Tim W. Brown Reads From New Novel Second Acts

Author Tim W. Brown returns to Chicago on December 28, 2010, to headline a reading at The Bourgeois Pig, 738 W. Fullerton Ave., Chicago. An open mic follows Brown’s reading. The event starts at 7:30 p.m., and admission is $5 or $4 for students. The public may call 219-322-7270 or visit www.outriderpress.com for more information. Known for his lively spoken word performances, Brown will read from his fourth novel, Second Acts, a comic historical novel set in 1830s America, a time of great social upheaval and reform fervor, not unlike the 1960s. Second Acts tells the story of a young man, Dan Connor, who has followed his wife Rachel and her lover Bruce Bilson, a University of Chicago physics professor and the inventor of time travel, into the past. In his journey he obtains a mystical sidekick, a Potawatomi transvestite named Listening Rabbit (aka Bunny), and he befriends historical figures such as Albert Gallatin and Samuel J. Tilden. Rachel and Bilson maddeningly stay one step ahead of Connor. But as time moves forward, Connor’s fortunes rise while Bilson’s fall, and Rachel attains fame as a lyceum speaker, the Oprah of antebellum America. Second Acts describes 19th century life and culture while it satirizes timeless aspects of the American character with the same biting candor, dry wit, and laugh-out-loud moments as Brown’s earlier novels Deconstruction Acres, Left of the Loop, and Walking Man. “Second Acts refutes F. Scott Fitzgerald’s notion that ‘There are no second acts in American lives,’” stated Brown. Praise: “Really clicking, Second Acts is a picaresque, sci-fi/western, such as Verne or Welles might have penned it. In subverting history Brown’s tale celebrates it, with a scholar’s eye for authentic details and at a pacing so swift the pages give off a nice breeze.”–Peter Selgin, author of Life Goes to the Movies and Drowning Lessons (2008 Flannery O’Connor Award winner) “Half-magical, half-farcical, Second Acts is full of vitality and humor, a modern update of Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. Second Acts is a sparkling gem of a book, one that inspires both contemplation and more than a few belly laughs.”–Greg Downs, historian, author of Spit Baths (2006 Flannery O’Connor Award winner) About the Author: TIM W. BROWN graduated summa cum laude with an American studies degree from Northern Illinois University. He is the author of four novels, Deconstruction Acres (1997), Left of the Loop (2001), Walking Man (2008), and Second Acts (released by Gival Press in October 2010). A long-time resident of Chicago, where he was a fixture in that city’s literary scene as a writer, performer, and publisher of Tomorrow Magazine (1982-1999), Brown currently lives in The Bronx, New York. About the Publisher: GIVAL PRESS is an award-winning, privately owned press located in Arlington, Virginia, founded in 1998. They publish literary work that has a social or philosophical message in English, French, and Spanish. Gival Press also sponsors four annual contests for fiction and poetry, including the Gival Press Poetry Award, Gival Press Novel Award, Gival Press Oscar Wilde Award, and Gival Press Short Story Award. # # # #

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