The Next Best Book Club discussion

Hi everyone!

We have another kick-ass giveaway going on over at the TNBBC blog.

This one is for 10 domestic copies of Joshua Mohr's newest novel Damascus - which I just read and loved!!

The coolest part - this book isn't even available in stores yet!!!

Joshua has agreed to participate in an Author/Reader discussion with us from Oct 15th - Nov 15th so grab your chance at a copy now.....

http://thenextbestbookblog.blogspot.c...

Contest ends on Sept 27th.

Good luck guys!

The DAMASCUS winners have been named... were you one of them? Will you be joining us here on Oct 15th to welcome Joshua?

http://thenextbestbookblog.blogspot.c...

I WON!! I am looking forward to the book and the discussion panel. I will be back on the 15th.

Oh boo for me!!! But Congrats to those who won! Looking forward to the convo!

I won also! Thank you and I can't wait to get the book and start reading:)I will be back on the 15th.

Get ready guys! Joshua Mohr joins us on Saturday for a month long discussion of Damascus.. have you all started reading???

Received DAMASCUS yesterday, and have read the first two chapters and I am loving it! His writing style is extremely descriptive and clarifying, I can see Owen and Shambles so clearly inside the depths of this bar surrounded by music and shadows of stagnant lives. The story is intriguing and he feeds it a bit at a time, little nibbles that allow the characters to emerge from the paper like a sculptor reveals the souls of an image in stone.

I received my copy and I will start reading it as soon as I finish When She Woke by Hillary Jordon.

Doesn't the bar sound like the coolest dive ever? Broken mirrors on the ceiling that reflect light like stars...??

I agree, the characters pop right out of the page. They begin to feel like neighbors, like people you bump into on the street!

I find it amazing that the people we pretend not to see in our daily lives, are actually extremely visible and acceptable confined within the pages of book.Why is that do you suppose? Can we really develop such tunnel vision that the true way we feel about the shadows of humanity can only be expressed by the compassion for ink on paper? What has made us blind to others? Do we just hold them back in order to prevent the broken mirrors from reflecting an image that might contain us?

Hi! I have received my copy and am planning to start reading SOON. Thanks so much and I look forward to the discussion.

I started the book a few days ago intending to read just a few chapters and ended up finishing the whole thing. It was fantastic! I definitely agree with what Lori said, the characters just pop right off the page -- they're quirky and odd but totally believable. I just moved from San Francisco to the East Coast and have been missing home a lot lately, so Damascus was a perfect read for me.

Good day to all you gorgeous people of TNBBC!!

I'm looking forward to talking shop with all of you. Thanks for inviting me :)

Feel free to start winging questions my way; we'll have an absolute blast,
Josh

Hi Josh. Congrats on your 3rd book hitting the shelves. I loved STTMTWTM and TP. Damascus was delicious. You are FUNNY! The misunderstood tattoos, the barista telling about her addict boyfriend licking butter. Hitler birthmark, etc... Really fucking funny!

I always felt a certain disconnect from the crazy in your other 2 books, as in, dayyyum, those characters are book-character-crazy. Damascus was different. Instead of seeing the Damascus characters as batshit crazy, I felt that I am really only one bad decision away from being any of your main characters. To me they had a greater maturity and realness to them. I was shocked to see you transition shambles and no eyebrows into David and Irene and see them make responsible decisions.

So my question is, why did you decide to lead these characters into "reality" and out of the land of the lost and crazy?

Abbey

P.S. Thank you for dropping in that Rhonda, Mired and Derek are all our and about. Ive missed hearing about what they are up to.

Joshua, thanks for popping in today!

I've been dying to know how the readings are going. Which venues have you enjoyed the most so far?

Hi Abbey:

How are you? Thanks for all your wonderfully kind words about my books!! Writing, at times, can be sort of a lonely pursuit: all those hours locked away from the rest of the world, playing with my imaginary friends. It's one of the reasons I love doing things like this so much because it gives me the chance to interact with other people who love books as much as I do :)

I'm glad you noticed that the characters in Damascus felt more "real" crazy. I really like these people, and I wanted to treat each psychology with respect. They're not archetypes or stand-ins; they are (hopefully) fully inhabited beings. When I teach characterization, I always emphasize a moment in the revision process where the characters--in the analogy, Frankenstein's monster--looks at the good doctor and says, "Thanks, I've got it from here."

