Please Step Back: A Novel

A swirling 1960s saga of the rise and fall of a true American icon. Rock Foxx is a rock star. But he is not just any rock star - Rock is an outrageous showman whose unprecedented mixed-race, mixed-gender band creates a new, socially conscious kind of music. Then, at the height of his fame, Rock suddenly disappears. In the hands of New Yorker editor Ben Greenman, this pseudo-bio of a fascinating character becomes both highly literary and immensely entertaining, a tale about rock'n'roll and about a complicated but key moment in American history.

About the Author :
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.

Review :
"Ben Greenman's mind contains, among other things, a literary critic, a cultural commentator, a cowboy, a satirist, a scientist, a surrealist, a nut, a genius, a child prodigy, and a poet." -Susan Minot
""Please Step Back" sings of the back-street, back-stage hyper-kinetic moment when music, stardom, and cultural sea changes pushed America irrevocably forward. Light-stepping and hard-hitting, Greenman gets it right, from the power of the beat to the devastation when the silence takes over." -Walter Mosley
"Ben Greenman seems incapable of writing anything dry or famiiar 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." -Sasha Frere-Jones, pop music critic for "The New Yorker"
""Please Step Back" is a literary funk-rock novel with weight and power. Greenman nails the outsized characters who, in the midst of a cultural revolution, birthed the most thrilling movement in American popular music." -George Pelecanos, author of "The Turnaround," and producer and writer for "The Wire
"""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 ab