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Termite Parade

by Joshua Mohr (Goodreads Author)

4.03 of 5 stars 4.03 · rating details · 136 ratings · 34 reviews

"[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. This is no small achievement."
-The New York Times Book Review (Editor's Choice)

�Similar to Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment: the most crucial action serves as a portal to and wellspring for...more

Paperback, 208 pages

Published July 1st 2010 by Two Dollar Radio (first published 2010)

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How to Get into the Twin Palms by Karolina Waclawiak

Some Things That Meant the World to Me by Joshua Mohr

Two Dollar Radio

6th out of 31 books — 5 voters

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The Correspondence Artist by Barbara Browning

I'm Trying to Reach You by Barbara Browning

Two Dollar Radio: Books Too Loud to Ignore

15th out of 26 books — 1 voter

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Aug 22, 2012 Con McVeety rated it 5 of 5 stars

Wow. Fast paced at break neck speeds, “Termite Parade” starts with a visit to a dentist office and not a routine check-up, it’s unplanned , a visit to fix a mouth full broken teeth. Like he did with his first novel “SomeThings That Meant the World To Me”, Joshua Mohr instantly drags the reader inward to a moving, at times disgusting, dark and funny novel. This time around the novel is told through three different perpestives of a relationship that’s all sorts of messed up. Very few novels I have...more

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Dec 26, 2010 christa rated it 2 of 5 stars

There is this pit that so many writers fall into when they have a character in crisis: They send the muddy brained protagonist on a road trip. In the case of Joshua Mohr's novel "Termite Parade," Derek points his truck toward Reno. He's on the run from one of those epic social shames of a night out with his hot tempered girlfriend Mired. The night started with a Bon Voyage party for one of Derek's lady friends, during which Mired marinates in booze and makes all sorts of embarrassingly loud insi...more There is this pit that so many writers fall into when they have a character in crisis: They send the muddy brained protagonist on a road trip. In the case of Joshua Mohr's novel "Termite Parade," Derek points his truck toward Reno. He's on the run from one of those epic social shames of a night out with his hot tempered girlfriend Mired. The night started with a Bon Voyage party for one of Derek's lady friends, during which Mired marinates in booze and makes all sorts of embarrassingly loud insinuations about what her boyfriend wants to do to the hostess.

Eventually Mired is 86'ed from the party and passes out in the car on the way home. Derek carries her into their San Francisco apartment, and as he's lugging her up the steps like a new bride, she continues to verbally assault him all slurry-like. In a bit of a whiskey haze himself, Derek turns around and drops his girlfriend down the steps. A limb is broken, teeth shatter, bruises and bulging form. When she sobers up, she is led to believe she fell down the steps. Derek struggles with a crisis of conscience, made more acute because his twin brother Frank -- called in for backup -- seems to suspect what really happened.

While Mired is at the dentist getting her face fixed, Derek high-tails it out of the waiting room. Heads to Reno to clear his brain with Wild Turkey and some wise words from a waitress at a diner who looks eerily like an older version of Mired. Meanwhile, there are flashbacks to the mis-matched couple's time together, Frank's arty itch to create innovative films, a sort of hybrid between fiction and reality that leans more reality and voyeuristic.

This novel-in-three-voices starts out promising, with a clever vignette where Derek is in the middle of a whiskey-on-the-rocks night, and runs out of rocks. He makes due, using frozen peas instead. Then it segues into some deliciously lurid dental work involving teeth shaved to stumps, blood and smells. And then characterization, motivation, and continuity go off-roading and never come back.

The relationship between Mired and Derek is a mix of charming made-for-TV moments and drunken spats that seems to have some sort of genesis in the collected works of Bukowski. One minute Mired is fired from her job, and Derek presents her with a cathartic pinata filled with her favorite kind of Jelly Belly jelly beans. It's cute: They lay on the floor eating the candy. But beneath this is the idea that these two plus booze equals a toxicity that they are in therapy to fix, but which is only seen in Derek's single instance of domestic assault. Like the confusing relationship, the characters remain a bit fetal: Derek is this weird pseudo badass, a sort of front that feels like a hat he wears only sometimes. Mired is smart and cultured, but a proverbial cutter when it comes to relationships. (A history she chronicles, of course, because that is what writers do in tandem with sending characters on road trips). Twin brother Frank is a hard character to peg. He seems to have residual anger at Derek, and uses the truth about the fall as a sort of blackmail tool.

