Customer Reviews:
 Beware: This book is not what you think! May 4, 1998
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I will keep this brief and to the point. This book spends a ton of time talking about Bob Paris' difficult life growing up with parents twice divorced and his own battle to defeat his inner demons. The bodybuilding aspect of this book isn't nearly as featured throughout the book as you would suspect from the title and isn't revealed through this book. Therefore, in terms of a story of a troubled young man that turns his life around into something successful and meaningful it is an average book; in terms of a book providing inside insight on Bodybuilding ... you may want to look elsewhere.
 this was not the book i was expecting to read. April 27, 1998
Being a gay bodybuilder and into a sport where there is a lot of explotation and all around craziness,I was epecting this book to be a real page turner.A great deal of the book tells of Bob's childhood and troubled adolescence.I wanted to skim ahead to the "juicy stuff".I decided to be patient.The juicy sruff never arrived.I've read other accounts of the bodybuilding lifestlye and this was the dullest.I'm sure Bob left some stories out to protect the innocent.Even the gay issue wasn't really explored.While I admit Bob had me turning the pages with anticipation,I kept wishing he'd get ot the point.I found his growing up years touching and disturbing,and when the book was over,it was indeed as if Bob Paris had told me his story personally,but it wasn't the story I was expecting to hear.
 Honest and refreshing January 23, 1998
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Bob Paris peels off his suit and shows an honest indepth look at both himself and the world of body building. Those looking for "dirt" on his breakup with Rod Jackson will not find it here. You feel as though Bob is telling you his stories in person as the book reads like a conversation with the man himself. Any fan of Bob's will enjoy this!
 GORILLA SUIT TELLS ALL November 30, 1997
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
Though I do not agree with Bob Paris's lifestyle (I am a committed Christian), I found "Gorilla Suit" to be a touching story; more than anything, it reveals how Paris was exploited by Joe Weider, bodybuilding's dark guru. What's more, it shows how false Christianity and Christians have reacted to people like Bob Paris; again, I do not condone his lifestyle; however, his piquant -- and poignant -- remarks about "California Christianity" struck me; unfortunately, Mr. Paris has yet, I believe, to meet real Christians, who, while hating his lifestyle, will love him. I also found the book to show the reality of bodybuilding in a far more potent, cogent way than Samuel Fussell Wilson did in "Muscle"; Wilson told us how Weider and others exploited the bodybuilder; Paris shows us.
Hoosier athlete thinks book is "straight from Bob's heart". November 19, 1997
Like Paris,I too grew up in Indiana. I am a Gay athlete, played racquetball in Bloomington where Bob trained, lived and taught in Winterhaven Florida, just down the road from Bob's Grandparents. I too returned to the Mid-West to teach and play my sport and drove to California in a yellow Honda Civic for the summer. I knew the Cummins family that owned the news stand where Bob bought his first muscle mag., and I now live in Eugene Oregon, just a few hours south of Bob's Seattle home. His discription of Indiana, christians, competing, training, gay life, and love are like the freshest breath of air I have ever known. After reading this book I am sure Bob is sharring his heart and head. I am only sorry that I have not had the pleasure of meeting him. His spirit as a Gay Hoosier athlete with strong, and sometimes painful family ties are so real I felt as though he had lived in my body and revealed on paper many of my own experiences. The only question I would pose around the text is why is it so "short"? I sense the possibility of a second book. A closer look into the sport of body building and it's oppressive controlers would only serve to help all of us who deeply respect it's participants understand how we might be able to support needed changes. I recommend this book to all athletes, gay or stright. It is a wonderful chronicle of hard work, sacrifice, and love of a pure sport that we can all learn from.
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