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by Chuck Cascio (Author)
The year is 1968. The world is crumbling around Mike Burns, a disillusioned Brooklyn youth attending his second year of college. His cousin and constant childhood companion, Sally-Boy, went missing two years ago. The two were incredibly close-they called themselves twins because they were born the same day-and Mike still thinks about Sally-Boy relentlessly, even talks to him...but nobody needs to know about that.
Adding to Mike's problems, his father angrily nags him to cut his hair; a professor fills his head with passionate, troubling ideals; a friend's draft dodge pulls him into incriminating circumstances; his Jewish roommate is in the doghouse with his own parents for dating the "wrong" girl; and Mike's love interest-well, she has secrets of her own to deal with.
College parties make a quick fix to Mike's troubles, but after the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., campus tensions rise to the breaking point. How will Mike deal with the turmoil of young adulthood-existential questions of morality, conscience, obligation-when everything in his life, familiar and new, is falling apart? And, above all, he longs for his cousin. He has to find Sally-Boy.Author Biography
Chuck Cascio was born in Brooklyn, NY, and grew up in the Washington, DC, area, but remains a New Yorker at heart. He holds a BS in economics and business from Wagner College and a MA in communications from American University. He is an award-winning journalist with hundreds of published articles. He has written three nonfiction books as well as two volumes of short stories, which are prequels to The Fire Escape Belongs in Brooklyn. A former adjunct faculty member at American University, Chuck also taught high school and was faculty advisor to student newspapers in Fairfax County, VA, receiving extensive recognition for his creative teaching. He then went on to serve in leadership positions at the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards and the Educational Testing Service. He resides in Reston, VA, with his wife, Faye, an award-winning science educator.
