An Impossible Dream Story
by J.V. Petretta
Dog Ear Publishing
Copyright © October 2011
ISBN: 9781457506802
$15.95 Paperback
$4.99 Kindle
260 Pages
ABOUT THE BOOK:
An accomplished, aging man is preparing for yet another dream-to conduct the first known bicycle-book tour (which will require peddling both miles and books.) Who will believe 2,500 miles is possible for a man with gravely serious medical issues-at age sixty-five? Witnessing the lifetime spiritual journey of Vinny Pirelli, starting at age six with his very first bicycle, you track his development of being the only boy among many siblings, through growing pains of adolescence and teen years. He struggles with, and represses homosexual tendencies, putting his emotions into bicycling and writing songs. As a young adult, Vinny proves successful at whatever he attempts-even in building a family with the first girl he had sexual feelings for. As a ten-year Army leader, he learns hard lessons of losing friendships, love and trust, with the ultimate betrayal of his own father.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
J.V. Petretta is a graduate of U. of Maryland, European Division. He is a ten-year U.S. Army Veteran with three overseas tours, including Vietnam. After his honorable discharge, he received a Meritorious Service Medal for distinguished service as 1st Armored Division’s Nuclear Control Chief. In addition to earning numerous business accolades, he organized and conducted a 5,000 mile bicycle tour in 1995, bringing critical awareness and funding for AIDS.
REVIEW:
Others have said that J.V. Petretta’s An Impossible Dream Story reads like a memoir. The author even admits in the foreword that he has fictionalized real-life events, “some to enhance understanding, some to lesson his own embarrassment.” And of course, he’s changed names to protect the innocent and even the not-so-innocent.
And that is probably the only problem I had with the book. I would have preferred the honesty of a memoir, name changes or not, because the veil that divides our life stories from fiction is pretty thin already. The book is about a man planning a bike tour in his sixties, building up to poignant moments throughout his life that led him to where he is.
We track his love of the sport of cycling and are treated to the celebrations and tragedies that have made his life unique – all the while knowing that “some” of it is true and “some” of it is not.
If this is Petretta’s life, he certainly hasn’t written out all the bad stuff like some of us would prefer to do if we were writing our memoirs. We both laugh and cry with Vinny the protagonist. We are there with him when he hits the “rough spots” on the road through life, and we smile at his accomplishments too.
I related well to the homosexual aspect of the book, and I was envious and proud of Vinny’s determination to support those suffering with AIDS.
This is definitely a “feel good” book, a celebration of life, written to satisfy the yearning to tell one’s story. The story is peppered with poems and songs throughout which were more distracting to me and really added nothing to the story itself for me as a reader.
But the joys of self-publishing and small press allow for us to stray from the norm and tell our unique stories in unique ways. I cannot take away from what is important to the author, but had this been a true memoir it would have been more fitting.
To Mr. Petretta, I say there is nothing to be “embarrassed” about. Vinny was wise when it came to the truth and your readers learned from him. Maybe you should too by listening to his voice. And yours.
