Gorilla Suit: My Adventures in Bodybuilding FROM THE PUBLISHER
This is the first-ever, honest, behind-the-scenes look into the world of professional bodybuilding and what the actual life of a bodybuilder is like. Paris shows us the heat of the competition, explains what drives these athletes to push their bodies to the limit, and beyond, and discusses the price bodybuilders pay for this perfection, which includes the use of dangerous growth drugs. This is a story about chasing a dream, being willing to do anything to get that dream, and then growing frustrated with the world that dream is lived in. It is the discovery that, after years of climbing a mountain and finally reaching the top, perhaps on reconsideration it was the wrong mountain to begin with.
SYNOPSIS
The first inside look at the world of bodybuilding by a former Mr. America and Mr. Universe.
FROM THE CRITICS
Mark Athitakis
Bob Paris wants you to feel
his pain. Or maybe just his bulging biceps; he
never seems quite sure which. If his memoir
reveals anything, it's that a bodybuilder's
emotions are inextricably linked to the taut,
chiseled body that he suffers to create: A
dysfunctional family translates itself into a bench
press, loneliness is reworked as a set of leg curls.
Paris, a winner of the Mr. America and Mr.
Universe contests in the mid-80s, earnestly
catalogues his litany of sorrows to point out that
beneath his rock-hard exterior lies a human being
with the same concerns as those of your average
girlie-man. But Gorilla Suit fails to give either
him or his sport the kind of poetry or pathos he
tries so hard to convey.
Paris' story is a rags-to-riches tale, which he
rarely provides with any color beyond simple
caricatures and clichés. Growing up in the Bible
Belt, the dope-smoking Teenage Loser falls in
love with bodybuilding, slowly rises up the
Ladder of Fame until he moves to the sport's
Mecca, Los Angeles, becomes a world champion,
then disowns the muscle world altogether in
disgust and frustration. Through that time, he
struggles with his Abusive Father, Opportunistic
Svengalis, coming out as a Gay Man and the
prevalence of steroids in the sport. Paris loves
bodybuilding so much that he hates it; he's full of
righteous rage about how it could be a major,
Olympic-class sport if only it cleaned up, got
organized and taught the media that it's more than
a circus sideshow of "freaky" bodies.
Paris' honesty and even-handedness are
admirable, but that doesn't mean his tale is
particularly fascinating. Having already covered
the muscleman market in three fitness books and
confessed his struggles as a gay man in Straight
From the Heart (co-written with his lover, Rod
Jackson), Paris intends Gorilla Suit for the
general interest market, but it lacks the necessary
depth. Its pages of invective aimed at guru Joe
Weider -- who almost single-handedly created
professional bodybuilding while tacitly allowing its
corruption -- might cause a stir amongst Muscle
and Fitness subscribers, but most will see him as
merely a Crusty-but-Benign Entrepreneur. As for
the pathos, it rarely gets more sophisticated than
Paris' confession to a friend: "Even when I wear
real clothes, I still bulge out of 'em like I'm
Frankenstein's monster trying to disguise himself
in a tuxedo."
By the book's end, the collision of past and
present has all the impact of a 5-pound
free-weight landing on a gym floor mat; we've
learned a little about bodybuilding and a bit more
about Paris himself, but if there's any drama or
mystery in an incline dumbbell press, he doesn't
expose it. For all those muscles, he's a nice,
well-meaning guy, never one who'd kick sand in
the face of some 98-pound weakling. So instead
he just strolls along the beach by himself,
Hallmark-card poetic, kicking sand around at
nothing in particular. -- Salon
Kirkus Reviews
A former Mr. Universe, Paris is an unexpectedly eloquent guide through his bodybuilding career, wiping off the posing oil to reveal a sport populated by insecure, drug-gobbling competitors, all beholden to a single Machiavellian puppet master.
Paris, who has previously cowritten a perky memoir of gay marriage, Straight from the Heart (1994), and several exercise books, started lifting weights as a teenager in the late '70s, discovering in this pastime an enticing, self-esteem-building alternative to partying with his slacker friends and enduring the abuse of his alcoholic father. After being thrown out of the house at 19, Paris made his way to the bodybuilder's mecca, L.A., and endured many harrowing months of struggle before getting steady work as a trainer and winning his first competitions. Although Paris believes bodybuilding to be an intrinsically worthy sport, he paints a damning portrait of its chief booster, Joe Weider, who publishes muscle magazines and sells training equipment and nutritional supplements; Weider's brother is the head of the organization that sanctions competitions and awards the titles. Bodybuilders make their money on contracts with Weider for endorsements and appearances; to be useful endorsers, they need exposure in his magazines and, of course, victories in his brother's contests. Paris carefully expresses his gratitude for Weider's sometime support, but he also suspects that calling for drug testing and being openly gay cost him titles in the latter part of his career. The book alternates between past history and the issues involved in Paris's recent contemplation of a comeback at age 35: Unwilling to go back on the steroids that give musclemen their "freaky" bodies, and wary of the Weider way of doing business, Paris seems understandably unlikely to return to the fray.
At once empathetic and scathing, Paris's memoir conveys with equal persuasiveness both why he became a bodybuilder and why he found it impossible to remain one.
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING
Bob Paris has guts to stand up for what he believes--an admirable quality." — Frank Zane, three-time Mr. Olympia title holder
An apologia for every hard-core bodybuilder who understands that while their pursuit may well destroy their health, it feeds their soul. He's the only writer on bodybuilding who doesn't lie for a living. Bob Paris is the first bodybuilder in history with both biceps and balls. — Sam Fussell, author of Muscle
Home
