The Body Shop by Paul Solotaroff - BOOK REVIEW and GIVEAWAY (US/CAN thru 10/3)

Title:  The Body Shop
Author:  Paul Solotaroff
Publisher: Little, Brown - a division of Hachette Books
Publish Date:  7/26/2010
Hardcover, 304 pages
ISBN:  9780316011013





From the publisher's website:

As a scrawny college freshman in the mid-1970s, just before Arnold Schwarzenegger became a hero to boys everywhere and Pumping Iron became a cult hit, Paul Solotaroff discovered weights and steroids. In a matter of months, he grew from a dorky beanpole into a hulking behemoth, showing off his rock hard muscles first on the streets of New York City and then alongside his colorful gym-rat friends in strip clubs and in the homes of the gotham elite. It was a swinging time, when "Would you like to dance?" turned into "Your place or mine?" and the guys with the muscles had all the ladies--until their bodies, like Solotaroff''s, completely shut down.

But this isn't the gloom-and-doom addiction one might expect--Solotaroff looks back at even his lowest points with a wicked sense of humor, and he sends up the disco era and its excess with all the kaleidoscopic detail of Boogie Nights or Saturday Night Fever.

Written with candor and sarcasm, THE BODY SHOP is a memoir with all the elements of great fiction and dazzlingly displays Paul Solotaroff's celebrated writing talent.

My Take:   As anyone who reads my blog regularly knows, I have a rather testy relationship with memoirs.  Most I find to be either a flagrant lapse into "other-blame" (my mom was horrible to me; thereby I did coke) or a dry recounting of events that don't feel as though they actually happened to ANYone.  Other times, the "self-promotion" factor becomes too much for me - I feel that if you're really THAT great, you don't have to toot your own horn - others will do it for you.

So why read a memoir about a weight-lifting, steroid-shooting hulk of a guy that I have nothing in common with?  I read other good reviews ... I'm still trying to get over my love/hate relationship with memoirs, and I figured, "why not?"

For the first few pages, I asked myself, "why", as I plunged right into the middle of a scene with no prelude and a dizzying march of events.  Then I got past that first section.

This is an extremely well-written account of a dorky, bookish Jewish guy from Prospect Park stumbling into a college just to do "something", seeing an Apollo of a dorm-mate who offered to show him how to bench, and finding out that simply pumping iron wasn't enough to get him the kind of body that would get the girls.

Another lifter introduces him to 'roids, and the bulk starts to pile on.  His taste in steroid cocktails is further refined when he meets Angel, a caramel god who carries a boatload of cash and has girls falling all over themselves to get to him.

We are participants in a spiral and can easily see how slippery a slope it becomes once you allow yourself to be caught up in the false glam and admiration that money and muscles get you.  Especially when your father has been both physically and seemingly emotionally absent, and you have a mother that could have used the benefit of today's illuminating grasp of the nature of bipolar disorder.

I've never been a hormonally-addled, skinny Jewish kid who girls never take a second look at, but the writing in this book makes even ME see how that kid felt.

Is it a guy book?  Definitely, BUT it also gives us women insight into the male psyche that we might be lacking.  After reading this, we might just understand what happened with that 'first, crazy love' that went off the rails.  If you are a parent, it might help you understand the kind of thinking that makes your young adult veer off the rails, no matter how well-raised.

Would I recommend it?  Yes; I definitely would.

QUOTES:

As a kid long used to the quirks of his own company, I never fully grasped how the experience of reading Dickens was enhanced by playing "Free Bird" at jet-plane volume, or how a nap before dinner was much facilitated by the clangor of Molly Hatchet.  As near as I could figure, the purpose of such behavior was to prevent anyone else from doing his work, such that all grades would suffer and flatten the curve, raising a C-minus paper to a C plus.

It's hard when you've had so little of it in life, to place much stock in joy:  the giving, and getting, of route-going pleasure and a sudden, home sense of connection.  But you wake up one morning with a woman lying next to you who, even in the dishevelment of sleep and sweat, causes your heart to jump, and you lay back down and, for the first time ever, think those tall words I'm happy.

,,,cocaine plus steroids equals crazy.  Not goofy ha-ha-crazy or Syd-Barett-on-acid crazy, but crazy as in fight four cops barehanded - a black-diamond run to deep dementia.

Book Rating:  4 out of 5 stars

Sensitive Reader:  Although there are few GRAPHIC sexual scenes contained in the book, there are rather vivid descriptions of debauchery and sexual content that might disturb you.

Read an Excerpt:

BUY IT:  You can purchase this book at the publisher's website, on Amazon, and at other on and off-line booksellers

WIN IT:  Anna at Hachette was kind enough to offer up to 3 of my readers a chance to win their own copy!  Thanks, Anna! 

Note that I said UP to 3 books?  For every 15 unique entrants, I will add one book to the giveaway.   That means that in order to giveaway 3 books, I will need 45 unique entrants!

MANDATORY ENTRY:  Do you have a friend or family member who ever used steroids?

IMPORTANT NOTE:  If you have already received this title for review from Hachette or already won a copy, per their review/giveaway guidelines, please do not enter this giveaway!!!

EXTRA ENTRIES (please leave a separate comment for each; if you already follow or subscribe prior to this post, leave 2 comments for each):

1. Follow Knitting and Sundries publicly on Google Friend Connect and/or Twitter

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3.  Spread the word! Tweet (maximum of ONCE daily - include @jewelknits and @littlebrown in the tweet so that I see it. To make it easy, you can use the "Share" button at the bottom of this post!  Blog about - 2 entries/comments.  Sidebar link to giveaway - 1 entry/comment (leave the URL)

4.  Enter another one of my giveaways that are current at the time you post your entry comment. You can get one extra entry for each giveaway that you enter.

ALL ENTRIES:  Please leave your email in your comments: Like this: imacrazedmommy at whydidihavekids dot com OR like this imacrazedmommy(at)whydidihavekids(dot)com to avoid the spam bots.  If I can't reach you, you can't win!

In addition, if you follow, tweet, etc., please leave the name or email address you follow/tweet/subscribe under.

Eligibility: US and Canada, 18 and older.  These books will ship directly from the publisher, so no P.O. Boxes, please!

End date:  October 3, 2010 at 11:59 PM EST

I will pick the winner(s) using Random.org.  I will post the winner(s) on the site AND send an email to the email address used to enter.  The winner will then have 48 hours to reply with their mailing information; otherwise, a new winner will be picked.  The email will be easy to spot; the subject line will begin "You WON on Knitting and Sundries"

Disclosure:  I received a complimentary copy of this title from Hachette to objectively review.  No other form of compensation was received for this post, and I am not required to post a positive review.