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Some Things That Meant The World To Me

by Joshua Mohr
Some Things That Meant The World To Me

  • Comment on this title
  • Synopses & Reviews

ISBN13: 9780982015117
ISBN10: 0982015119
Condition: Standard


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Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments

#8 of 10 Terrific Reads of 2009. "Charles Bukowski will dig the grit in this seedy novel, a poetic rendering of postmodern San Francisco." -O, The Oprah Magazine

A Best Book of the Year -The Nervous Breakdown

"Where Michel Gondry would go if he went down a few too many miles of bad desert road." -The Collagist

"Mohr's prose roams with chimerical liquidity. The magic of this book is a disturbing, hallucinogenic magic." -Boston's Weekly Dig

Following a 30-year-old man named Rhonda suffering from depersonalization, Some Things That Meant the World to Me is a gritty and beautiful work that is creative and hypnotic, and should stand as an introduction of an original new voice to American literature.

When Rhonda was a child — abandoned and ignored by his mother; abused and misguided by his mother's boyfriend — he imagined the rooms of his home drifting apart from one another like separating continents. Years later, after an embarassing episode as an adult, Rhonda's inner-child appears, leading him to a trapdoor in the bottom of a dumpster behind a taqueria that will force him to finally confront his troubled past.

In the spirit of Cruddy and Hairstyles of the Damned, Joshua Mohr has created a remarkable and unforgettable character in this charmingly poetic and maturely crafted first novel.

Joshua Mohr has been published in Other Voices, The Cimarron Review, Pleiades, and Gulf Coast, among others. He lives in San Francisco and teaches at a halfway house.

Review

"Joshua Mohr's scorching, jacked-up prose nearly burned my eyes out; and his main character, a young man known as Rhonda, is one of the most troubled and heartbreaking people you will ever encounter in literature." Donald Ray Pollock, author of Knockemstiff

Review

"This bold new writer has an uncanny gift for tapping our most dangerous desires. Open the trapdoor at the bottom of the dumpster and prepare yourself to enter a wonderland where violence may pave your path to strange love and potent healing." Melanie Rae Thon, author of Sweet Hearts

Review

"What Joshua Mohr is doing has more in common with Kafka, Lewis Carroll, and Haruki Murakami, all great chroniclers of the fantastic. He's interested in something weirder than mere sex, drugs, and degradation." Joshua Furst, The Rumpus

Review

"In his first novel, Joshua Mohr nearly accomplishes a masterpiece." Grade: A Campus Circle

Review

"A startling debut. Joshua Mohr takes us to a different city, but a city we know, populated by the dark side of ourselves." Stephen Elliott

Review

"Mohr's prose roams with chimerical liquidity. The magic of this book is a disturbing, hallucinogenic magic, one that will jostle you back and forth..." Boston's Weekly Dig

Review

Joshua Mohr's debut novel is that rare literary gem: the kind of story that envelops you so wholly, you forget that you're reading. The kind of book you want to lend to everyone you know -- except that you can't bear to part with it. I haven't felt this enamored of a book since I first encountered Denis Johnson's Jesus' Son more than a decade ago, and that is one of my "desert island" books.... Sheila Ashdown, Powells.com (read the entire Powells.com review)

Synopsis

Enter Damascus, the womb-like bar in San Francisco's Mission District, and you'll find Rhonda, a thirty-year-old man suffering from depersonalization — a disorder allowing him to reconfigure his reality to tolerate trauma. When Rhonda was young he imagined the rooms of his house drifting apart like separating continents as he raced to avoid his mother's abusive boyfriend while trying to make sense of her extended disappearances.

The next stool over is Vern, a diaper-clad Vet nursing warm beers, who wishes for nothing more than the opportunity to re-break Rhonda's arm.

Beside Vern, Old Lady Rhonda, a neglected housewife who excels at Wheel of Fortune.

Some Things That Meant the World to Me is the gritty tale of a band of outcasts struggling to make sense of their broken pasts in this subtly affecting, achingly poignant, and mature debut novel.

