Jean-Paul Belmondo Books

To be honest, and I am a bit ashamed, I have not had the desire or time read for leisure since i was a child. K - 12, through graduate school will do that to you. This novel has brought the joy of literature back into my daily routine. I steal away moments at lunch, at stop lights, in line at the post office, just to read what happens next.
This novel is seductive, detailed, and real. Adam Berlin captures the very essence of human interactions in his descriptions of characters. There is a scene where Jared and Ben (the main characters, a father and son single parent-child duo) meet two women after a run. Jared, the father, eventually asks one of the women to dinner. Berlin does not just allow this character to say "yes." and move on. He sets the scene up so well it makes me feel as though I am watching from a secret vantage point, rooting for Jared as though he is the home team. Envious of this woman who is being asked to dinner. I saw everything, her shoes, her hair, Jared's strong sexy jawline. The details were that of a movie scene, I got chills. The look Berlin describes before the woman agrees to see Jared was perfect. I have given that look to only a few men, as they have been strong enough in presence to elicit it. Only a true artist can capture that much detail and translate it so perfectly into words. Adam Berlin is gifted. As the theme of the novel goes; I am Breathless.

This book is a movie. It is written with the wit of a screenplay and the pace of a well constructed scenario. But this book is also a real book and Berlin style is one of the finest. Adam Berlin manages to create highly fictional characters who as you read on become family to you as they are family to each others. As in Headlock, Berlin's first novel, the characters are sliding towards a point of no return that readers can only imagine will be violent but will keep them reading. Berlin excels particularly in his description of the relationships between characters: Jared and Ben, father and son; Ben and Michael, teen-age lovers; Jared and Anna, the player and the 'one'. Berlin explores the father son relationship over several chapters and makes us wonder about the immorality of this dedicated parent; but he chooses to immortalize Ben and Michael encounter in a steaming scene by the Hudson River on a snowy night that will leave readers, males and females, wanting for more. Jared and Anna come to life as a couple in the 'orange dance' but never let go of Ben:"My father tossed me the orange they'd won with. It had been squeezed soft. I lifted the orange to my nose to breathe in the sweet scent. The grove from where it had been picked was still inside. That connection remained."

Belmondo Style and Headlock are two must read. I cannot wait for Berlin's 3rd novel to be published!

I was happy to see that Belmondo Style is a finalist for The Publishing Triangle's 2005 Fiction Award. I read Adam Berlin's novel last summer and thought it a powerful book, one that has stayed in my head long after I finished it. An anti-gay hate crime is the catalyst for this moving novel between a live-for-the-moment father and his thoughtful sixteen-year-old son. These are fascinating characters with a bond that breaks easy father/son cliches. I hope the award nomination renews interest in this beautiful, layered novel.

A friend of mine recommended this book, after the Publishing Triangle Award finalists were announced. I could not put this book down. While there is a gay theme that runs through this engrossing novel, it is most poignantly a coming of age story and the very delicate relationship between a father and son. Berlin doesn't seem to feel the need to make his characters likable so the effect is that they are more realistic, and their love for each other that much more real. I would never typically say this, but this book would make a great movie! I will definitely be reading this writer's other books.

From the first page, I found Belmondo completely engrossing and disturbing. It was fascinating to see the depth of the father character. Although he made his living illegally and was in that sense immoral, he demonstrated a strong sense of responsibility as a parent. He played by his own highly romanticized version of the rules.

The disturbing aspect came from the knowledge that their lives were clearly on a steep decline. This made me unable to stop turning the page and at the same time wanting to stop turning the page. Berlin has a knack for this. I was afraid to find out what was going to happen to the characters in Headlock as well.

Hello! I want to told you some thing about Belmondo, and how in my country love Bebely (Jean-Paul Belmondo). In this book I read some thing which I don't know before. I know before only after his first films. And I know for him like a bocs (sometimes when he have a rest time), I know something about his childrens, but here I read more information. If you want to know something about Belmondo - read this book and I think after that you understand about his films.