Thom Jones, author of ‘The Pugilist at Rest,’ dies at 71

Thom Jones, an acclaimed short-story writer who drew upon family tragedy and his own painful struggles for “The Pugilist At Rest” and other collections, has died.
Jones died Friday in Olympia, Washington, his longtime home, according to his literary representatives, the Wylie Agency. He was 71 and died of complications from diabetes.
“The Pugilist at Rest,” a best-seller published in 1993, was his debut book and a finalist for the National Book Award. Its stories of violence, trauma and spiritual striving led to comparisons to Ernest Hemingway, Norman Mailer and fellow Pacific Northwest resident Raymond Carver among others.
“Jones’ steady strength is in the unprettified dialogue, in the fine gutbucket descriptions where irony tangles with Hemingwayan macho,” the Los Angeles Times noted in its review.