The Altar of the Body: A Novel [Paperback]

Duff Brenna (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 7, 2002

George McLeod’s easy life turns to chaos when his bodybuilder cousin, Buck Root, returns to Minnesota with his sexy girlfriend, Joy, and her mother, Livia, whose sense of reality blurs into the pages of a western novel. For the first time, George understands the rage to live life to its fullest—the rage that has consumed Joy, Buck Root, and Livia. With tragicomic grandeur, Duff Brenna weaves the story of four people who come together in a cataclysmic moment of truth that tests their compassion and capacity to love.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"I wanted to be James Dean and Elvis rolled into one and Mr. America too," says Buck Root, the hapless weightlifter who is the catalyst for Brenna's story of burnout and renewal in the Minnesota countryside. After an absence of 20 years, Buck (originally Mikey Routelli) returns to his hometown, Medicine Lake, accompanied by his girlfriend, Joy Faust, and her senescent mother, Livia Miles. Down on their luck and close to desperate, the trio is taken in by Buck's plump, balding cousin George McLeod, whose life has gone stale collecting rents from his apartment complex. Immediately, George's life becomes, if not happier, at least much more exciting. Erstwhile Las Vegas dancer and stripper Joy excites George's awed lust, while Buck, who brags about the Hollywood stars he has met, demands George's constant attention. George makes the mistake of taking Buck to his favorite strip joint, the Body Shop, where Buck meets Connie, a dancer, who steals the muscle man from Joy. Joy and her mother stay on with George, an odd household arrangement. Livia increasingly lives in a dream world based on an old western novel she constantly rereads, fantasizing about the hero, cowboy Cody. Joy finally puts Livia in a nursing home, but Livia escapes, and Joy is overwhelmed by crushing guilt. Meanwhile, Connie has vanished, and Buck has only an improbable story to account for her disappearance. As the narrative darkens into violence and tragedy, each event seems inevitable, and ineffably sad. Brenna (Too Cool) perfectly captures Minnesota dialect, and Livia's senile-to-lucid babbling is spot-on. While his characters are often sexist, their situations painful and their choices self-destructive, Brenna never allows their easily caricatured gestures to overwhelm their considerable natural dignity. Author tour.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

George McLeod's quiet life, managing an apartment complex in his hometown, is thrown into chaos when his cousin and childhood playmate Mikey comes home, with girlfriend Joy and Joy's aging, forgetful mother, Livia, in tow. Mikey, once a bookworm bullied by other children and abused by a manic-depressive mother, has bulked up with steroids and, as "Buck Root," has long been competing in bodybuilding contests. Hard living and illegal drugs, however, have started to take their toll. Torn between loyalty to Mikey and compassion for Joy and Livia, George has to either support Mikey or help Joy start over. Mikey has devoted his life to proving his strength and turned his back on his intellectual capabilities. George, less ambitious, has remained true to himself and emerges the stronger of the two. Brenna's examination of the obsession with youth and looks demonstrates how easy it is to choose the appearance rather than the reality of health and success. Grounded in reality, the novel brings George, Mikey, Joy, and Livia to life in every passionate detail. Bonnie Johnston
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Picador (September 7, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312269145
• ISBN-13: 978-0312269142
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,291,990 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars high literary entertainment, April 18, 2002

By 

ken holland (Fishkill, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Altar of the Body: A Novel (Hardcover)

a rare match between a picaresque storyline and excellent writing. the heartland of america is the setting for a variety of quests undertaken by the all-too-human characters of this page-turning novel. there's the quest for maintaining one's youth, as embodied in the bodybuilding character of buck root. other characters are in search of, if not happiness, then a level of understanding and acceptance by others...and, more importantly, coming to accept their own selves. The dialog is crackling, the scenes compelling, humor that is sometimes black and sometimes outright funny...though never solely at the expense of the characters; rather, it illuminates their natures. One of the most enjoyable reads I've had for a long time (and I read A LOT).

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Muscled-up Page Turner, February 25, 2002

By 

Ricki R. Muller (Menifee, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Altar of the Body: A Novel (Hardcover)

Duff Brenna has been called one of our best and most original novelists and THE ALTAR OF THE BODY confirms that he is. This is the story of an easy going man who lives in Minnesota minding his own business when one day his cousin Buck Root shows up after being gone for 30 years and he pretty much turns George's life upside down. Buck has in tow his Las Vegas Legs girlfriend Joy and her mother Livia. George falls in love with Joy, but she seems to him to be too far above him. He is short, fat and bald and has never done well with women, but he proves to be just what Joy needs. Buck betrays her. Livia gets sick and as her condition gets worse, she mentally slides into the pages of a western novel she is reading and becomes the hero Cody Larsen riding the plains of Colorado. Livia is a powerful creation, a character that is both fascinating and heartbreaking. A mothering instinct awakens in George and he begins taking care of Livia. He also awakens for the first time in his life to the same rage to live that afflicts Buck and Joy and is consuming them. The book is wildly funny at times and tragic too. It is a muscled-up page turner that is impossible to put down. Brenna is a masterful stylist and the book never lags as it carries you toward its cataclysmic climax and its bittersweet denouement. As in all of Brenna's books the story is riveting and there is a lot going on beneath the surface. This is one amazing book that fully lives up to the blurbs on the jacket.

5.0 out of 5 stars Fast Paced and Gritty, April 29, 2009

By 

Jane Freese "FreeseTag" (Henderson, NV) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Altar of the Body: A Novel (Paperback)

I flew through Brenna's novel in a couple of days, which is not usually the case with me. I am not a fast reader, but this story and the characters in it were so engaging, I couldn't put it down until it was finished.

So much happens in the novel. It is quick paced and consistently interesting. The novel has incorporated within it many unexpected literary treats such as a lewd saloon song contest, sappy poetry, ethnic jokes and excerpts from a western dime novel. You never know where the story is going to go.

The characters and what happens to them resonated with me for days afterward. It is a gritty book, unflinching in its examination of how we handle aging, fading beauty, death and personal failure. The "American Dream" goes horribly wrong for many of us.

Brenna examines interesting questions through four vividly imagined rather sleazy characters. There is much to like and dislike in all of them.

A cleverly written, enjoyable and disturbing novel.