Three Days as the Crow Flies

Back in the day, sex, drugs, and Run-DMC ruled. New York City during the 1980s was a breeding ground for experimental artists, from Andy Warhol to Jean-Michel Basquiat to Madonna. Among them: Crow Shade, a drug-addicted hustler who manages to convince an A-list gallery owner that he is a "real" artist -- and has three stolen paintings to prove it.
With a facility that surprises even himself, Crow successfully plays out the role of a downtown visionary, affording him with all of the money, dope, and women he could dream of. But how high can Crow fly before he's knocked down and dragged out? What are the boundaries between art and life? When does deception end and obsession begin? Written with an unerring ear for real-world conversational rhythms, Three Days as the Crow Flies keeps readers engaged, restless, and in awe of Crow's underground adventures through the now-legendary New York art world.

Danny Simmons, a renowned painter of abstract-expressionist oil works, owns the Rush Arts Gallery in Manhattan and Corridor Gallery in Brooklyn. A poet and cofounder of the Def Poetry Jam performance series, he heads the Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation with his brother, Russell Simmons. He lives in Brooklyn.