Product Description

In the world of WWF wrestling, Mick Foley is a legend. The author of two best-selling autobiographies, he has now written his first novel, a book of such brilliance that it will astonish the critics while delighting his millions of fans. Antietam (Andy) Brown - named for the great-great-grandfather who died on that Civil War battleground - was an overgrown ten-year-old when he killed his abusive foster father and the teenager who tried to rape him. Now, after 7 years in reform school, he is presumably free to make a new start as a student at Conestoga High School. But he is immediately thrust into the violent and debased life of his real father (known as Tietam) - an oddly charismatic man who seems addicted to bodybuilding, beer-swilling and 'bare-back riding', his words for his serial womanising. Swimming through a morass of crudity and violence (he's made an enemy of the football coach and his pack of steroid-pumped teens), Andy is stunned to find himself pursued by the high school homecoming queen - a born-again christian - and to discover that his father has a hidden cache of books on serious, even esoteric, subjects and a hidden past. Obsessed with the idea of offering his girlfriend a pure love and driven to find out whether he's descended from a monster or a hero, Andy searches for the truth in the dangerous currents of his father's past and present - in a novel that is a zany and deeply moving celebration of the human spirit.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #180251 in Books
• Published on: 2004-07-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Customer Reviews

tietam brown
I gotta be honest with you, i have never ever reviewed a book before in my life. In fact i have probably only read about 5 novels before this! But when i closed the last page in this book i wanted to tell people about this amazing novel.
It is very powerful and moving, the characters are truly believable and the story plods along at a nice pace.
There are some nice jokes to keep you amused and some true downhearted moments. If you are thinking about buying this book then you really must. And if you are not thinking about buying it then you really should.
I hope that Mick Foley will not stop at just this one book as he truly has a gift for telling a good story.

Forget your preconceptions...
I don't review often on Amazon, but I had to make some comment on this book - because I think there's every chance a superb novel will get overlooked because of who its author is...

I confess, my hopes weren't high either (it was an impulse purchase as part of one of my regular book-splurges). A book by a guy from the great American pantomime of professional wrestling, writing a novel? Well, forget everything you may think in advance, and give it a go. This is a fantastic read from the small-town USA/coming of age/off-beat character school of literature. Think John Irving and Richard Russo, and you'll be somewhere in the right ballpark. No, honestly - trust me. Sympathetic characters, off-kilter plot, fantastically paced and plotted, and just enough weirdness.

Give it a chance, you won't be disappointed!

Foley starts of his novel writing with a Bang! Bang!
If you have read Mick Foley's first 2 books (his autobiographies) you will have a fair idea of what to expect in the way of humour, but not in the way of content and subject matter. This book is hard to put down once you pick it up due to the way and style it is written in; which is relaxed, almost as though Mick is narrating it. It is a strange but yet wonderful tale of a young 17 boy named Tietam Brown re-living his past experiences and future endavours. The tale carries Foley's great sense of humour that was portrayed in his wrestling career and his autobiographies. This book would make a great film. If you like Foley, you'll love the book, hell, even if you don't like or even know who Mick Foley is (but still have a sense of humour) you'll love the book. Bravo Mick, I can't wait til your next book is out.