Also: There is a continuity problem early in the book where it becomes impossible to trust Mohr with this story, which is already shaky. Frank has begun making videos on the streets of San Francisco. He tails unsuspecting characters, gathering real moments. He finds a woman walking alone in a dark park, which is totally danger ranger. To add to the bad decision making, she sits on a bench, pulls out a book and begins flipping pages. By now, Frank has hidden himself and continues to follow her with his camera. She's approached by a man who starts by asking her if she has a cigarette, and ends up robbing her. Frank gets the whole scene, opting to film rather than assist her. He's thrilled. This is his best moment of video ever. A week or so later, he's back in the park and the same woman returns. She sits on the same bench and is approached by the same man, who robs her again.

And here Mohr ruins what could be an intriguing scene: Frank sees the woman approach the bench for the second time. Sit down. Take out her book. And he begins filming her again. But later, back at the apartment, Mohr has Frank viewing the footage:

"... and the next robbery started to play on the TV, the woman walking up to the bench, sitting, opening her book."

Oh, Joshua Mohr. Frank didn't record that part. Go kick your editor in the nuts. This makes it hard to swallow other things: like Mired having a broken wrist, yet she continues to function normally, worried about her fake teeth, but never mentioning difficulty with carrying or opening things until near the end of the book when she hooks up with an exboyfriend, a vegan Buddhist who is inexplicably still attracted to her.

There was so much promise in that whiskey glass filled with peas. But "Termite Parade" sputters into cliche, confusion and bad ideas. (less)

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Dec 10, 2010 Antonia Crane added it

This fast read begins like all of my favorite things do: alcohol poisoning. The bender continues using frozen peas as ice cubes as the "monster twin" pours another whiskey and peas. It's a terrible familiar. You'd think the sickness would end with the pea thing. You'd think the author would have the decency to march out a character with some redeeming qualities you'd like to attach some affection to. Perhaps a character who doesn't say awful jealous things at her boyfriend's party and cause a sc...more

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Oct 13, 2010 Lori rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: arc-reviewers-copy, fricken-awesome, fiction, indie-awesomeness

Review copy from publisher

Do not let the book cover of Termite Parade turn you off. Seriously.

If you are like me, and hate anything that creeps and crawls, this book cover will make your stomach turn. You will take one look at that wide open mouth with termites climbing out of it, and want to gag. Your hands might shake, and your knees might get weak, and your upper lip and forehead might bead with sweat, but do yourself a favor and GET OVER IT.

Grab a copy of this book.
Here's why:

Have you ever b...more

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Jul 24, 2010 oriana marked it as to-read

Well I really liked Some Things that Meant the World to Me, and this one sounds like a terrif follow-up.

From the Powells.com review

What comes across most clearly in Termite Parade is the authenticity of the characters' struggles: a desire to be good that conflicts with an impulse to be cruel; wanting to be loved, but not at the expense of being taken for granted. Yes, the characters are all ridiculously self-centered, but they are also self-aware. They are conscious of the fallout their behavior...more

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Dec 11, 2011 Stephanie Griffin rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: readers seeking an intelligent new voice.

TERMITE PARADE, by Joshua Mohr, is about people’s dreams, hopes, personal history, and mistakes. It’s about how your thoughts can eat away at your soul like termites eating wood. Mohr is a fairly recent addition to the published scene but his books are among the best out there.
Derek and Mired, living together in San Francisco, have a very flawed relationship. They’re untruthful, violent, suspicious, and distrusting with each other. After Derek drops a drunk Mired down the stairs of their buildin...more

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Jul 22, 2010 Lolly LKH rated it 5 of 5 stars

