Fiction Monday: An Impossible Dream Story

Today’s work of “fiction” actually defies the fiction categorization, to a degree. I would call J.V. Petretta’s work, An Impossible Dream Story, a work of autobiographical fiction. Petretta calls it “fictionalized”. Perhaps 50% (and maybe more) of this “novel” comes from his own life experience with added “facts” and embellishments to round out the story. He writes what he knows! Regardless, it reads like a great mix of biography and memoir rather than like a work of fiction. It was an effective ploy, used skillfully.

Here we have the story of Vinny Pirelli from his childhood years, through high school, into the Army and on to Vietnam plus several more years, married, then out of the Army and into the world of work and children and so forth. In his later years, Vinny would come to finally admit to himself his gay identity. He would later contract HIV and battle with precursor viruses and diseases to full blown AIDS. Even given his battles with illness and incapacity, Vinny puts together and then completes a personal quest; the USAIDS 5,000 mile bicycle trip across the U.S. from New York state to California to help AIDS related organizations and healthcare facilities all along the way raise awareness and funds for their causes. At the end of the story Vinny gets just about everything he has wanted all his life.

Now, there are lots of spoilers out there that will give you a synopsis of this book that will totally ruin the story for you. I’m telling you, this one you just have to read! The level of detail here for a work of “fiction” is simply amazing. This is so much more involved than typical fiction. Readers with cycling background will love it. Vietnam vets will love it. Anyone who has ever managed a chain style restaurant or who has any kind of business sense will love it. Any man who has ever been married and had a family but longed for something more will see himself in it.

I remained interested throughout the book but a few parts of the story line really stood out for me personally:

1. During my own military career, I was trained at Ft Devens, Massachusetts (now public housing), just as Vinny (our main character…and probably also our author…) was, in the same job Vinny had, using much of the same equipment Vinny used. I lived on the same quadrangle (parade ground) Vinny describes and spent time in the barracks he speaks of. Petretta’s description of all of this was so accurate that it could not have been fiction. It could only have come from someone who had “been there, done that!”

2. In the “story”, Vinny loses his church roots only to discover the United Church of Christ (UCC) later in his life and to find acceptance there as a gay man. Funny, I discovered the UCC about 4 months ago and actually work part time for the church that “found” me. Again, Petretta’s description of the “goings on” and so forth of the UCC are spot on.

3. Petretta really did organize and complete the USAIDS 5,000 bicycle tour. That’s real. Some events along the way in the “story” are fiction…some are not. I’ll leave it to you to do the research and decide what is fact and what is fiction.

There are many, many other instances and scenarios in this book that strike me as more fact that fiction. For example, much of the description of chain restaurant work rings very true. So too do the scenes played out in VA hospitals (which the author does admit bear a lot of resemblance to his treatments for lymphoma at one). Also, he really has worked with his sister assisting AIDS victims in Africa.

J.V. Petretta is, at age 65(ish), planning 25, 100 mile bicycle trips in 25 major cities to pedal both a bike again and this book. Proceeds from the sale of his book benefit cycling and LGBT advocacy groups and his future work in Africa.

My hope is that the author pens a memoir next and that he tells all, for real to include his latest venture/adventure!