Title: Still Life With Brass Pole
Description: Craig is 16 when he returns from a drug-fueled visit with his dad in Miami to find his mom leaving town with her 23 year-old boyfriend. In the same moment, his dreams of settling down with his pregnant girlfriend are dashed when she is moved off to Texas by her parents. Left alone in small town Oklahoma, he embarks on a deranged, cross-country quest for a family of his own.

STILL LIFE WITH BRASS POLE is Craig Machen’s funny, debauched and heartfelt memoir about young love and coming of age in the titillation business. And how a roaring White Knight Complex, an eccentric comedy club owner, and a trio of unpredictable striptease artists conspire to help him achieve his aims.
Subjects: love, literary, relationships, humor, memoir, sex, redemption, road novel, coming of age, sexual abuse, strip clubs, family, Oklahoma, biography
Places: Edmond, Amarillo, Pompano Beach, Oklahoma City, Phoenix, Tempe, San Diego, Seattle, Wichita, Miami
Time periods: 1985-1991