Sirens : a memoir

"Raw-edged and whippet-thin, Sirens swings from tales of bawdy addiction to charged moments of a father struggling to stay clean. Mohr's prose is lean and scrappy—a featherweight boxer that packs a punch." —Los Angeles Times With vulnerability, grit, and hard-won humor, acclaimed novelist Joshua Mohr returns with his first book-length work of non-fiction, a raw and big-hearted chronicle of substance abuse, relapse, and family compassion. Sirens provides a harrowing and complicated account of Mohr's years of substance abuse and culpability. Employing the characterization and chimerical prose for which he has been lauded, Mohr leaves no rock from his sordid past un-turned, from his childhood swilling fuzzy navels as a latch-key kid, through the black-outs and fist-fights, his first failed marriage to his path to sobriety, through the birth of his daughter and the three strokes he suffers in his thirties that reveal he has a literal hole in his heart. Sirens is a spectacularly moving tome of honesty and emotion from one of our most gifted contemporary writers. "Sirens is one of those books you open thinking to check out a few pages, only to find yourself putting everything else on hold so you don't have to put it down. It's that good." —Los Angeles Review of Books "To the short list of genuinely great addiction memoirs we can now add Sirens, a searing and at times hilarious account of Mohr's lost years in the dive bars and gutters of San Francisco. Like Mary Karr and Jerry Stahl, there is no line Mohr won't cross, either in his erstwhile quest for self-immolation, or his fearless honesty in reporting back from that time. But what sets this book apart is Mohr's unwillingness to traffic in pat notions of redemption."Ron Currie, Jr."This isn't your average recovery memoir. Mohr's honesty in this book is astonishing and necessary, his candor about hitting bottom and relapsing deeply moving and important. It's a hell of a compelling read."Cari LunaAcclaimed novelist Joshua Mohr provides a captivating and complicated account of his years of substance abuse and culpability in his non-fiction debut. Employing the characterization and chimerical prose for which he has been lauded, Mohr traces his childhood swilling fuzzy navels as a latch-key kid, through his first failed marriage, parenthood, heart-surgery, and his everyday struggle against relapse. Joshua Mohr is the author of Some Things that Meant the World to Me, one of Oprah Magazine's Top 10 reads of 2009 and a San Francisco Chronicle bestseller; Termite Parade, an Editors' Choice pick at the New York Times Book Review; Damascus, called "Beat-poet cool" by the New York Times; and, most recently, Fight Song and All This Life. He recently moved with his family to Seattle, Washington.

"Raw-edged and whippet-thin, Sirens swings from tales of bawdy addiction to charged moments of a father struggling to stay clean. Mohr’s prose is lean and scrappy—a featherweight boxer that packs a punch.” —Los Angeles Times
With vulnerability, grit, and hard-won humor, acclaimed novelist Joshua Mohr returns with his first book-length work of non-fiction, a raw and big-hearted chronicle of substance abuse, relapse, and family compassion.

Sirens provides a harrowing and complicated account of Mohr's years of substance abuse and culpability. Employing the characterization and chimerical prose for which he has been lauded, Mohr leaves no rock from his sordid past un-turned, from his childhood swilling fuzzy navels as a latch-key kid, through the black-outs and fist-fights, his first failed marriage to his path to sobriety, through the birth of his daughter and the three strokes he suffers in his thirties that reveal he has a literal hole in his heart.

Sirens is a spectacularly moving tome of honesty and emotion from one of our most gifted contemporary writers.

"Sirens is one of those books you open thinking to check out a few pages, only to find yourself putting everything else on hold so you don’t have to put it down. It’s that good." —Los Angeles Review of Books

"With vulnerability, grit, and hard-won humor, acclaimed novelist Joshua Mohr returns with his first book of non-fiction. A raw and big-hearted chronicle of substance abuse, relapse, and family compassion."-- Page 4 of cover With Vulnerability, Grit, And Hard-won Humor, Acclaimed Novelist Joshua Mohr Returns With His First Book Of Non-fiction. A Raw And Big-hearted Chronicle Of Substance Abuse, Relapse, And Family Compassion. -- By Joshua Mohr. With vulnerability, grit, and hard-earned humor, Mohr returns with a harrowing and personal chronicle of substance abuse and relapse