Puberty, Prayers, and Poetry: David Benjamin’s Satirical Coming-of-Age Memoir, Fat Vinny's Forbidden Love

Title: Fat Vinny's Forbidden Love

Author: David Benjamin

Publisher: Last Kid Books

ISBN & Price: 9781735772226, $18.64

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Fat Vinny’s Forbidden Love by David Benjamin is a satirical coming-of-age story that recounts moments of young Benjamin’s own childhood as he and his peers grapple with puberty—hormones, changing bodies, and lust—under a heavy overlay of Catholic guilt. Benjamin demonstrates a knack for turning the ordinary into something shocking and hilarious, never shying away from the grimy and gruesome details of pre-teenage boyhood. Through short, funny, and captivating chapters, the book highlights preteen angst in chaotic, awkward, and absurd moments. 

The novel follows David and his “friend” Fat Vinny at the Catholic school they attend, St. Mary’s. Vinny functions less like a friend and more like an overbearing nuisance—constantly encouraging Benjamin to defy his purity, ignore the religious teachings he was raised with, and give in to his growing desires. The story centers around Vinny’s obsession and near-worship of one of the school’s nuns, Sister Patrice. Through this crush that goes far beyond school-boy innocence, Vinny lures David and the other schoolboys into a plethora of shenanigans, both dangerous and naughty, ranging from paying for strip-teases from girl classmates, obsessing over a pornographic graffiti mural in a public restroom, and ordering panty and bra sets from catalogues, to acting as peeping Toms, stealing vehicles, and embarking on stalker-level road trips. 

Benjamin’s writing style blends humor, intentional detail, and childlike references to capture the confusion of adolescence. He offers believable dialogue between preteen boys, with just enough nonsensical slang and vulgarity to feel authentic. The characters are sketched out in slimy, disgusting detail—for example, he describes Fat Vinny as “slope-shouldered and sagging, droopy-eyed and jowly, wanton and self-indulgent. Moisture oozed from somewhere inside him, imparting a dull sheen to his skin.” (8) Through childlike references like Humpty Dumpty, Benjamin juxtaposes the youth and innocence of the characters with their newfound discovery of sex, highlighting the messy contradictions of puberty. He mixes religious language with modern humor, in lines such as, “...Jesus is tapping his foot and checking his Timex. Today, I realized as panic began to constrict my larynx, that Jesus was going to have to cool his heels.” (19) Scenes are grounded in period details, like soda fountains, drugstore counters, flavored Cokes, and commercial jingles twisted into boyish jokes. Benjamin’s voice throughout is consistent, hilarious, and undeniably adolescent. 

Despite its humor and shock value, the novel is heavily thematic, raising both moral and religious questions. The curiosity and confusion of puberty are highlighted in David’s internal conflict: he wants to be a “good boy,” yet is pressured by his more knowledgeable, older friends to explore his sexuality. In lines like, “Home, safety, peace and quiet, open discourse and guiltless virtue—these were all just up the street, four blocks south. All I had to do was turn left,” (188) his inner turmoil is made clear. The stories continually return to the question of how young boys are meant to fumble their way through attraction, physical changes, and misinformation, all while remaining “good.” 

Religion plays a part in the conflict David feels, with his Catholic upbringing looming over every decision he makes. Nuns and priests seem to appear around every corner. The guilt of his bodily “sins” and the fear of damnation weigh on his imagination, often overpowering any newly awakened impulses. David interprets even the most normal, basic urges as life-ending, “mortal sins so prodigious that I’d be reciting rosaries into the 1970s.” (20) The priests offer sermons about sex that only make things worse, portraying it as something monstrous and perilous. Religion as a whole becomes an antagonist in its own right, haunting David as he tries to make sense of his own body.

Fat Vinny serves not only as a humorous main character who propels the plot along, but also as a metaphor for puberty itself. Oozing with physical excess and taboo, he barrels into David’s life, forcing uncomfortable and unavoidable growth. He strips away David’s innocence, corrupting him with lewd fantasies and obscene poems, never once asking for permission but demanding that David come to terms with his own growing sexual energy. “This is what associating with Fat Vinny did to a kid. Your mind was clean, pure, untroubled, filled with the light of Jesus—and then Vinny proceeded to ruin all that.” (65)

Benjamin infuses humor and irreverence into his portrayal of preteen boys chasing the truths of an adulthood they aren’t yet ready to face. Through humorous escapades—often crude and grotesque—he entertains while provoking deeper questions about imposed morality and natural desire. He captures with precision the experience of a 12-year-old Catholic boy—the frightening, jumbled, sticky, gross, yet strangely exhilarating and unknown dive into adolescence. The novel is a wild exploration of boyhood under Catholicism. In Fat Vinny’s Forbidden Love, Benjamin’s signature satire shines, making the profane feel sacred and the sacred feel profane, giving the book its boyish, unforgettable charm.

Review by Britain Powers