Barbells and Saxophone

Vince Viola, a professional saxophonist and amateur bodybuilder, faces bewildering choices in his career and personal life

Taking center stage in a novel bursting with vitality, New Yorker Vince Viola is a 25-year-old saxophone player, body-builder, womanizer and bird lover. Both immature and tough, he is appalled by the idea of selling out: though temptations abound, he refuses to play anything but pure jazz, no funk, no glitz; he won't pose for Playgirl magazine, although it would make his career; he can't bear to see his parents, friends or heroes compromise their integrity. The novel opens with Vince talking to a psychiatrist about his divorced parents: bullying, macho Pop (Mr. Olympia of 1948) and beauty parlor-proprietor, overprotective Mom, soon to be a women's wrestling impresario. The same evening, Vince gets in a fight with his girlfriend, she leaves and, deprived of this stabilizing force, he tumbles down an unbelievable, but highly entertaining, staircase of musical, romantic and familial hells. From L.A. to London, Rome, Vancouver and New York, Vince loves and loses, eventually accepting the limitations and frailties in himself, and in those around him. Ritz's ( Blue Notes Under a Green Felt Hat ) compelling, seriocomic story especially soars in its evocative feel for the music that drives its protagonist.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Vince Viola is blessed with a great body, an almost mystical affinity for music (especially jazz), and some very wild and crazy relatives and friends. His father operates a run-down gym (where Vince got his start) and his mother runs a beauty parlor. Vince's batty shrink may be helping him, but his live-in girlfriend, Kathy, also has a shrink, who may not. The plot is frenzied, but the ride is wonderfully wicked and unpredictable, with the souped-up prose maintaining exactly the right tone. A sexy Japanese agent, a Jewish roller-skater turned wrestler, and a yuppie gym manager add to the fun. The abrupt and not entirely satisfactory ending does not detract from a fast-moving saga of body building, jazz, and sheer insanity, by the author of Blue Notes Under a Green Felt Hat (LJ 4/1/89). Conservative readers, beware. Others, enjoy.
- Robert H. Donahugh, formerly with Youngstown and Mahoning Cty. P.L., Ohio
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.