Once they start acting on their own behalves, that's when literature really gets exciting.

Thanks for the question!! And double-thanks for reading my books :)

Thanks for your response Josh. I read a blurb somewhere about Damascus where they called Shambles a prostitute. I'll have you know I took great offense on her behalf. Thank you for sharing your insights and your imaginary friends with us readers. Abbey

Hello! I was a WINNER (First Time Ever - thanks TNBBC! - and what a great book to win! :))

I got my book and have only just started, so will be joining the discussion soon. Already tickled with the comments.

Lori:

The readings have been really fantastic thus far. I'd have to say my favorite was in Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. We had a party at another novelist's house, Jami Attenberg. She has this amazing rooftop deck, and after the reading, we all went up there for cocktails and to watch the sunset. It just so happened that the New York Giants football game ended right as we got on the roof, so we were greeted with a huge, elaborate fireworks show. It made me feel very welcome, even if it had nothing to do with me directly!

And of course, I'm ecstatic about my launch parties this week in San Francisco. Reading to your hometown peeps is always a special occasion. This Thurs, I'll be at City Lights up in North Beach, with all the Beatnik history looking down from the ether. Next Monday, I'll read in the upper Haight. And then I'm off to do a bunch of dates in the Midwest, and I'll keep you posted how those go.

I love tour for the same reason I love talking with TNBBC: it's a chance to participate in the dialog of literature. The human part of the book process is a vital one.

Thanks,
Josh

SOunds like you couldn't have planned a better night for a rooftop party then!

So let me ask you this... who was your favorite character to write for DAMASCUS? Which one was the hardest for you?

Nee nee nee nee, I can't hear the comments. I am starting the book tonight and am already in love with it based on the flap, cover and delicious tattered edge pages.

I don't have specific questions yet, but I will. Promise. I'm super curious on the title choice and setting.

Just found this group based on Amber's comments. Had a chat with the author via Twitter last week and now can't NOT read this book. So glad to have found this club, but sadly think that by the time I get to read it, y'all will have moved on. But I will still pop back in and enjoy all the discussions that spring from it. It looks messy and brutal and beautiful in all the right ways (and not necessarily in that order).

Hi Amber.. get reading! It's a great book. If you think about what "the road to Damascus" means as you read the book, the connection should show itself to you :)

Xe, hooray for finding us. And thanks for joining. Our discussions don't end when the "end date" arrives... you never know who might still be popping back and forth in the coming months!

Do you guys have a favorite character yet? Was there someone you didn't like that began to grow on you as the book progressed?

I already like Shambles and I'm only twenty or so pages in. Hah!
I adore the image of a bunch of bar flies staring at the mirror shatter ceiling.
QUESTION:
What made you choose third person omniscient point of view?

I liked Owen,Shambles and No eyebrow from the beginning.Syl and Revv grew on me as the novel went on.
I loves the image of Owen wearing a santa suit to hid his birthmark.It seem to me it was an outward sign of what people hide inwardly.I liked how Shambles helped David find the courage to go home.I felt sad at how Bryon and Sam misinterpted what Syl was trying to do and how violent they became.Not my usual read but I liked it.

Lori:

I like all the characters a lot. It's an important part of the process for me: forging that affectionate bond with all my players, even the ones who might be behaving badly.

If I had to pick just one, I'd say No Eyebrows. I lost my father to lung cancer about 10 years ago, and I wanted to write a love letter to him, find a way to process and understand my grief in a more nuanced way.

But even as I type that, my mind is saying, but what about Shambles... we love Shambles! And my mind is saying don't we have a slew of empathy for Byron Settles?!

So as you can see, it's pretty hard for me to play favorites :)

Hi Amber: How are you? I'm glad you're participating in our chat!!

