"[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."
(Selected as an NYTBR Editors' Choice)
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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.
As Derek's termites wreak havoc on his nervous system, Mired pieces together the puzzle, each character revealing aspects of their savage natures, culminating in a climax of pure animal chaos. Along the way, there's a moustached softball team of misanthropes, Mired's Mt. Rushmore of Male Failures, and armed robberies videotaped for vicarious thrills.
Reviews
"In lesser hands, this would be another in a long line of feel-bad books examining the human underbelly...but Mohr has a generous understanding of his characters, whom he describes with an intelligence and sensitivity that pulls you in."
- The New York Times Book Review
"The book is similar to Dostoevsky'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."
- Powells
"Mohr's insistent prose propels the novel's surreal investigation of guilt, love, and duplicity."
- SF Weekly
"Mohr writes like John Milton living in a garbage dump."
- Sacramento News and Review
"There is a quirkiness to Mohr's imagination reminiscent of another great San Fran writer, the late Richard Brautigan."
- 3 A.M. Magazine
"Mohr clearly loves life, even at its roughest, lowest point. 'Termite Parade' is a novel that you will rip through in a few moments, with scenes you'll never forget."
- NPR
"Termite Parade is a treat, an unlikely redemption story with a distinctly San Francisco flavor."
- San Francisco Magazine
"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."
"The psychological tension is palpable between each of these characters in one of the year's most thrilling works of literary fiction."
"[Joshua Mohr]...keeps readers engaged and entertained, delivering what they might doubt, mid-story, is possible."
- The Rumpus
"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."
-Jonathan Evison, Three Guys One Book
"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."
-Darby M. Dixon III, Thumb Drives and Oven Clocks
"Reads like a more optimistic version of Chuck Palahniuk."
- Campus Circle
