East Bay Grease Author:Eric Miles Williamson In Eric Miles Williamson's debut novel, T-Bird Murphy seeks to gain a foothold in the turbulent and menacing world of '60s and '70s Oakland. While his mother runs with Hell's Angels bikers, T-Bird falls beneath the men's fists and favors, finds solace and hope in the slightest of rewards, and day by day, seeks to survive. But through the daily... more » process of survival, T-Bird slowly begins to gather clues about who he is, where he's from, and how, if at all possible, he might escape. It is not long before T-Bird's mother disappears and he is sent to live with his ex-con father behind the Mohawk gas station on the other side of town. There he finds challenges of a different form: schools overrun by gangs, a father who is one blink away from madness, and a trumpet that might offer a way out. East Bay Grease directs an unflinching and surprisingly sympathetic eye into the heart of a young man finding his way. And through a tone that is both plainspoken and poetic, Eric Miles Williamson proves himself to be a storyteller of uncommon power and simple grace.« less