Muscle: Confessions of an Unlikely Bodybuilder
by Samuel W. Fussell

Our Price: $49.99
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $1.55 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions

Book Summary Information

• Airborne Effervescent Health Formula, Original Orange, 10 Tablets (Pack of 3)
• RESPeRATE Blood Pressure Lowering Device

Book Reviews of Muscle: Confessions of an Unlikely Bodybuilder

Book Review: beautifully written, funny, moving book
Summary: 5 Stars

Fussell's experience might seem to be a rather special example, but it generalizes to the world at large, which is one of the reasons why his book is important. Although he portrays bodybuilding as a ridiculous caricature, as a microcosm somewhere well off the deep end of society, it is actually more representative than may first appear -- it applies to all those who strive immoderately. This has of course been known for a long time ("moderation in all things"), but the message bears repeating. There will always be souls incapable of moderation, and they end up destroying themselves; in the final analysis it's what they want, and preferable to being in *this* world. These people are rebels, and they pay the price. Sam had to decide for himself if the price was worth it, decided it wasn't, and looked back upon his experience with horror as a "disease".

This book is beautifully and concisely written. Often in just a few words, Fussell conveys a scene with merciless camera-like accuracy. Given his obvious talent as a writer, one eagerly awaits further books by him. At the very least, his bodybuilding quest gave him something to say. I hope he can find other things to say and write about now that he's back in the ordinary gray world (which is its own disease, if a bit subtler).

Summary of Muscle: Confessions of an Unlikely Bodybuilder

At age 26, scrawny, Oxford-educated Samuel Fussell entered a YMCA gym in New York to escape the terrors of big city life.Four years and 80 lbs. of firm, bulging muscle later, he was competing for bodybuilding titles in the "Iron Mecca" of Southern California-so weak from intense training and starvation he could barely walk. MUSCLE is the harrowing, often hilarious chronicle of Fussell's divine obsession, his search for identity in a bizarre, eccentric world of "health fascists," "gym bunnies" and "muscleheads"-and his devout, single-minded acceptance of illness, pain, nausea, and steroid-induced rage in his quest for the holy grail of physical perfection.

Alternative Medicine Books

• Books > Subjects > Health, Fitness & Dieting
• Exercise & Fitness > Weight Training