I chose the 3rd omniscient because I was trying to write a novel that felt like an old Robert Altman script, say "Nashville." In those films, the camera moves wildly amongst the different characters, and as a reader/viewer, you don't really know how all the varying pieces are going to come together. It almost becomes like a puzzle, hopefully one that engages the audience more actively in the story.

On another note, it's also a very fun way to write. My first two novels were in the 1st person, and giving myself unilateral access to everyone's thought process this time was a blast on the page. Are you a writer yourself? If so, give it a try. If not, well, why don't you start writing today? :)

Hi Colleen:

How goes it? Thanks for taking the time to read Damascus, especially if it's not the usual style of book you dig reading. And I'm thrilled to hear you bonded with the characters as the novel went on.

I really liked this thing you said: "It seem to me it was an outward sign of what people hide inwardly."

Not to play pop-psychologist, but I think in one way or another, we're all wearing Santa suits to hide something about ourselves we're not proud of--whether or not that's an addiction or self-esteem struggles or whatever will depend on the individual. The impulse to conceal, though, feels universal to me...

Thanks so much for reading,
Josh

Lori wrote: "Do you guys have a favorite character yet? Was there someone you didn't like that began to grow on you as the book progressed?"



I really liked Shambles. I thought her arc was funny, tragic and most of all compelling. The backstory that brought her into Damascus is so perfectly mid-lifey and relatable. How she fell into jacking guys off was hysterical...thinking she's hitting it off with some guy and being misinterpreted as a prostitute. She's 100% right that we're all literally or figuratively jacking someone off for money. She hit a nerve with me. Many of us are only one bad decision away from being Shambles. I would have liked to have spent more time with her for sure.

I like No Eyebrows a lot. I like how resolute he is. He seems to have accepted his fate, taken stock of his options, and gone forward on a path he thinks is best. (I'm only 45 pages in, so I expect some turns in this path!).

The dirty Santa Suit kills me. Especially when the kid at 826 calls Owen out on it. The whole idea of covering up what's wrong, trying to become a trigger for happiness through a symbol rather than going through the work of healing and becoming genuinely happy... this Santa suit a very elegant way to express that problem.

Josh, I'm loving this book so far!

Joshua wrote: "Hi Amber: How are you? I'm glad you're participating in our chat!!

I chose the 3rd omniscient because I was trying to write a novel that felt like an old Robert Altman script, say "Nashville." ..."

Yes! I totally get that. I think of point of view like the camera, too.
Did you find this point of view posed any challenges in what you could or couldn't tell the reader?

PS: I am a writer. I tend to go for either first person or third person deep.
It sounds like it would be very fun for an ensemble style piece. I'll give it a whirl.

QUESTION: What did you do for research, if anything?

Owen's perpetual belief in the goodness of everyone is amazing, isn't it? So childlike and unreal. He was extremely likable and endearing yet he opened himself up for a world of trouble. I quite liked him...

Hi Amber:

I'm glad to hear that you're a writer, as well. And I look forward to buying your novel in a couple years :)

I totally recommend the 3rd omniscient voice. There's a great freedom in the unilateral access to everyone's hearts and minds. The biggest challenge is that it takes more time to get to know how the different thought processes work/how the varying minds solve problems. But the hard work is worth it!! Give it a shot and pop me an email. I'll be curious to hear how it works for you.

Josh

HI L:

I'm stoked that you enjoyed Owen. He was fun to work with. I had trouble getting to know him during the early drafts, until I discovered that scene between Owen and the recycling man. That was when he really started to come to life.

As for Amber's question about research, I didn't do too much. I did interview a marine to try and make my characterization of Byron Settles convincing. Besides that, the book is a product of my sordid imagination and even more sordid life experiences!

I think Shambles was my absolute favorite character; I found the backstory of how she got to where she is fascinating -- both the specific story of being mistaken for a prostitute, and the overarching story of how her marriage fell apart. I also loved her interactions and relationship with No Eyebrows.

Owen's stubborn belief in people is magnificently refreshing and compelling too. I love how almost naive it makes him. It fits perfectly with the Santa suit.

