Porchball

Book excerpt: 1969 has been called the most eventful year in our history, and it’s against the backdrop of Vietnam and anti-establishment culture that Brownie wrote his own history that year: he smoked his first joint, and got laid, both of those momentous events taking place in the sun and the mud at Woodstock. He also attended Alliance College, and while there was no war there, people died, victims of an evil crime network fronted by a fraternity house cook name Dandy Don. Brownie and his best friend become inextricably tangled in a web of crime, bribery, depravity, and degradation. From professors to ballplayers to strippers, Dandy Don ruins the lives of everyone he touches. Porchball is a story of loyalty, betrayal, and deception. Ultimately, it’s the code by which the game of Porchball is played that rises above all other of life’s principles. When a fraternity brother explains that no one cheats at the game, Brownie doesn’t understand. It’s simple. “Everyone is taken at their word,” says the brother. “Everyone does the right thing.”