Please Step Back

"New Yorker editor, music critic and novelist Greenman spins a fresh and explosive new novel about a fictionalized rock 'n' soul star who embraced and revolutionized American counterculture. Robert Franklin, aka 'Rock Foxx,' quickly climbs the ladder from first single to first Billboard hit to the rhinestone stardom of a Rolling Stone cover. In the time of the Beatles, the Stones and Bob Dylan, Foxx injects his unique sound with hints of Otis Redding, Ray Charles and Curtis Mayfield. He sings to make an impression, singing about freedom that was constricting and how, even if you had everything, the mind (and the critics) were never satisfied. His fall from grace — and the spotlight — is as much about character as it is about the unrealized hopes and dreams of the turbulent '60s. McSweeney's regular Greenman (A Circle Is a Balloon and Compass Both) takes readers behind the rhythm and into the soul of a musician and the culture that made and destroyed him. It's a haunting vision of a man, the music and a culture, driven by the author's undeniable passion for his subject." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"Ben Greenman seems incapable of writing anything dry or familiar or expected. He is one of the most versatile, constantly surprising writers at work today." Dave Eggers

"This book sounds like a song, working with the rhythm of words that are like speech but never just talking. Greenman's dialogue is as turse, piercing and easeful as Sly Stone's lyrics." The New Yorker

Ben Greenman is an editor at The New Yorker and the author of several books of fiction, including Superbad and A Circle is a Balloon and Compass Both. His fiction, criticism, and essays have appeared in The New Yorker, the New York Times, the Washington Post, McSweeneys, the Paris Review, Opium, and elsewhere. He lives in Brooklyn.