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Paperback
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
"I built my American dream one rep at a time," says Bob Paris in Gorilla Suit, an unguarded memoir of his rise to the top of the world of professional bodybuilding.
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 show us bodies to the limit, and beyond, and discusses the price bodybuilders pay for this perfection, which includes the use of dangerous growth drugs. Paris also looks at the driving forces behind the business of bodybuilding, including the extraordinary story of the Weider brothers.
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.
Bob Paris became famous as the first openly gay Mr. Universe and grew even more famous when he and Rob Jackson, his lover at the time, published Straight from the Heart, a memoir of their life together. Paris has now gone solo with Gorilla Suit. A cross between a personal memoir and a cultural history of bodybuilding, Gorilla Suit details Paris's desire to radically change his body, what that meant to him as a gay man living in a homophobic culture, and his decision to leave the sport once he discovered how seductive its destructive qualities were. Gorilla Suit is not an emotionally wrought literary memoir, or even a tell-all exposé; rather, it is a well-written, perceptive, and ultimately joyful story of a gay man's discovery of what it means to love his body.
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| Incredible book |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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I have been into bodybuilding for a few years now, and own a small library of bodybuilding books. Other than Samuel Fussell, however, Bob Paris' book is the only one that REALLY gives insight into the world of bodybuilding. He lays it all bare, and pulls no punches. Everything is here; the training, the drugs, the lifestyle. And all the famous faces are here too: Arnold, Joe Weider, etc, and Mr. Paris has no quips about writing the reality of how he was treated (gay or not) under the empire of the IFBB. For a raw view into the bodybuilding lifestyle, you can't do any better than this book. As Fussell himself said, "Paris is the only bodybuilder with biceps and balls." And he nailed it.
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| Gorilla Suit, An Honest Look From Inside The World Of Bodybuilding |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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Back in the late 80's I was seriously into weight training/bodybuilding on the average of 5 or more days per week. I did it for the sheer love of doing it, not as someone with competitive aspirations (or the right genetics for bodybuilding even if I had aspirations:))
I bought many books on bodybuilding, starting w/ Arnold's (no last name necessary) encyclopedia. I also spent a small fortune buying up muscle mags each month like crazy. While certainly Arnold was one of my favorites of all time (I still think no one can touch him regarding the combination of size and symmetry he had), the guys I could relate to the most back then were primarily the symmetry guys like Zane, Nubret, LaBrada, Benfatto and Bob Paris. If I could have picked a body to have for myself, those would have been the types of models I'd have chosen rather than the Lee Haney's or Dorian Yates type of physique.
I remember all those years ago, reading Bob's "coming out of the closet" story in Ironman. I was probably as surprised as everyone else was. It didn't change my positive opinion of him as a bodybuilder or person (from what I had read about him) in any way. In fact after the surprise wore off I had to commend him for having the sheer guts to do what he did (for the record I am a heterosexual male but not a homophobic one). He had to know it was going to upset the powers that be (ie. the Weider empire).
I recently took Bob's book, "Gorilla Suit", out from my library and I was really impressed, once more, with his candor. I also found his life story to be very interesting. The story of a lost soul searching to find his path in the world. His innocence regarding the nature of the field of bodybuilding and his desire to achieve his dreams was compelling to me.
I didn't find this book to be a sour grapes thing at all. In fact in the end of the book he says that the best feeling he ever had in his life was when he was announced the winner of his major titles. Still, the fact is that he revealed a lot of what IS wrong w/ bodybuilding. All one has to do is look at the physiques in the current magazines to see how obviously "juiced up" these guys are.
They've taken a sport that could be so inspirational and motivational to so many people and have turned it into a freak show of sorts, taking it into very unhealthy realm. The extreme use of drugs in most professional bodybuilding shows (w/rare natural shows being a tiny minority) has given these athletes physiques that are not human looking. I commend Bob for always remaining true to his vision of what a body could look like. Even when he used drugs to stay competitive he looked more like a statue of a Greek God rather than a cartoon super hero.
One point I'd like to end with. I read the book "muscle" many years ago by that fellow Fussel. While that was certainly an interesting take on the bodybuilding scene, there is one factor that I can't ignore when looking at that compared w/ the Paris book. Bob Paris was a world class bodybuilder, he had been pretty high up on the mountain and speaks from inside the bodybuilding world from that perspective whereas Fussel was a non-entity in the bodybuilding world.
