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9781958015087

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""Don Eron's novel Killer Kowalski Takes the Mat is an entertaining coming-of-age tale set in 1970s suburban Chicago. The story centers on Dan ""Biggie"" Bluestone, a 17-year-old wrestler living in Highland Park. Biggie is co-captain of his high school wrestling team. Last year, he was beaten before he could reach the state competition, so now he aims to not only reach the state wrestling finals but to also secure a scholarship to nearby Northwestern University, where his father is a hot-shot sociology professor. Biggie lives a decent life with his parents and sister Giselle, and his privilege allows him to singularly focus on his wrestling goals. To reach them, he envisions himself as the legendary professional wrestler Killer Kowalski. ""With a hint of menace,"" writes Eron of Biggie, ""coolly, icily, Killer Kowalski took the mat."" On a nightly training run, Biggie is hit by a car driven by Gloria ""Glory"" Serpentino, a troubled yet intriguing, beautiful classmate. Biggie is badly bruised but not seriously injured, and after she calls to apologize, they become confidants on the phone. This accident foreshadows a far more serious car accident that changes Biggie's and his sister's lives and propels the plot forward. Eron is an adept storyteller who delves deeply into the lives of high school wrestlers with details of their starvation diets before weigh-ins, interesting play-by-plays of their matches and more. The author also successfully evinces Chicago and its suburbs. Dialogue is spot-on, and although the book addresses some serious subjects, Eron deftly includes wry humor, as when Biggie eyes a platter of food at a restaurant: ""...he promised himself he wouldn't go overboard gorging. An eagle could as well promise not to soar."" This is a highly engaging read with a likeable character at its heart. Killer Kowalski will delight wrestlers, of course. But even non-wrestling fans will eagerly turn the pages to find out how Biggie and his teammates fare as this original plot unfolds. --BlueInk Review (starred) ""As charming as it is wise, this big-hearted, richly textured novel of growing up, falling in love, and discovering one's path and self at the dawn of the 1970s centers on Illinois high-school wrestler Dan ""Biggie"" Bluestone as he strives to make it through his senior year undefeated and unscored-on-and to get recruited-with a scholarship-by a major school.... Despite much striking detail about wrestling and the athlete's life, and a structure that builds to a season-ending tournament, the novel's heart is in Dan's discovering life beyond the mat-and that he has more to offer the world than being able to bench 360. Guiding him through that journey is Gloria, a character as memorable as Dan himself, a young woman who grows close to him in a series of surprising, off-kilter phone conversations, probing Dan with the incisiveness of an analyst and the hot-and-cold wit of a wounded, world-class flirt. Their slow courtship thrills and moves, a dance between guarded souls, wary yet drawn to their obvious connection."" --BookLife, Editor's Pick

Author Information

Don Eron lives in Boulder, Colorado, and is the author of And Go to Innisfree, Presner the Remarkable, and Killer Kowalski Takes the Mat. He's a graduate of the Iowa Writer's Workshop and has twice won creative fellowships from the Colorado Council on the Arts. An academic labor activist, his writing on academic freedom has been cited in petitions before the US Supreme Court, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States, and the National Labor Relations Board. He is the publisher of Contingency Street Press, a literary micro press.

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