"I'd like to brag about the night I saved a hooker's life. Like to tell you how quiet everything else in the world was while I helped her. This was in San Francisco. Late 2007. I'd been drinking in Damascus, my favorite dive bar, which was painted entirely black — floor, walls, and ceiling. Being surrounded by all that darkness had this slowing effect on time, like a shunned astronaut meandering in space."

Synopsis

Following a 30-year-old man named Rhonda suffering from depersonalization, Some Things That Meant the World to Me is a gritty and beautiful work that is creative and hypnotic, and should stand as an introduction of an original new voice to American literature.

When Rhonda was a child — abandoned and ignored by his mother; abused and misguided by his mother's boyfriend — he imagined the rooms of his home drifting apart from one another like separating continents. Years later, after an embarrassing episode as an adult, Rhonda's inner-child appears, leading him to a trapdoor in the bottom of a dumpster behind a taqueria that will force him to finally confront his troubled past.

In the spirit of Cruddy and Hairstyles of the Damned, Joshua Mohr has created a remarkable and unforgettable character in this charmingly poetic and maturely crafted first novel.

Synopsis

An imaginative, gritty tale that introduces a fresh new voice in American literature.

About the Author

Joshua Mohr has been published in Other Voices, The Cimarron Review, Pleiades, and Gulf Coast, among others. He sings in the band Damn Handsome and The Birthday Suits. He lives in San Francisco and teaches at a halfway house. His second novel, From a Fragile Galaxy, is forthcoming from Two Dollar Radio in June 2010.

5 3

What Our Readers Are Saying

Share your thoughts on this title!
Average customer rating 5 (3 comments)

`
andrew.o.dugas , August 13, 2010
Best book I've read this year, hands down. Not since Chief Bromden in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest has an unreliable and psychotic narrator been so enthralling, nor has a reality that bends been so masterfully depicted.

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`
jabiz raisdana , May 19, 2009
In his brutally candid debut novel, Joshua Mohr creates a hauntingly detailed, beautiful yet wretched world familiar to every loser/saint trying to escape his or her downward spiral. The carefully crafted prose leaves the reading hanging on every word, allowing the narrative to read like a series of tight flash fiction pieces, rather than a novel which can so often get bogged down by the weight of its plot. The short chapters, like snapshots, ultimately come together to create the complete story. Even while the characters wallow in their pain, shame, and darkness, Mohr’s voice maintains a stubborn perseverance that forces the reader to care about each of them. In the spirit of downtrodden heroes ala Elliott Smith and Charles Bukowski, we follow the main character, Rhonda, down his path of near misses and ultimate failures. At every turn we are left hoping that he will succeed, knowing that his self-destructive behavior will never allow him redemption. Flip-flopping between the present and flashbacks to Rhonda’s childhood abuse and subsequent therapy, Mohr painstakingly creates scene after scene where even, “emptiness can suffocate you, “ while a series of seemingly shallow characters, slowly gain depth as the plot unfolds. Although Mohr confesses that, “sometimes things are so black they are more than a color; they are a place, a lonely solar system,” there is an element of hope hidden in his words, literally buried at the bottom of a dumpster, which forces the reader not to give up on Rhonda. By the time Rhonda confesses to being, “tired of being obliterated,” the reader is left to ponder whether or not Rhonda will find happiness.

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`
Viva Lit , May 11, 2009
Loved this book. If you're into good, smart literature with an edge, then this is a great novel for you to check out. I couldn't put it down.

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(2 of 2 readers found this comment helpful)
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780982015117
Binding:
Trade Paperback
Publication date:
06/01/2009
Publisher:
TWO DOLLAR RADIO
Pages:
208
Height:
7.60 in
Width:
5.30 in
Thickness:
.75
Number of Units:
1
Copyright Year:
2009
Author:
Joshua Mohr
Author:
Joshua Mohr
Subject:
Mothers and sons
Subject:
Literature-A to Z
Subject:
Domestic fiction

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$7.95
List Price:$15.50
Used Trade Paperback
Ships in 1 to 3 days
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1Cedar Hills

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