Some Things That Meant the World to Me

What a wonderful book this is. Additionally, as a clinical social worker and marriage and family therapist I was very impressed with the clinically accurate portrayal of Rhonda, the protagonist. Rhonda is a 30 year old man who suffers from 'depersonalization' which is one of the more severe symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. When someone suffers from depersonalization they can go into what is considered a fugue state or see themselves or parts of their body as 'other'. As part of his disorder, and also as an homage to his resiliency, Rhonda has an inner child that accompanies him from time to time. He calls this child 'Little Rhonda'. He also has an older Rhonda as a friend, nurturing and loving towards him, who he calls 'Old Lady Rhonda'. Both of these Rhondas help him to come to terms with his present life in relation to the trauma he suffered in the past.One of the ways that Little Rhonda shows Rhonda his past life, is through a glass-bottomed dumpster with a trap door. Rhonda can climb out of the dumpster into his past and is able to see and question what occurred when he was a child. Little Rhonda also travels with Rhonda back to Arizona where he grew up. Rhonda is searching for his home which he believes is the source of evil. Little Rhonda challenges Rhonda's beliefs and tries to help him with his reality-checking. Old Lady Rhonda doesn't ask questions. She nurtures Rhonda unconditionally. She gives him food, love and money and, together, they relax and watch Wheel of Fortune. She is the nurturing mother he never had.Rhonda's background is horrendous. His mother is an alcoholic who drinks 'Tcha-bliss' (Chablis) all day when she is at home. However, she often disappears for days or weeks at a time, leaving Rhonda with her horriby abusive boyfriend, Letch. Letch physically and sexually abuses Rhonda in their home and in order to integrate what is happening in his life, Rhonda blames the home for what is occurring. He sees his house as a desert landscape, stretching and filled with animals. In his own words, "I couldn't concentrate on anything except their warfare in our stretched, sandy house, as they screamed throughout the desert that was everywhere: a cactus had sprouted next to the TV, a dove perched on it; animals flying, slithering, crawling, running all around our desert; animals, livid and terrtorial". (p. 85)The book goes back and forth in time and place, from Rhonda's childhood to adulthood. It starts off in the present with Rhonda saving a hooker who is being beaten in San Francisco. Rhonda spends the night with the hooker and something occurs so that the hooker mocks and humiliates Rhonda rather than being thankful that Rhonda is her savior. The book then takes the reader to Rhonda's childhood in Arizona and to his time as a teen-ager in a psychiatric hospital where he meets with a supportive psychiatrist over time. The psychiatrist does his best to challenge Rhonda's belief that his house is the source of all the bad things that happened to him.I can't say enough positive things about this gem of writing. It takes the reader on a flight so dark and frightening that it could have been to difficult to make the journey. However, the author puts in just the right amount of humor and enough soothing so that we can take the journey with Rhonda.

Some Things That Meant the World To Me is not your conventional novel. It is told from inside the head of our main character, who is a troubled 30-year-old man living in San Francisco. It seamlessly blends his present with his past, gradually building up a picture of who he is now, and what shaped him to be that way. His memories are used throughout as a device to render his past. His sessions with a psychologist, whom he calls Angel-Hair, are told. Gradually, the picture of his train wreck of a mother and her abusive boyfriend, Letch, are told. All the characters are rendered in fascinating, lurid detail, which is built up over the course of the book. They are utterly convincing. The prose is first class, drawing the reader in. It feels like a flow of consciousness at times, but it works. Sometimes funny, often sad. Seeing him unfold, and making connections between his (awful) present and (awful) past is like watching a train wreck in slow motion – you just can’t take your eyes off it.Where I think this book falls down somewhat is the lack of suspense. The tragedy factor, in this reader’s opinion, does not quite make up for this. There were times I wanted the plot to pick up more. In the last quarter of the book, the plot lines do start to come together. The valiant core of our main character, who has been through so much, comes to the fore, in an ultimately satisfying conclusion. There is a lot to love about STTMTWTM, and I recommend it.

I loved this book! An amazing, wild, and humorous ride through the streets of San Francisco's Mission District. The book is filled with brilliantly illuminated imagery as we see the world through the main character's eyes. Following Rhonda, a 30 year old man who is trying to find a life far away from the craziness of his youth in Phoenix, we watch him learn how to make friends and let himself be loved by a tough man who drinks warm beer and a dreaming old woman who yearns to leave her husband and be on Wheel of Fortune.Rhonda's view of the world is unique and definitely different from ours; he remembers his childhood house as a symbolic object with drifting rooms that stretch farther apart the rougher his home life got. And he sees a dirty dumpster as a portal into which he can dive down to view his past life. These images are used intelligently and sparingly and are balanced by Rhonda's wild life of saving prostitutes from being beaten up and trying to date beautiful women. And also by his unflinching honesty into all parts of his life.I couldn't help but fall for the fragility of Rhonda, a young man who has a humor and intelligence that is all his own. An astonishing book and especially since it's Mohr's debut.

Proof-positive that a child can survive a dark story. Not your mother's book.