Having won this on Goodreads, I couldn't wait to read it. I loved Some Things That Meant the World To Me and knew his next novel would capture my emotions.
I had just had a serious infection in my cheek and had a tooth pulled, so reading Mired's dental 'accident' really made me hurt.The 'piss' scene in the novel made me cringe, because it happens to be the most foul smell in the world to me. How many books can make me feel things physically? Not many but Joshua Mohr's writing certainly has that g...more Having won this on Goodreads, I couldn't wait to read it. I loved Some Things That Meant the World To Me and knew his next novel would capture my emotions.
I had just had a serious infection in my cheek and had a tooth pulled, so reading Mired's dental 'accident' really made me hurt.The 'piss' scene in the novel made me cringe, because it happens to be the most foul smell in the world to me. How many books can make me feel things physically? Not many but Joshua Mohr's writing certainly has that gift. The ridiculousness of his characters actions always make me laugh, because you meet these people every day and you may be one of them. His characters are always believable in their quirks and flaws and some of the horrible things they do you realize, well I'm not far behind in my lowest moments.
In Termite Parade we meet Mired, a woman with a gift for picking the most devolved men around. Mired's current disaster, her boyfriend Derek, is struggling with his conscious after Mired's druken stumble down a flight of stairs. Will Derek find redemption for his dark moment? Derek's twin brother is our 'eye-witness' filmmaker trying to capture the animal side of human emotion and has the perfect material in his brother and Mired's downward spiral.
Joshua Mohr brings out the raw emotions and the ugly side of our nature in a way that can feel uncomfortable but like a freak scene, you have to keep your eyes glued! It's never pretty, but there is still beauty to be found in the character's struggles.
"One minute, you had a father, you had a mother who wasn't too busy to be bothered, you had teeth, you had a boyfriend, and you blinked your eyes, one quick blink, and by the time you looked around again, your whole life was stained with a vague sorrow.'
With writing like Mohr's, I just can't resist falling in love with his stories. Again, as with his previous novel I only wish it was longer! He snuck in a little cameo too, if you're paying attention. Termite Parade made me hurt (physically) and reminded me how often we humans close our eyes in the face of truth because 'better the monsters you know.'
I particularly love when Mired is describing all the horrible men she's been with and the things that they did and did not do to her. Sort of a conglomeration of the worst moments most women have been through. Great stuff!(less)

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Jul 10, 2010 Catherine Siemann rated it 4 of 5 stars

Joshua Mohr is a talented writer -- the prose in this novel is effortless and engaging. Termite Parade is the story of Mired (who claims Sylvia Plath, Dostoesvsky and Eeyore as her true ancestors) and Derek, whose relationship is spiralling rapidly downward as their dysfunctions get the better of them. Adding to the complications is Derek's twin brother, Frank, a video editor and would-be auteur who is determined to realize his Animal Unveiled documentary concept at all costs. The book works wel...more

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Jun 18, 2011 Elizabeth rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: people who don't hold back punches

Shelves: 2011

SNAPPY. This whole book is fully of snappy... dialogue, one liners, situations, the cover art for chrissakes... ideas all snap, crackle and pop. The story centers around Mired (pronounced like the verb) and her boyfriend Derek - with a twin Frank. When Mired catalogs her "museum of emotional failures" it's not only relatable but laugh out loud funny. When shit happens to them, the main story so to speak, you know it's weird and interesting but not so weird that I couldn't picture it happening. T...more

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Aug 16, 2010 K.M. Soehnlein rated it 5 of 5 stars

Joshua Mohr hooks you with an inflammatory situation and then does something necessary and remarkable: he refuses to back away from the consequences. Three characters share the narration, linked to each other and the central event and also sharing a kind of self-destructive poetic view of themselves that plays itself out over the course of a few days' time. I was up until 3 am finishing it -- just couldn't flinch from the masterfully suspenseful ending.

Termite Parade is a great example of putti...more

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Nov 07, 2011 Brandy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: dark, beautifully-written, quirky

This is an incredibly effective read, especially when you consider how fast-paced it is. By effective I mean, I feel pretty icky about the whole thing. Termite Parade is about Derek and Mired, a superbly dysfunctional, alcoholic couple who gets into a fight at a party. On the drive home Mired half passes out and flings accusations at her boyfriend who later intentionally drops her down a flight of stairs. And then guilt, remorse, selfishness, and a whole slew of deranged feelings sets in and the...more

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Sep 22, 2010 Miriam rated it 5 of 5 stars

When I read the review of this book, in PW or NY Times, I thought it was going to be a really good, bleak story about horrible characters with horrible lives that I couldn't relate to at all. Instead it was a really good, bleak story whose characters, while not really similar to me or my life, somehow hit uncomfortably close to home. Usually books written in multiple viewpoints are a bit hard for me because I invariably gravitate to one of the tellers and feel wrenched away from that narrative w...more

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Jul 28, 2010 S.J rated it 4 of 5 stars

I won this book on Goodreads. As you can see I only gave this book two stars,but I think it probably deserves more. It wasn't a bad book at all,but the characters were so flawed and made so many mistakes I had no empathy for any of them,which I know wasn't the point,but still. They were all responsible,no matter their reasons, for the predicaments they found themselves in. But while I didn't feel sorry for any of the characters(least of all Frank),I still wanted good things for them,well,if some...more

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Mar 20, 2011 Bronwyn rated it 2 of 5 stars

