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Title: Headlock: A Novel by Adam Berlin ISBN: 1-56512-266-6 Publisher: Algonquin Books Pub. Date: 12 May, 2000 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $21.95

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Average Customer Rating: 4.45 (11 reviews)

Rating: 5
Summary: What a great book!
Comment: I have read many books in the past few years, and even some debut novels, but none have struck a cord in me like Headlock has. It is a powerful and riveting story that grabs you by the heart and mind in only the first few pages. It is a simple story of two cousins finding the truth about themselves and their family out on the road to Las Vegas, but tucked into the simple storyline is dialogue that makes you smile and cry because it is so real, violence that shocks you, yet feels familiar in it's rage and characters that will be alive in your mind for a long time after you put down the book. For anyone out there who hates how much books cost these days, I strongly recommend this one because as soon as you finish it, you are going to read it again. Congratulations to Adam Berlin for debuting with a novel that impacts the mind, heart and soul. I look foward to reading anything he puts out in the future.

Rating: 5
Summary: Great Fiction from the New Young Lion of Literature
Comment: Adam Berlin's first novel, Headlock, is a riveting family drama of epic scope and proportion. It is an engrossing story of cousins traveling west to Las Vegas, the famed city of modern literary mythology. On the road trip through the heartland of America, family secrets are revealed, stories are recounted, and impending destinies contemplated. Headlock, above all, is the fascinating portrayal of its protagonist, Odessa (Dess) Rose, who weaves a first person narrative of both current adventure and three generations of Rose family history. Berlin has found a powerful voice in the mercurial Dess, a former college wrestler who describes a life filled with violence, intelligence, physical strength, and family demons. The character of Dess deserves a special place in the pantheon of modern literary figures, as Berlin has created in the personality of Dess a masterful and memorable blend of violence, brooding temperament, and rare intellectual and psychological insight. Gary Rose, the other main character is almost as compelling in contrast, a well-liked inveterate gambler with a winning smile, but who has lost control of his physical body. Headlock is a gripping adventure that explodes across the pages and can not be put down. The second half of the book has the most dramatic tension and palpable suspense as any I've encountered. From the cousins arrival in Las Vegas the reader is kept breathless and on the edge of his or her seat until the startling and unforgettable double denouement. Berlin's writing style is forceful, terse, and uniquely masculine. He captures the essence of a seemly underworld that is alien, fascinating, and at times horrifying to the rest of us "suits". Blackjack and gambling becomes a metaphor for the larger winning and losing in life, and in Berlin's hands, the stakes have never been higher. Berlin's writing style is a special blend of literature and action -- of the literary prowess of a Hemingway or Mailer and the feverish pitch and action of a Ludlum or Clancey. Yet, despite the latter comparisons to recent good story-tellers, make no mistake about this book -- it is not pulp fiction. It is a modern literary masterpiece of the highest intellectual order. This is one of the must read books of the New Millennium. Congratulations to Adam Berlin.

Rating: 3
Summary: Half Nelson
Comment: I found this book linked on a wrestling site, and was interested in it for that reason. As a former college wrestler, it's an area of interest. What I found was a Kerouacian-derived work with some very good writing, but lacking in the poetic descriptions of wrestling I've found in other works like "The wrestler's Cruel Study" - a wonderful piece on a sad hero of pro wrestling, and "PINS" perhaps the only poetic and wonderful novel about high school wrestling that isn't kid stuff.

I wonder how much experience the author has with amateur wrestling. The level of violence in that sport is so small by comparison to other sports, it seems that he was really writing about a boxer. Having experienced the rage he describes, it's believable, and I sympathized with his character's having the superiority of never having to worry about losing a fight, due to his wrestling skills. But intentionally banging up guys, and describing it with savor, got to be too much. The descriptions and macho writing kept making me think Denis Leary should do the audio version.

The "road trip" is a very worn format, but Mr. Berlin gives it some life, with perhaps unintentional Vegas nods to Hunter Thompson's "Fear and Loathing." I just wonder how someone can write so much and so well, and still not fathom the soul of his characters. A lot of similar fiction seems to take on an almost sociopathic tone; no motivation, but well-described action. Comparisons to "Fight Club" with no subtext, irony or wit are apt. With a degree in criminology, no doubt Mr. Berlin will find more oddballs to write about.