Bench Press

Description

"While relaxing in the sauna after his weekly swim, Sven Lindqvist fell into conversation with a heavily muscled young man. His new acquaintance was evangelical about body-building and the encounter challenged Lindqvist's view of the sport as macho, vain and individualistic. As a result, though heading flabbily towards middle age, he decided to attend the local gym." "Lindqvist's bench press sessions had a profound effect on his life. As his body strengthened, he found that he began to dream intensely and to remember long-repressed scenes from childhood." "Here he intersperses the story of his own journey in the gym with the entertaining and bizarre history of body-building. He meditates on what its increased popularity tells us about contemporary society, quoting from the memoirs of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Yukio Mishima and other illuminating sources."--BOOK JACKET.

First Sentence

During my bench presses today, I saw before me with great clarity the top of a new-born infant's head, that fragile part known as the fontanelle, 'the little fount', which is the very source of life, where humanity lies bare and defenceless, engendering infinite tenderness.

Subjects