Review Tuesday: Giving the Body by Henry Corrigan -- #Horror #Wrestling #ReviewTuesday

Giving the Body by Henry Corrigan

Self-published, April 2022

Bernard “Bee” Donaldson is six four, three hundred pounds, and known in the pro wrestling world as Breaker of Men. Wrestling has been Bee’s life ever since he was a teenager, lusting after the sweaty, muscular men grappling with one another at Madison Square Garden. He loves it all: the showmanship, the high drama, the intoxicating roar of the crowd, the balletic duel of two powerful bodies struggling for supremacy, the danger that edges even the most highly staged match.

Bee also loves his manager and “forever boyfriend” Scottie. When he’s honest with himself, though, he has to admit that love takes second place to the thrill of stepping into the ring. But more than three decades on the circuit have taken their toll. Bee lives in near-constant pain from over-stressed joints and old injuries imperfectly healed. Scottie wants him to retire before he suffers permanent physical damage, but the Breaker of Men is unwilling to face his own decline.

When former partner and lover Luke Jackson suddenly reappears on the WWF circuit to challenge him, that just throws Bee’s own aging into sharper relief. Though Luke is Bee’s contemporary, he has the agility, endurance, energy and muscle definition of a twenty-five year old. Bee can’t shake the feeling that there’s something unnatural about Luke’s rejuvenation, something which he both dreads and desires.

I found Giving the Body stunning, original, terrifying and deeply satisfying. Although I know almost nothing about professional wrestling, the story yanked me into its world and held me there, spellbound. Mr. Corrigan sketches his characters in deft, sure strokes. Their dialogue feels authentic and their dreams and conflicts believable despite the (to me) foreign environment. The sense of foreboding builds relentlessly toward an awful, possibly inevitable climax, but the story is so compelling that you can’t look away.

On the surface this is a tale of action, with gritty, visceral descriptions of encounters in the ring between Bee and Luke. Giving the Body has many layers, though: emotional, spiritual and moral. In the hands of another author, it might have become a cautionary fable about the dangers of ambition and the varieties of lust, but Mr. Corrigan never lets the difficult questions he’s asking overwhelm the humanity of the characters. You may disapprove of Bee’s decisions, but you nevertheless continue to empathize with him – a prisoner in a battered body, animated by a dream of youthful power.

Giving the Body is a wonderful though disturbing read, a love story laced with pure horror. If you think you can handle that, I recommend it highly.