MUSCLE: Confessions of an Unlikely Bodybuilder

by Samuel Wilson Fussell ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 21, 1991

Fussell has plenty of muscle all right, enough for two men judging by the pumped. up, vein-popping photos accompanying his text. But as an Oxford Univ. grad (thus the subtitle) he has plenty of brains as well--and uses them here to deliver a black-humored, shocking, dead-honest chronicle of his sojourn in the bizarre and obsessional world of professional bodybuilding. After he moved to Manhattan from Oxford, Fussell explains in simple, precise prose, his health and psyche deteriorated quickly: ""The problem. . .was New York. It terrified me."" His urban paranoia ended only when he picked up a book by the man who was to become his inspiration: Arnold Schwarzenegger. One look at ""Arnold's"" implacable physique and Fussell was hooked; he joined the local Y and attacked weightlifting with a ferocity that stunned his colorful gym partners Mousie and Sweepea. He quit his job, moved into a basement-bunker, and lifted night and day, using ""The Arnold Mental Visualization Principle"" until his muscles ballooned and, as he admits, ""I became the kind of man I had once feared and despised. I became, in fact, a bully."" A move to the wryly depicted bodybuilding mecca of southern California followed--and a nightmare began amidst this wacked-out world of ""health fascists and gym bunnies."" Pumping iron furiously, Fussell began to inject steroids, swelling his body and his ego further: ""self-defense was no longer my muscle motive. . .I needed to rule."" That need prompted him to enter three competitions--the book's dramatic highlight--and required a diet and training so severe that the morning of the climactic Golden Valley Physique Classic, Fussell looked like a god but was so weak (""a caricature"") that he had to be carried to the car taking him to the contest--which he lost, putting him off bodybuilding ever after. A strong and disciplined cautionary tale: Fussell lifts a pen as well as he lifted iron, creating a unique and fascinating memoir.

Pub Date: March 21, 1991

ISBN: 0380717638

Page Count: -

Publisher: Poseidon/Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1991

Categories: NONFICTION