Customer Reviews

Headlock

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Headlock rates up there with The Naked and the Dead (Mailer) and Catcher in the Rye (Salinger) and The Adventures of Augie March (Bellow) as one of the great first novels. The book's action and its memorable characters grab you as much as the title, so don't start this book unless you have a couple of free hours, because you won't want to put it down. But it is more, much more, than simply a fast-paced novel. It is a story with depth, a story about coming of age, about self-realization, and about family. Without giving anything away, the drama of the book's action moves inevitably toward a perfect conclusion. This is a novel you won't soon forget!

One of the best debut works I've encountered since Thomas Harris' Black Sunday. In Headlock, Berlin confronts the human condition head-on through the realistic depiction of the hungers, needs and various foibles of his two protagonists, Dess and Gary. He skillfully exposes our deep collective need for 'connection', whether through family, relationships (however flawed), money or gluttony. Berlin's first novel is a fun and fulfilling romp across the internal and external terrain of our Nation. I highly recommend this great work of fiction.

Berlin has done agreat job with his first novel, although I doubt that it will be on Oprah's recommended reading list. A hard-hitting, no-holds-barred look at life, it captures you, entertains you , and then takes you home. Though the content is quite masculine, this is not just a book for men, it is a narrative for all of us.

If this is Adam Berlin's first novel, I can only say that we have a lot to look forward to. The book reads like no debut. It is a tight narrative that shows Berlin is a master of the written word. There is nothing wasted here, not a word, not a phrase, not a sentence. Headlock is a well-crafted whirlwind through contemporary America -- the money, the violence, the loss of innocence. But this novel is not simply a good read. It's a heavyweight demanding its place within the best tradition of American literature. Witness this passage from p. 35: "He described the coil, the spring, ready for action as soon as it was touched, how it took on an energy of its own once it was put into play, and Gilmore told us that was how all classical tragedies began. Once the spring was set into motion there was no going back. That was fate. That was life. That was why Antigone never made it out of her play." Thanks to Algonquin and Berlin, the American literary tradition is clearly in good hands.

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.

Headlock's main character, Dess Rose, is a loser; Gary Rose, his cousin, is also a loser. Adam Berlin writes about 2 losers in a world of gambling and fighting and manages in this exceptional debut novel to make us care.
He makes us bond with the main characters and wonder why they have chosen to let go when they could have done it right. He makes us turn page after page in a 3 day-trip across country to Vegas and to a point of no return. He makes us root for the losers as they gamble until their eyes are sore, counting cards to perfection without reaching their goal.
Berlin knows how to make readers care: he skillfully gets them in his main character head, unveiling his childhood, his successes and struggles. He describes his relationship to his cousin, brother and family with reality and brilliance. The scene of the grilled cheese sandwich is exceptionally full of normality and childish drollery in which Dess and his brother are presented as 2 kids with same future and potential. But Dess got kicked out of the wrestling team and lost his college scholarship when his brother is an A student at Harvard. Gary and Dess are obsessed with being a failure to their family and while Gary is resolved to his disownment, Dess continues to be dazed about his fate, about being a failure to his wrestling hero, his grandfather, only to learn that his hero was a failure himself. Then only does he totally let go.

Berlin is a master of portraying real characters that will, by the end of the book, feel like family to you. It does not mater if the characters wrestle, gamble, binge or fall in love with a beautiful waitress, you will follow them to the depth of their story just for the beauty of Berlin's words.

Also check out Berlin's second book, 'Belmondo Style', in which Berlin continues his brilliant journey as an author.

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.

I loved it. At first I thought it was a "guy book" only and that a girl just wouldn't bond to the gambling and wrestling talk. I was wrong. Depending on how you read Headlock, it's either a gambling thriller or a family connection. When you're lost in it, it's both. And more. Adam Berlin's prose makes you feel like you're there, travelling and gambling with Dess and Gary (both wonderfully explained characters), feeling for them all the way through. It's a true page-turner; you need to know what happens next. Not only because of the story, but because you care about the characters and their lives. The dialogue was flawless, it flowed beautifully. Flashbacks of when they were kids really make you understand Dess and Gary better and worry about them more. Headlock was a fabulous read. I'm looking forward to reading another Adam Berlin novel if this is any indication of what I can expect. I think that this is his first novel -- what an impressive one!

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.

I previously read Belmondo Style, and I became forever a Berlin fan. Headlock was equally well written, visual and allows the reader to get involved with the concept. The main character leads a pipe dream of a life that every reader has thought about leading and smiled, just once. The reader will fall in love with the story and wish for one exciting day that stories are made of in his or her own life. Well Done.