After being approached by a cable television production company to engage in a series of exhibition matches with Fats, he meets his old nemesis in the Florida Keys.

Fats, now in his late sixties, is in poor health, but he is financially independent and spends his days photographing birds and fishing.

Eddie gets discouraged after the beating and obtains employment with a university, running a student recreation area that includes a pool hall.

The store begins promisingly but is the target of a malicious local youth who had made sexual advances to Arabella.

Publishers Weekly called the book "taut and evocative", and the Chicago Tribune said that "Tevis has added some of the glamor, but the grit remains.

"[3] In the Lexington Herald-Leader, reviewer Rick Bailey wrote: "Once more, as he did years ago, Tevis lays it on the line.

"[2] The novel was adapted into a 1986 drama film directed by Martin Scorsese from a screenplay by Richard Price, based on Tevis' novel.

[4][5] The film stars Paul Newman and Tom Cruise, with Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Helen Shaver, and John Turturro.