Marks

Thom Kincannon has reached the final day of closing out the contents of his late father's house. But an unexpected find of a trunk in the attic brings a previously unknown manuscript to light. Despite working against a deadline, Thom is drawn into the world created by the author of the writing - one of physical and psychological conflict. The year is 1969; the backdrop is the dramatic societal changes of the decade; and the stages are the professional wrestling arenas where men and women put on exhibitions of strength, athletic prowess and acts of violence. MARKS is the tale of the journeys of Clinton Long, Ivy League graduate and rebel against authority who grapples by day with questions of philosophy and ethics, and by night with men in tights under stage lights. Burned out at the age of 30, he seeks one last hurrah, one last huge payday before he escapes the theatrical world of dramatized fighting forever. But an adversary has crossed the line into actual violence, while a dark secret he has kept hidden may have been uncovered. With these forces stacked against him, his life and those of others may be on the line unless he can find a path of escape while on the biggest stage of his career. MARKS bridges major cultural phenomena of the 1960's - sex, drugs, racial unrest - with the arcane world behind the scenes of professional wrestling; a dimension kept hidden by its practitioners of that era with a fanatic determination to maintain the veneer of realism. Through the eyes of the narrator in this "story-within-a-story", readers take a journey behind the curtains and view the often rowdy, raucous and passionate lives of the men and women who entertained generations of true believers.