Dance of the Infidels

By Wesley Brown

2017

First Published

4.38

Average Rating

162

Number of Pages

4H55M

Audio Length

This long-awaited story collection from Wesley Brown summons up the smoky clubs and gritty streets of a long-gone New York City, one that moved in the frenetic rhythms of jazz. A more innocent city fueled by cool, not money. We meet Billie Holiday, Dizzy Gillespie, John Coltrane, Coleman Hawkins, Cab Calloway, and many giants of the era in these sharply observed, carefully intertwined stories. In Brown’s deft hands, these legends become real – like we’ve never seen them before. Jazz has circled throughout the Brown’s work, but now it takes the main stage in this collection of eight unpublished stories. Find out why James Baldwin called Brown “one hell of a writer,” and why so many other younger writers find deep inspiration in the novels and stories of this master storyteller.

Avg Rating

4.38

Number of Ratings

5 STARS

50%

4 STARS

38%

3 STARS

13%

2 STARS

1 STARS

goodreads

Author

Wesley Brown

Author · 7 books

Novelist, playwright, and teacher Wesley Brown was born and raised in Harlem, NYC. His work includes three acclaimed novels (Tragic Magic, Darktown Strutters, and Push Comes to Shove) and three produced plays (Boogie Woogie and Booker T, Life During Wartime, and A Prophet Among Them). Brown's work often reflects his political involvement. In 1965, Brown worked with the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party on voting registration. In 1968, he became a member of the Black Panther Party in Rochester, New York. In 1972, he was sentenced to three years in prison for refusing induction into the armed services and spent eighteen months in Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary. He is Professor Emeritus at Rutgers University, where he taught for 27 years. He currently teaches literature at Bard College at Simon's Rock, and lives in Spencertown, New York.