Straight from the Heart: A Love Story. This item is unavailable.Straight from the Heart: A Love Story

A former Mr. Universe and a top male model speak openly about their gay marriage and tell how they have fought rejection, prejudice, and ignorance to emerge strong and positive. 40,000 first printing.

Body builder Bob Paris, former Mr. Universe, and model Rod Jackson fell in love, courted and were married in a Unitarian church service in 1989. Here they tell the story of their union and recall their individual life histories--both of which included growing up in conservative, small-town families. In alternating sections, most only a paragraph long, they describe their first meeting ("a truly cosmic moment," according to Rod) and discuss such difficulties as their introductions to each other's parents and problems raised by their relationship in their professional circles. Now gay rights activists, they appear frequently on TV, have made a video and speak on the college and high school lecture circuits. The upbeat, positive attitude of the authors gives their story, despite its full quotient of rejection and anxiety, a lively, sometimes naive-sounding charm that will make readers cheer their determined optimism. Photos. 50,000 first printing; first serial to Out; author tour.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Relentlessly upbeat memoir, coauthored by Eric Marcus (Making History, 1992), by married gay bodybuilders. When Bob ``Mr. Universe'' Paris met Rod Jackson in a Denver gym, it was love at first sight. A few years later, the two were married by a Unitarian minister. In the past eight years they've graced gay-magazine covers, as well as bodybuilding and fitness periodicals; talked about their relationship on campuses and TV talk-shows; put out a self-help video for gay and lesbian teens; and launched the ``Be True to Yourself'' foundation. But before that fateful meeting in Denver, Paris and Jackson had not led the easiest of lives. Both came from midwestern working-class families, and both faced harrowing childhoods, which included physical abuse, alcoholism, and drug abuse. Both also tried to conform, and Jackson even dabbled in heterosexual relationships, only to realize that being with other men ``felt like the most natural thing in the world.'' Since they met, Jackson and Paris have lived in the kind of conjugal bliss usually encountered in romance novels. They both want to show that love is universal and that gay men can have the kind of peaceful domestic life usually associated only with heterosexual unions. Here, there are often irritating New Age-y tones (``During that spiritual journey, I found out that my spirit guide was a crow'') and touches of therapeutic jargon (``We want other families to learn from our experiences so the vicious cycle of denial and alienation can be brought to an end''). But Jackson and Paris are appealingly candid: they mean so well that it's hard to stay annoyed for long. Old-fashioned romance, rags-to-riches success, men who look better than Fabio: this book's got it all. A fireside favorite for lovers of real-life fairy tales. (Sixty-five photos--not seen) (First printing of 50,000; first serial to Out magazine) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

In 1989, former Mr. Universe Bob Paris came out as a gay man at the International Bodybuilding Federation, a move that for all intents and purposes ended his professional career. After he and model Rod Jackson were married, they began giving self-esteem seminars to young gays and lesbians across the United States and have appeared on various talk shows. Their story is interesting only in that their lives have been, well, so darn normal, which is precisely their point. The universal need to love and be loved shines through in this simply told, disarmingly honest, and ultimately charming book. Written in alternating paragraphs from each man's point of view, their tale of the boy-next-door meeting and marrying the boy-next-door is like listening in on a one-on-one conversation about overcoming self-doubt, homophobia, and family resistance to their relationship, especially their 1989 wedding. Fully half the book covers their early childhood and teenage years, and this might make it a more appropriate YA title. For popular collections. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 10/1/93.
- Jeffery Ingram, Newport P.L., Ore.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.