Another Way to Fall: Two Short Novels

As the turbulent Sixties draw to a close, NYC police raid the headquarters of Push Comes to Shove—a group of activists, dreamers, and lovers based in a gritty tenement in Lower Manhattan—and kill Walter Armstead with a shotgun blast to the face. Was he an innocent victim of brutal times? Police collaborator? Or both? His death triggers a series of violent reprisals from extremists in the group, from a subway bombing to kidnappings to a showdown in the Black Hills of South Dakota.With this wild, resonant novel, Brown vividly captures the hopes and delusions of Vietnam-era America. “A brilliant, eye-opening novel.”– More Magazine“Push Come to Shove brings us back to a time when the stakes were high, the world was dangerous, and everything mattered—perhaps too much.”– Mary Gordon “Propels its readers into the politically and culturally turbulent world of the American 1960s and ‘70s.”– Washington Post “Opens a door to the world of the black liberation movement at a critical moment in American history.” – Chronogram “There is a gaping hole in fiction about the 60’s, which focuses almost exclusively on the white New Left. Brown has filled it admirably with his thoughtful, gripping novel about the black liberation movement.”– Peter BiskindWesley Brown is an acclaimed novelist, playwright, and teacher. He worked with the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party in 1965 and became a member of the Black Panther Party in 1968. In 1972, he was sentenced to three years in prison for refusing induction into the armed services and spent 18 months in Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary. For 27 years, Brown was a much-revered Professor at Rutgers University, where he inspired hundreds of students, including novelist Junot Diaz. He currently teaches literature at Bard College at Simon’s Rock and lives in Chatham, New York.