Links to My 6 Published Books
My short story collection, essay collection, fictional memoir and three novels.
In the vein of Denis Johnson, Raymond Carver, Jack Kerouac and Ottessa Moshfegh, Michael Mohr offers 21 gritty, raw, honest stories covering his drinking years (mostly) in the form of (mostly) autobiographical fiction which cover everything from hitchhiking across America to a clash with Hell’s Angels to being kidnapped during an alcoholic blackout in Mexico to shooting guns while high on LSD. Always searching for the deeper meaning in these sordid adventures, Mohr keeps you entertained, astonished and, often, shocked.
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Between 2022 and 2024 contrarian polemicist Michael Mohr wrote feverishly about the hot-button topics of his time. Eventually, after pumping out hundreds of thousands of words over the course of 450 posts over almost two-and-a-half years, Michael realized he had a book on his hands.
Covering a wide range of topics, from politics (the Trump assassination attempt; J.D. Vance; identity politics; Karl Marx) to culture (masculinity; tribalism; alcoholics anonymous; book banning on both sides) to literature and writing (Henry Miller; Bukowski; Nabokov; Kerouac; Orwell), this slim but powerful collection pulls no punches.
The entire collection is pulled from Mohr’s Substack, Sincere American Writing. And the essays are just that: Sincere, searing, honest and incisive. Mohr takes no central political stance. He remains “politically homeless.” He rejects authoritarianism and anti-democratic values on both sides of the aisle. No one is safe in Mohr’s world.
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When Jack Donnigan—a naïve, protected 16-year-old sophomore at St. Andy’s Prep in Southern California in 2000—jumps into The Crew, a renegade punk rock clique on campus led by the nefarious and intelligent Cannonball, he is thrilled. But he soon challenges Cannon’s leadership by starting a secret relationship with Cannon’s chosen girl, Sarah, and by jumping on stage at live punk shows, displaying more bravery to the rest of the members.
Jack’s relationship with mom and dad becomes increasingly strained. He stays out late and rebels for the first time, enjoying his freedom and wild experimentation. The faculty at St. Andy’s—wanting to dismantle the cult hero status of The Crew on campus—organize a coup. They plan to nail the perceived leader: Jack Donnigan, who’s been conned by Cannonball.
Meanwhile, Sarah and Jack decide to run away to Jack’s uncle’s in San Francisco, flee their small town and live “real life.” Jack’s mentor is his beloved but unconventional English teacher, Mr. Bryce. When the faculty nail Jack, Mr. Bryce does his best to save the floundering student. But when Jack is finally kicked out of his folks’ home, and Cannonball connives to drum up drama, stealing Sarah back by spreading a web of lies, who will save him from himself?
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TWO YEARS IN NEW YORK: BEFORE, DURING AND AFTER COVID (click here to buy):
Two Years in New York: Before, During and After Covid is the “fictional memoir” of a young man—Michael Mohr—from California (an ambitious writer in his mid-thirties) who, after a breakup, flees the Bay Area for Manhattan to chase the elusive authorial ghost, as it were, of Kerouac, Updike, Mailer, Sontag, Didion and all the other famous 20th century writers who lived in Manhattan, the mecca of the writers’ world. In 2019 he makes the move. But what he cannot foresee—what no one can—is the explosion of Covid-19, the BLM riots, the political polarization of the country, the madness of Trump and the questioning of institutions. Living in a rough part of East Harlem, Michael was lucky to get out alive. Told in stellar first-person prose, hewing to the autobiographical memoir style of authors such as Nabokov and Henry Miller, Two Years in New York covers 2.3 years of a pandemic, a dazzling, complex relationship between Michael and a talented painter, the clash between Michael’s imaginative expectations of The Big Apple and the way it actually is, and the romantic reality of finally being in New York.
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When Chris Doyle is released from Folsom State Prison, his only goal—other than staying sober and trying to beat his worsening PTSD—is to find the woman he still loves, Rebecca Akerman, regardless of the fact that her mother was the one behind his incarceration.
Chris is picked up by his brother after two long, anxious years inside. Suffering PTSD via abuse from a white supremacist inmate, Chris’s heart aches for Rebecca. He’s changed inside: He got sober, received his high school diploma, worked in the license plate factory, and even participated in the Youth Diversion Program, steering kids away from crime.
Rebecca is also thinking of Chris, but is hesitant. She’s engaged to be married to a man she met after Chris went away. Against Rebecca’s mother’s and best friend’s wishes, she seeks out Chris. She only wants to “see” him and “get closure.”
When they do finally find each other, their embrace is powerful. But discovering she’s engaged—the PTSD roiling—Chris starts to lose control.
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Read Disgust and Desire exclusively on my Substack; click HERE. (No cover and not published on Amazon.) It’s being serialized 1-2 chapters every Thursday.
Just purchased American Freaks. Looks right up my alley. I'll leave you an amazon review when I'm done.