Hamlet, and his triumphs and tragedies leave no one close to him untouched. As Hurley herself struggles to escape the long shadows and snares of her brother's near-fame and grim misfortunes, an intertwining tale emerges: one of his tragic flaws and almost inevitable demise, and of her troubled yet powerful and loving indomitable spirit. Glove Shy is fast-paced, emotionally rugged, and just as poignantly moving as can be.

    —Bland Simpson, author of North Carolina: Land of Water, Land of Sky

  • In Glove Shy, Janet Hurley tells the deeply moving story of her love for her brother, Brian, a talented amateur boxer who struggles with addiction and depression. Along the way, she offers up a poignant group portrait of the renowned Huguenot Boxing Club, a unique world overseen by the enigmatic former World Heavyweight Champion Floyd Patterson. Throughout this harrowing memoir of remorse and reckoning, Hurley offers a clear-eyed account of her life with Brian; she also takes us with her on a journey to make sense of her brother’s tragic death. That she manages not to pull any punches, and that she shines a light on the subtle workings of race, class, and family in America, only makes her accomplishment all the more impressive. A knockout of a book.

    —Sebastian Matthews, author of Beyond Repair:Living in a Fractured State, Life and Times of American Crow, The Beginner's Guide to a Head On Collision, In My Father's Footsteps, We Generous, Miracle Day

  • Mid-West Book Review

    Glove Shy: A Sister's Reckoning demonstrates what the memoir format can do under the right hands and approach. On the surface, it details a family affair based on journals, letters, emails, interviews, press clippings, biographies, autobiographies, photos, public documents, and artifacts. Under this veneer of well-researched study into boxing history and a brother's involvements are also heartfelt stories of personal interactions, and growth that reach through generations with influence and power…

    Whether winning or losing, this story of brother Brian's boxing efforts, broader insights, and their impact on the family (which both comes apart and together in unexpected ways) creates an interplay of faith, determination, and flawed perspectives that are gripping and astutely examined…

    From fellow boxer Andy Schott's experiences and battles to bigger-picture questions of how walls and bridges are chosen and built both within and outside of the family, readers will find far more going on here than a singular account of the boxing world or a brother's life….

    Janet Hurley's special form of reckoning and remembrance draws readers into a milieu of battles and conflict that move beyond the ring and into the heart…