While that doesn't invalidate Fussel's book, I just find that Paris' book just has that extra credibility factor by being written by a guy who was a major player in the field regardless of whether he won the Olympia or not. Let's face it, in a field as subjective as bodybuilding it's hard to say that someone is the best because best isn't etched in stone. Franco Columbu certainly could have possibly beaten Arnold at least one time if they were both the same height, and Lee Labrada (in my opinion) could have done the same to Lee Haney at least a couple of time if he were Lee's height.
Anyway, I think that Bob Paris tells a riveting story of his life in the world of bodybuilding. It's only his personal perspective, but I came away from it feeling that he was completely honest in how things unfolded for him.
Also, while he criticizes Joe Weider (he's not the only one, even Arnold in "Education Of A Bodybuilder" speaks of the fact that Joe Weider had no problem buying a steak dinner for a competitor one day and then screwing him in a business deal the next), he also credits Joe as well with the success he had as a bodybuilder. Some reviews tried to make it as if Bob does nothing but rag on Weider and that's not the case at all. From all accounts, Weider and his brother Ben have a monopoly in the bodybuilding world and that is not healthy for ANY profession.
Highly recommended!
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| Ex-Mr Universe Tells His Story -explosive and fascinating inside look at the bodybuilding industry |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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"Gorilla Suit" is the name Bob Paris gives his set of fabulous muscles.
I really, REALLY enjoyed this book! We get the run down from Bob starting off as an awkward teenager finding the weights room in his high school gym, unused and dusty when he goes looking for a fan for a teacher. He lifts a few weights, likes the way he feels then starts training. From there we read about his trip to LA, to the 'big gyms' like World Gym and Gold's, where Arnie et al are working out. It is really is a rags to riches story, as when he first goes to LA he is sleeping in the back of his car.
Bob Paris takes on the titles of Mr LA, Mr California right up to his dream title, Mr Universe, the same spot Arnold Schwartzenegger occupied.
Most interesting in this book is Bob's struggle with Joe Weider -apparently the man, his companies and IFBB (international Federation of Body Building) were all inter-related and competitions quite political. Bodybuilders survived on endorsement contracts from supplement companies, and at the time Weider's companies had a monopoly on the industry and bodybuilders. Amazingly too, most bodybuilders took copious amounts of drugs and steroids, until I read this book I naively had no idea.
And Bob's story is personal too, his struggle with the discipline of maintaining his 'gorilla suit', relationships and being true to himself in an industry that isn't -is fascinating.
Definitely a keeper.
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| Very brilliant! |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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Bob Paris takes the chance to tell us his personal story as well as the evolution of the bodybuilding world in the last twenty years. "Gorilla suit" is a very well written autobiography, with an unusual sensitivity. Paris takes a boldly stance against some of the worst sides of bodybuilding, and he doesn't mince words against some of the people involved as well. The author tells us his life very candidly: his struggle against the odds to win his way in the competitions, the use of steroids, the people who tried to cheat him and the ones that helped him. I found in this book many thought-provoking passages, but in the same time the style is clean and easy to read. Bob Paris has been successful in life AND in bodybuilding with his own personal style.
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| One Man's Captivating Account of the Bodybuilding World |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
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This is the story of Bob Paris and his rise in the bodybuilding world. The book starts from his earliest days as a child in Indiana coming across muscle magazines and tinkering with weights. The book then takes us later to California where Bob struggles and hits upon some VERY difficult times. Right when you think he can't go anymore he manages to start winning some bodybuilding shows and enjoying a certain level of success. Unfortunately, things are never as pretty as they seem. The Weiders (Joe and Ben) have controlled bodybuilding for years and did so at the writing of this book. Since they owned most of the major magazines in the sport that offered any kind of publicity and also ran the IFBB federation it was best to stay on their good side. There are many stories of them keeping an athlete's money, taking back certain promises, and basically running a monopoly of the sport. Bob had difficulties with Joe Weider from the start, which probably were only worsened by the fact that Bob was gay. At the time most publications (whether they admitted it or not) did not want an openly gay man in their magazines. Nevertheless Bob grew disillusioned with the sport partly because of the Weider's and also partly because of ethical issues such as drug use within the sport. It's a shame because even though he did manage to win some big amateur contests he never really fully achieved his potential as a pro.
Therefore, he eventually decided to walk away but did leave us with details of his career in the form of this book.
The one problem I had with the book is that I would have liked for it to be a little more developed. I also didn't really care for the style that bounces back and forth from the present to the past but I still thought it was a good read.
It's a very eye-opening book about the bodybuilding world that is sure to touch your emotions in one way or another.
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