Headlock

May 15, 2000
Twin addictions overlap in Berlin's noir, on-the-road debut novel. Odessa Rose, the narrator, has become something of a serial assaulter, attacking men in bars in New York City. When the reader first meets "Dess," he's parking cars in a garage in the Big Apple. He went to college on a wrestling scholarship, but his behavior there was dicey: after losing a wrestling match, he publicly battered his opponent with a chair and was nearly expelled. Dess's father is an academic. His younger brother, Derek, is the one making A's at Harvard while Dess is the family "failure." But then there's his cousin, Gary, a 400-pound gambler. Gary doesn't eat; he binges. Yet Dess's obese relative seems the instrument of his release when Gary asks Dess to accompany him as he drives his Jaguar to Las Vegas. Dess's boss at the parking lot refuses to give him time off, so Dess beats the man, then sets out with Gary on a cross-country tour. Eventually, Gary's motive for requesting Dess's company is revealed: Gary owes $100,000 in gambling debts, and he's going to be popped if he doesn't come up with the cash. When they reach Las Vegas, Dess helps Gary "count cards" at the blackjack table. Things veer out of control when a hit man with blue sunglasses shows up. Although the trajectory of Dess and Gary's plight is a little too predictably Hollywood, Berlin displays a nice, quirky sense of dialogue, and his violent scenes are etched with convincing--if sometimes gruesome--detail. Author tour.

March 15, 2000
This first novel by short story writer ("Cojones") Berlin finds short-tempered former wrestling star Odessa "Dess" Rose parking cars for a living in downtown New York. When his cousin Gary, a professional gambler who is ten years older, shows up in a Jaguar on his way to Las Vegas, Dess agrees to go along for the ride. On the trip West, Dess's family history and his own personal failures are gradually unfurled before reaching the final climax and the true purpose of the journey. Although the reader comes to understand the source of Dess's rage, and there are some compelling allusions to classical literature, the characters are not complex enough and the plot not rich enough to sustain a full-length novel. An optional purchase.--Joshua Cohen, Mid-Hudson Lib. Syst., Poughkeepsie, NY

Copyright 2000 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from April 1, 2000
Odessa Rose has a violent temper and a wrestler's strength, both inherited from his Russian immigrant grandfather, having skipped the generation of his father the economics professor. The strength and temper provoked the loss of a wrestling scholarship after Dess violently attacked an opponent who won a match. Dess' cousin, Gary Rose, is a grossly obese professional gambler whom Dess and his younger brother have admired since childhood. Despite a 10-year age difference, Gary is only marginally more mature and directed than Dess. The family misfits team up for a road trip from New York to Las Vegas, where Dess is to count cards and Gary to win enough money to pay off enormous gambling debts and avoid a professional maiming. Gary's uncontrolled appetites and Dess' uncontrolled anger add to the tension of the trip, which is really about self-examination and redemption. The cousins struggle with the Rose family legend of a grandfather who fought hard and worked hard for the sake of the family, a family from which they are alienated. A powerful debut novel with fascinating characters. ((Reviewed April 1, 2000))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2000, American Library Association.)