But despite being what Westbrook and his marketers would label with the amorphous term "European" (in the p.c. multi-culti sense of the word), the autobiographic Harnessing Anger provided some valuable insights into the drive and motivation of an exceptional fighter.

Compared to the equally egocentric The Living Sword by Aldo Nadi, Harnessing Anger has little technical or practical value for readers looking for a free lesson with the master. (On occasion, there are even glitches in the terminology that hint at the influence Westbrook's apparently non-fencing co-writer may have had on the book.) The mercifully short yet out-of-place chapter on fencing history offers the standard cocktail of salle mythology.

The book's main value is that it allows you to look inside the head of a horrific opponent, puts into words what you would have to have the instict and intuition to recognize before and during the bout, lets you understand that there's a more personal and more dangerous force driving some top-level fencers than mere competitiveness. Only if you know your opponent you have a snowball's chance in hell to access your own strengths and shortcomings with honesty -- and may become a better fighter in the end.

And if the Peter Westbrook Foundation succeeds in turning only 10% of its young urban prodigies into top-ranking fencers (and I don't have a doubt Westbrook will succeed in his mission), this insight could be more valuable when confronting these hyper-motivated fencers on the strip than a month-long technical clinic in a Russian sports fencing gulag.