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Joshua Mohr’s playlist for his novel “Farsickness”

“…I only asked myself one question when picking out what kind of music to blare while I scribbled it: What would the Butthole Surfers do?”

Farsickness by Joshua Mohr

In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book.

Previous contributors include Jesmyn Ward, Lauren Groff, Bret Easton Ellis, Celeste Ng, T.C. Boyle, Dana Spiotta, Amy Bloom, Aimee Bender, Roxane Gay, and many others.

Joshua Mohr yet again proves himself one of our most talented storytellers in his novel Farsickness.

Ben Lorry wrote of the book:

“This book is like driving a Ferrari through a funhouse and then smashing through the windshield into another realm of existence. In other words, it’s what a book should be.”

In his own words, here is Joshua Mohr’s Book Notes music playlist for his novel Farsickness:

What would the Butthole Surfers do?

We’re all friends here, so I’ll tell you a secret: I went crazy during the pandemic. I’d gone crazy before and wrote about it in a memoir, MODEL CITIZEN (FSG, 2020)—so this time, I wanted to go crazy in a surrealist novella.

And FARSICKNESS is fucking mad. It is filled with lies, but isn’t that the secret hedonism of fiction? Writers get to construct a huge body out of our own human confusions, our blunders, our aches. Then we let our readers gaze at the warped cathedral—but since this is fiction, since there’s no way it’s me, that’s ridiculous, mind your own business. Because of that “anonymity,” we give that body-cathedral an autopsy. We splay it, travel inside with the reader. It’s just the two of us in there. Butcher and bookworm.

FARSICKESS is what happens when APOCALYPSE NOW fucks ALICE IN WONDERLAND.

And because of that deranged juxtaposition, I only asked myself one question when picking out what kind of music to blare while I scribbled it: What would the Butthole Surfers do?

I didn’t need any other bands, any other noise. No way, I had the carnival rides of Butthole Surfer songs.

Here are some of the tracks that got repeat play during the three weeks it took to write this story—

Cough Syrup
The Shame of Life
Human Cannonball
Creep in the Cellar
Moving to Florida
Pittsburgh to Lebanon
Waiting for Jimmy to Kick
The Weird Revolution
Sinister Crayon
Wichita Cathedral
Golden Showers
Dracula from Houston
Pepper
Rocky
Kuntz

also at Largehearted Boy:

Joshua Mohr’s playlist for his memoir Model Citizen

Joshua Mohr’s playlist for his memoir Sirens

Joshua Mohr’s playlist for his novel Fight Song

Joshua Mohr’s playlist for his novel Damascus

Joshua Mohr’s playlist for his novel Termite Parade

Joshua Mohr’s playlist for his novel Some Things That Meant the World to Me

For book & music links, themed playlists, a wrap-up of Largehearted Boy feature posts, and more, check out Largehearted Boy’s weekly newsletter.

Joshua Mohr is the author of the memoir Sirens and of several novels, including Damascus, which The New York Times called “beat-poet cool.” His novel All This Life won the Northern California Book Award. He is the founder of Decant Editorial.

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