Hi Jessica:

How are you? I'm so excited to hear that those characters resonated with you. I come from the school of thought that a novel will only succeed if a reader bonds with the main characters. That doesn't mean they have to necessarily like them (when we read, we're not interviewing babysitters), but a reader has to empathize with them, understand what makes them tick, etc.

Shambles was a pleasure to write and you made my day by saying she's your favorite :)

Thanks for reading,
Josh

I have been traveling and unable to get to the computer, but I just finished Damascus last night. I also read the comments above and I agree with many of them.

This was a very interesting book for me, because it is not the kind of book that I normally read, and one that had a pretty significant impact as well.
I didn't like any of the characters at first, Josh. The whole scene made me sort of recoil. Maybe because I walked the streets of the Tenderloin years ago and again recently, and I have conflicting emotions about the feel of the place and the people that I saw there. Maybe because I am just a baby and these characters were harder and harsher than I am comfortable with. But as I kept reading I started to understand Owen. And then, to my surprise, I "got" Shambles. Every time I read her I was surprised again, and she made me laugh. What a state of affairs!

No Eyebrows was another character that shocked and distressed me and in the end stole my heart. Oh, oh my. My heart broke over and over as I learned more about him.

What Syl was trying to do and the (for me) unexpected, surprising scary violent response still has me shaking my head. I didn't see the story going there - and I didn't see the story ending the way it did. You kept me engaged to the last page, Josh.
I am still thinking about the story, and in the end I am reflecting on how you touched on the lasting implications of our interpretations of how others see our actions (wow, did you follow that?) and THEN, with David’s daughter, you even touched on how children interpret the world and try to find ways to essentially “become the adults” to try to help the adults in their lives cope.

The whole Santa Suit idea absolutely tickled me, and how it changed how Owen thought about himself and how the people across the city responded to the suit initialy cracked me up and then made me think.

So seriously, for the Santa Suit - and even for the Hitler birthmark --- where in heavens name did you come up with these ideas?

Bottom line? I really enjoyed the book, Josh. I have been recommending it left and right and hope to have more discussions around what went on in Damascus with my friends.

Hi Kimberly:

How are you? Thanks for reading. And triple-thanks for telling your friends about Damascus. I publish with a small, indie house, and competing with the big houses is an uphill struggle. We need all the grassroots momentum we can get, and that's you, helping to spread the word. I'm appreciative! :)

In a novel like this, the characters should sneak up on you a bit. What I mean by that is that at first, because of their lackluster/odd decision making, we don't know what to make of them. Yet as the story pushes on, we get to understand them so deeply, we care for them: we want them to succeed, want them to treat themselves with more dignity. Isn't that something that most of us struggle with in our own idiosyncratic ways, finding ways to be nicer to ourselves?

And I'm glad you picked up on the stuff with David's and Sally's child toward the end. That took a long time to get right, but you nailed what I was trying to accomplish. You have smart eyes.

As for where did I come up with Santa Suit, Hitler birthmark, et al, I have a lively imagination. I also have insomnia, and it's normally during the 3 am to 5 am stretch when I have my craziest ideas. Insomnia gets a bad wrap, and I'm trying to champion it as a sometimes useful tool.

If you have any follow-up questions, fire away!

Thanks again for reading and great chatting,
Josh

Josh, I'm not quite done reading yet so I'm only skimming the above comments to avoid spoilers!

Something that has really jumped out and grabbed me with Damascus is the way you write these paragraphs that seem to get at a premise from all angles.

For instance: (p 54) "Careful what you wish for: she was way outside the borders of monogamy. She was in the worst kind of confinement now. And didn't know it."

It's like the narrator is sympathizing with the character (in this case Shambles), then sentencing her, then bringing us into complicity. I found this happening throughout the story, and it really made me want to reach into Damascus and steer these people right. It's hard to describe... I feel responsible for them, and frustrated that I'm unable to do anything.

-Ian

Oh Ian, that is a great point that you make! I also felt extremely frustrated with the actions (and sometimes inaction) of some of the characters. You can forsee things in a way that they apparently cannot, and you want so badly to pull them aside and lay out the consequences of their decisions, to be their conscience in a manner of speaking.

