Termite Parade (Out of Print)

This book is now out of print.

*One of the Best Books of 2010 —Sacramento Bee

"[A] wry and unnerving story of bad love gone rotten. [Mohr] has a generous understanding of his characters, whom he describes with an intelligence and sensitivity that pulls you in. This is no small achievement."
—New York Times Book Review, Editors' Choice

Synopsis

Termite Parade tells the story of Mired, the self-described "bastard daughter of a menage a trois between Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Sylvia Plath, and Eeyore." Mired catalogs her "museum of emotional failures," the latest entry to which is her boyfriend Derek, an auto mechanic (whose body may or may not be infested with termites), who loses his cool carrying her up the stairs to their apartment.

Termite Parade by Joshua Mohr =

* In most cases, none of these writers endorse this book. Our math formulas are supposed to be amusing anecdotes, similar to shelf-talkers in bookstores that say "If you like X, you might enjoy Y," or "This Book is like Cormac McCarthy writing an episode of Saved by the Bell with a soundtrack by Philip Glass."

"[A] wry and unnerving story of bad love gone rotten. [Mohr] has a generous understanding of his characters, whom he describes with an intelligence and sensitivity that pulls you in. This is no small achievement."
—New York Times Book Review, Editors' Choice

"Explodes with pyrotechnic prose. Termite Parade flaunts the big burning heart on Mohr's sleeve, wildly tossing it about to light the way in a relentless search for answers to the unanswerable."
—Rain Taxi

"Mohr writes like John Milton living in a garbage dump, and always infuses a tiny thread of what might be hope."
—Sacramento Bee

"An entertaining romp through the minds of three seemingly sadistic nobodies as they each attempt to exonerate themselves for their parts in a twisted story. The book is similar to Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment: the most crucial action serves as a portal to and wellspring for the various psychologies of its characters. But Mohr's storytelling is so absorbing that Termite Parade does not read like an analytical rumination; if he is examining the very nature of these characters under a microscope, he at least lets the specimens speak for themselves."
—San Francisco Chronicle

"Written with as much heart as brawn, Termite Parade is a sucker punch to literary complacency, without a hint of authorial self-absorption. Mohr is a post-millennial Bukowski with a dash of Hubert Selby, Jr. thrown in for good measure, and with only two published novels under his belt, he is rapidly becoming one of my favorite American novelists."
—Powell's Review-a-Day

"Mohr's energetic, almost frenetic prose grab[s] readers by the shirt and [doesn't] let go."
—The Rumpus

"[The] delicate combination of vulnerability and sliminess, Mohr's specialty, is fascinating."
—The Collagist

"One of the year's most thrilling works of literary fiction."
—Largehearted Boy

"With his second novel, Termite Parade, Joshua Mohr sounds the depths of the space between human decency and indecency; he does so to striking, engaging effect."
—Thumb Drives and Oven Clocks

"Mohr's prose strikes a delicate balance between revulsion and beauty. Termite Parade is a treat, an unlikely redemption story with a distinctly San Francisco flavor."
—San Francisco Magazine

"A fresh take on the Bukowskian milieu of dirtbags, drunks, and drifters. [Mohr's] language is propulsive, raw, and sympathetic without being overly sentimental. Mohr's insistent prose propels the novel's surreal investigation of guilt, love, and duplicity."
—San Francisco Weekly

"Joshua [Mohr] is one of those writers I like best because he writes stuff I would never write. Approaches narratives in a way I wouldn’t approach them. Pushes himself (and me) out of his comfort zone. That excites me. Josh’s characters rescue burnt sofas. Push their lovers down stairwells. Wallow in dumpsters. And his language never ceases to surprise."
—Three Guys One Book

"The story is a veritable microscope of humanity at its worst (and maybe a glimpse of it near its best), it examines both our motives and the consequences of our actions in a very readable fashion."
—Campus Circle

"The prose is oddly lovely [with] a frenzied climax that calls for a tumbler of whiskey."
—Publishers Weekly

"A humorous little ditty involving twins, domestic violence, and lots of drinking."
—Black Book

Joshua Mohr is the author of the memoir Sirens, and the novels Some Things That Meant the World to Me and Damascus, as well as Fight Song and All This Life. He lives in San Francisco and teaches fiction writing.

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LIST PRICE: $16.00
PAGES: 228
PRINT ISBN: 978-0-9820151-6-2
DIGITAL ISBN: 978-0-9826848-3-2
RELEASE DATE: 7/1/2010