So I have this thing about teeth. Damaged teeth really freak me out: cracked teeth, broken teeth, the curb-stomping scene in American History X, the phrase "shards of tooth." These are not things I prefer to see or read about. I finished this book despite the fact that about 95% of it involves, in some way, massive tooth trauma. That's really what stuck with me from this book. Descriptions of what someone's mouth looks and feels like after falling down a flight of stairs and landing on your face...more

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Jan 16, 2012 Ronni rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

Realistically, I should give this 5 stars, because .5 rounds up, not down, and this one is a solid 4.5. But I can't quite get myself to give this a 5, because I can think of tons of people I wouldn't recommend this book to. Still, I love it. If I could only list one reason, I'd say, because Mohr conveys how life is painful yet funny, futile yet satisfying, and other strange combinations.

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Sep 22, 2010 Sarah rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: adult-fiction

I liked this book a lot, especially the character of Mired, but really everyone seemed completely plausible. It says a lot about the power of redemption, who's worth saving, and what's worth changing. I've checked out several other books by the same indie publisher (Two Dollar Radio), so we'll see how that goes.

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Jul 27, 2011 Lori Crossley added it

A refreshing new voice in novels. It's strange to finish a book with thoroughly reviling characters that you enjoyed reading. Mohr has a decidedly black sense of humor and the acknowledgement pages offer up a little chuckle. Will definitely pick up Some Things that Meant the World to Me.

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Oct 04, 2010 Lori rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010october

I somehow picked an at-least-melancholy, if-not-flat-out-painful crop of books on my last library visit.

Termite Parade fits in just fine.

The second Mohr book I've read -- and enjoyed even while wincing -- in the last year.

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Aug 04, 2010 Tom rated it 4 of 5 stars

A story of three morally compromised people: compromised by irresponsibility, by self-deception, by lies they tell others. Of course, a time comes when the debts are called in. The question is whether persons so mired in their own stew can skim off the crud and get to the meat of their better selves.

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Jun 19, 2010 Alvin rated it 5 of 5 stars

Mohr sets the action in all his novels within a few blocks of my home (we're neighbors), which I appreciate since it makes me feel better about how little I travel.

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Feb 03, 2012 Jen Larsen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Heartbreaking, tragically hilarious, terrible, sad, wonderful, with such a satisfying ending.

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Aug 28, 2011 Blue Meanie rated it 3 of 5 stars

I'll post my thoughts after the Denver girls have met. I liked it though.

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May 11, 2012 Tom Hancock rated it 3 of 5 stars

Joshua Mohr has a lot to say. By all means, read this guys work!

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Feb 07, 2011 Lynus rated it 5 of 5 stars

They don't make 'em this bare and honest very often.

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Nov 10, 2010 Kay rated it 4 of 5 stars

Keith Loves Loves Loves this author! Kinda dark

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Jun 29, 2012 Margaret Sophia rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites, thought-provoking

So good! I picked it up randomly at the library (it was closing in 5 minutes and I wanted another book) and I'm so pleased. The characters were so RAW and full bodied and it was such an interesting story. The only thing I didn't like about it was the ending.

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Sep 18, 2011 Bess rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was another book club read, and our joint review is posted here:
Book Notes: Termite Parade

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Apr 24, 2011 Ben rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011

Another in a long line of books which though filled with entirely unlikable characters still manage to be pretty ok.

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Jan 25, 2011 Michael rated it 5 of 5 stars

Another great novel from Mohr. Again his focus is on hurt, broken characters. He brings them to life well, and their interactions feel true. Sometimes funny, often sad, and usually insightful into its characters and their lives, Termite Parade is excellent. Mohr continues to be a writer to watch.

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Dec 28, 2010 Sheen rated it 4 of 5 stars

I really, really liked this book. Mohr is a wonderful writer who explores the dark side of human nature through optimism and hope. His prose and characters are sad and pitiful and so very human. Maybe that is what is so scary or maybe that is what is so beautiful.

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About Joshua Mohr

I am the author of four novels, most recently "Fight Song," about which the LA Times said, "Not many authors can shift from satire to sentiment so easily, but Mohr is a clever enough writer that he manages to pull this off."

"Damascus" was described as "Beat poet cool" by The New York Times.

Also, I wrote "Termite Parade," about which the New York Times Book Review said:

"A wry and unnerving story...more

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Quotes from Termite Parade

“I was convinced that she was about to tell me my card was declined, and assumed Derek wanting to talk later meant he'd soon be telling me our life was declined. Everything, everyone had reached their limits with me.” — 1 person liked it

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