If there is one thing Joshua Mohr has mastered, it's creating exceptionally flawed characters that you can relate to in ways you've never expected.

Ian, that's such a great point -- I also had a lot of the same feelings you had, of wanting to just reach into the story and help them! I just felt really invested in them as characters and wanted to steer them away from potentially bad decisions.

I just really loved these characters. I live in New England now, but I moved here in August after having lived in San Francisco for several years. I was a little worried in reading the description of the story that the characters might turn out to be cliche caricatures of the people I saw and met in my time in SF, because of course we all have our favorite stereotypes about San Francisco. :) It's easy to do the San Francisco kooky weirdo cliche. But I really felt like even though Joshua's characters embodied some of the stereotypes to an extent (because of course, many of them are true to a certain extent), they actually owned their kookiness in a way that made them completely relatable and real. I really felt like Shambles, No Eyebrows, Owen, and everyone else could be people I'd run into in a bar in the Tenderloin in real life. Josh, like you said above -- they sneak up on you! I didn't quite know what to make of what they were doing or had done at first, but at some point I found that I really cared what happened next and wanted to jump in and help.

You guys are making my heart go pitter-patter!! And now I'm doing a happy dance around my apartment.

As a writer, one of my goals is to involve my audience: to pull them into the action, into the lives of the characters in such an immediate way that the reader is ACTIVELY involved in the story. Because once your reader is working with/for the players, that means the bond has been forged: you empathize with the characters, even if their decision making leaves something to be desired.

Paul Bowles used to say that a writer should try to turn his readers into detectives, deepening their involvement in the narrative. I'm glad that the suspect actions of some of Damascus' cast made you guys want to "pull them aside." That means you care about them. That means they're real people on the page :)

Back to my regularly scheduled happy dance...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saYL4o...

You can see Joshua reading from Damascus here!

Something else occurred to me about Jessica's above comment re: wanting to jump in the narrative and help the characters make better decisions:

I wonder if fostering that camaraderie between reader and main character(s) is the most important thing a novel has to accomplish. The reader has to want--at least on some level--to engage and interact with the protagonist(s). That certainly doesn't mean they have to like them, but there has to be that willingness to extend empathy.

What do you guys think about that?

Sorry to pop in late on the conversation. I just started reading Damascus yesterday, since I had a book review to write (gotta grab the paying gigs when I can!). So far, am really enjoying the book, even though it is not really the kind of thing I reach for in the bookstore--gritty, grotesque (like Flannery O'Connor, so, not a bad thing), kind of hard to read while eating. But since I'm from SF and live relatively near the Mission, I get a kick out of seeing my home in fiction. Ritualz indeed! I went in there (I'm sure I'm thinking of the same place) a few years ago with a friend, both of us with our infants strapped on, and it was like, why did I bring my baby? I should be carrying my laptop and hipster cap instead! They do make pretty lattes. Anyway, back to the book: I like it so far. Very readable, sympathetic characters. Good stuff. Sorry, can't think of more to write at the mo. Will try for more later. Cheers!

Hi Olivia:

I'm glad to hear a local San Francisco friend is enjoying reading about our town. I laughed out loud reading your description of Ritual(z) above--sounds about par for the course. Keep me posted on what you're seeing in the narrative and nice to meet you.

I'm on tour in the midwest this week. I had a great reading in Chicago on Sunday eve and now have events in Columbus and Cleveland. I've never been to this part of the country before, so it's been a trip.

Keep firing away, TNBBC,
Josh

Josh,

To answer the question you posed to the group, I absolutely think that it is necessary to find a way to for readers to feel a connection to the characters of your book.

I just listened to two Atwood novels on audio - ORYX AND CRAKE and THE YEAR OF THE FLOOD - and while the stories themselves were interesting, and the subject matter was intriguing... I feel completely disconnected from her characters. I was so far removed from them that I felt nothing. No like or dislike. They were like part of the background. And I felt I was robbed of some important part of the message by not connecting with the characters.