Big, Big Love: The Amazing True Story of Bob Friendly, America's Most Beloved Motivational Figure

By Thomas D'Adamo

Bob Friendly’s meteoric rise from illiterate African immigrant to whiz-kid entrepreneur and beloved motivational figure to leading national political contender is a true American rags-to-riches story. But behind the artfully crafted Friendly persona lurks a dark secret—a secret which, if exposed, not only would kill Bob’s political ambitions but upend many of America’s most cherished beliefs about itself as a nation and a people.

Taking the form of an unfinished tell-all by the great man himself, Big, Big Love is the type of laugh-out-loud, take-no-prisoners satire rarely seen in today’s navel gazing literary fiction arena. After appearing in The Brooklyn Rail, in 2007, it quickly established itself as an underground classic in the US and UK.

Now this digital edition from Green Dolphin Street Media makes that pitch-black humorous tale available to a wider international audience.

With Big, Big Love Thomas D’Adamo bullies his way into the chorus of cranks, malcontents, and literary hooligans in which Mark Twain, Ambrose Bierce, Kurt Vonnegut and Joseph Heller once sang so brilliantly.
--Greg Palast, author of the New York Times bestsellers, Billionaires & Ballot Bandits and The Best Democracy Money Can Buy

Conjuring the barbed satiric energies of Nathanael West and George Saunders, Thomas D’Adamo skewers American narcissism—a national tradition more honored than flag and church—while sounding mythic notes that tell of hero worship and its tragic flaws. In “Big, Big Love,” D’Adamo insinuates an unsettling political message beneath a skillfully crafted guise of comic exaggeration. Handle carefully—this is a story with sharp edges and combustible contents.
--Albert Mobilio, Author of Touch Wood and Editor at Bookforum

The only self-help tale you’ll ever need! BIG, BIG LOVE will tickle your most sociopathic funny bone while making you a better person. Guaranteed. This profound, and glorious, and terrifying, and absurdly funny book will transform your current self into your ultimate self.
--Donald Breckenridge, Fiction Editor at The Brooklyn Rail, co-editor of InTranslation, and author of This Young Girl Passing and You Are Here

About the Author
A longtime denizen of New York’s Lower East Side, Thomas D’Adamo now lives in the woods by Wissahickon Creek with Veronica, his beloved Conn 10M “Lady Face” tenor sax. His stories, poems and reviews have appeared in The Brooklyn Rail, Bookforum, and other publications.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Thomas D'Adamo
• Release date: Jul 7, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310842719

Thomas D'Adamo

A longtime denizen of New York’s Lower East Side, Thomas D’Adamo now lives in the woods by Wissahickon Creek with Veronica, his beloved Conn 10M “Lady Face” tenor sax. His stories, poems and reviews have appeared in The Brooklyn Rail, Bookforum, and other publications.

Book preview

Big, Big Love

The Amazing True Story of Bob Friendly,

America’s Most Beloved Motivational Figure

Thomas D’Adamo

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2014 Thomas D'Adamo

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-soldor given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and didnot purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword

Big Dada, Big Juju

Genesis

The Quest Begins

Interlude: The Secret of My Success

Coming to America

A Star Is Born

The Sky's the Limit!

The Promised Land--Houston, Texas

Ranger Bob

Feasting With Lions

Coda

Critical Praise for BIG, BIG LOVE—

With Big, Big Love Thomas D’Adamo bullies his way into the chorus of cranks, malcontents, and literary hooligans in which Mark Twain, Ambrose Bierce, Kurt Vonnegut and Joseph Heller once sang so brilliantly.

--Greg Palast, author of the New York Times bestsellers, Billionaires & Ballot Bandits and The Best Democracy Money Can Buy

Conjuring the barbed satiric energies of Nathanael West and George Saunders, Thomas D’Adamo skewers American narcissism—a national tradition more honored than flag and church—while sounding mythic notes that tell of hero worship and its tragic flaws. In Big, Big Love, D’Adamo insinuates an unsettling political message beneath a skillfully crafted guise of comic exaggeration. Handle carefully—this is a story with sharp edges and combustible contents.

--Albert Mobilio, Author of Touch Wood and Editor at Bookforum

The only self-help tale you’ll ever need! BIG, BIG LOVE will tickle your most sociopathic funny bone while making you a better person. Guaranteed. This profound, and glorious, and terrifying, and absurdly funny book will transform your current self into your ultimate self. 

--Donald Breckenridge, Fiction Editor at The Brooklyn Rail, co-editor of InTranslation, and author of This Young Girl Passing and You Are Here

Special thanks to Barbara Sarcich for her amazing cover design and for her patience in dealing with my jittery micromanagement. Grazie mille, sorella.

Also, special thanks go to Donald Breckenridge and the folks at The Brooklyn Rail for taking a chance on this peculiar exercise in storytelling and on this peculiar storyteller.

The protagonist of this tale is modeled loosely on former Ugandan dictator Idi Amin. While the twentieth century no doubt produced more than its fair share of notable monsters, fiends and malignant narcissists on whom I could have drawn for inspiration, I chose Amin specifically because of the near-total lack of biographical information about him available to the public. This left my imagination unlimited room to romp and indulge its every snarky whim in the construction of a consummate libertarian hero, à la Ayn Rand (a notable malignant narcissist in her own right).

Thus, other than what is popularly known about his precipitate rise to power, his unthinkable brutality as head of state, and his exile in Saudi Arabia, any similarities between Uganda’s third President— especially as concerns his origins, upbringing, education and family life—and the fictional character, Idi Amin, portrayed in Big, Big Love are so utterly adventitious as to verge on the supernatural. --TD

The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.

--Ayn Rand

Foreword

What follows is the complete and unexpurgated text of the book my husband was working on when he was overtaken by that most