Muscle: Confessions of an Unlikely Bodybuilder - Softcover

Fussell, Samuel Wilson

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0380717638 ISBN 13: 9780380717637

Publisher: Avon A, 1992

Synopsis

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.

About this title

Review

“A kind of beefcake Alice in Wonderland . . . Hilarious . . . Marvelous, entertaining.” —The Boston Globe

“A powerful, funny, and disturbing book, a classic piece of Americana.” —Entertainment Weekly

“Lively and enjoyable . . . A modern cautionary tale on answered prayers . . . A very good book.” —The Washington Post

“Easily the best memoir ever written about weight training, steroids and all.” —Men’s Journal
 

About the Author

Samuel Wilson Fussell resides in Montana. Since 2004 he has lived as a subsistence hunter and worked as a rescue, recovery, and salvage scuba diver for the Flathead County Sheriff Dive Rescue Team. He is a graduate of the Lawrenceville School, Pomona College, and Oxford University. Since the initial publication of Muscle, his life story has been optioned for film, television, and the stage.

Edition details

• Publisher: Avon A
• Publication date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0380717638
• ISBN 13: 9780380717637
• Binding: Paperback