Two Dollar Radio is fast becoming one of my favorite indie presses. I love their brand, I’m digging their editorial voice (they recently picked up Rudolph Wurlitzer’s backlist), and I love love love that TDR is a family joint. I sort of see them as the new Soft Skull. But different.
Joshua Mohr’s debut, “Some Things That Meant the World to Me,” is a gritty debut worth getting excited about. You may have seen the coverage of this in Poets & Writers this spring—and BTW, thanks P&W for always including an indie when you do your seasonal coverage! STTMTWTM (okay, this is not a book which lends itself well to acronyms) is the story of a man named Rhonda suffering from depersonalization as a result of childhood trauma. Rhonda, a hardcore alcoholic, sleeps on an immolated sofa with a zip-lock bag full of rotting fruit pulp, likes hairy women, and frequently crawls through a magical hole in the bottom of a dumpster—all of which makes this book the perfect stocking stuffer for your eight year old son! I daresay this is the darkest book I’ve read since Patrick deWitt’s debut “Ablutions.” What keeps this book from tipping the shock-o-meter for me is the humanity. I’m just guessing, here, but it seems like Mr. Mohr may have tilted a few horns on an immolated sofa at some point, and possibly even slept with a zip-lock full of rotting fruit pulp, because this stuff feels lived.
Mohr, who lives in San Francisco, has a second novel coming out early next year from Two Dollar Radio, entitled “Termite Parade,” which promises to be as dark and unsettling as this fine debut.
JE
sounds intriguing. smelly, but intriguing.
Dead on twice Mr. Evison. Two Dollar Radio rocks hard and Mohr's debut is one dark and funky read.
I'd quibble slightly with the Soft Skull comparison if only because to me, SS has always seemed like two or three presses rolled into one. I see TDR sticking close to the dark, edgy fiction, but maybe without the forays into the political and pushing the boundary non-fiction.
More like an edgy Unbridled Books to me – one solid editorial line that once you know you like, you can trust forever. And while Fred, Greg and Caitlin at Unbridled aren't a blood-family joint, they might as well be family having gone through a decade together as MacMurray & Beck, Bluehen and now Unbridled.
Glad to see Joshua's book getting more praise – it deserves it. If only for the zip-lock bag of rotting fruit pulp and that damn magical hole in the dumpster!
. . .you make a good point about soft skull being broader editorially, i was just thinking more of the edgy punkish brand as much as the lists . . .LOVE unbridled, too . . . i think i covered john addiego's island of divine music at some point– great book . . .kinda' like middlesex with italians . . .
[...] couple weeks back I covered Joshua Mohr's badass and unsettling debut from Two Dollar Radio, Some Things That Meant the World to Me. We Three Guys love watching young [...]