Fragments of a Mortal Mind

A Nonfiction Novel

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Pub Date 06 Apr 2021 | Archive Date 02 Apr 2021

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Description

We are where we’ve been and what we’ve read, aren’t we? Where else do we get the experience we need to evocatively live?

At once a memoir, a reading journal, and a novel, Fragments of a Mortal Mind is a daring, contemporary commonplace book. Donald Anderson, critically acclaimed author of Gathering Noise from My Life and Below Freezing, shows us how the disparate elements of our lives collect to construct our deepest selves and help us to make sense of it all. Anderson layers his personal experiences and reflections with those of others who have wrestled with inner and outer social, cultural, and political memories that are not as accurate as history might suggest but that each of us believe nonetheless. He challenges the reader’s sense of memory and fact, downplaying the latter in explaining how each of us crafts our own personal histories.

As Anderson weaves his voice among numerous other voices and ideas that rest upon other ideas, we are faced with larger issues of human existence: war, memory, trauma, mortality, religion, fear, joy, ugliness, and occasional beauty. What we have here is a meditation on living in America. We are shown how the world we consume becomes us as we metabolize it. How we, as humans, through our own fragments of memories, influences, and experiences become our true selves. By charting fragments of thoughts over a lifetime, Anderson exposes a way of thinking and perceiving the world that is refreshingly intuitive and desperately needed. Fragments of a Mortal Mind is a powerful masterpiece that closely resembles our lived experiences and is a vivid reflection of our time.
 
We are where we’ve been and what we’ve read, aren’t we? Where else do we get the experience we need to evocatively live?

At once a memoir, a reading journal, and a novel, Fragments of a Mortal Mind...

Advance Praise

“A daring and well-conceived book—one that shows  us how the disparate elements of our lives gather  into the construction of our deepest selves.”  —Brian Turner, author of My Life as a Foreign Country: A Memoir 

Fragments of a Mortal Mind is at turns incisive, funny, and tender, a welcome glimpse inside the mind of a talented writer. Throughout the book Anderson reminds us that as slippery as memory can be, that unwieldiness never diminishes its power.”  —Sara Novic, author of Girl at War

“A daring and well-conceived book—one that shows  us how the disparate elements of our lives gather  into the construction of our deepest selves.”  —Brian Turner, author of My Life as a Foreign...


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Marketing Campaign:

• Pre-publication promotion, including

national print and digital

advertising, reviewer outreach, and

Edelweiss and NetGalley

promotion

• National print advertising

•...


Available Editions

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9781948908788
PRICE $26.00 (USD)
PAGES 220

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Average rating from 8 members


Featured Reviews

A wide-ranging meditation on memory, fathers, grandfathers, books, cars, mining, and the mysteries and complexities of life in America. This is the kind of book I am always seeking but rarely find, moving in surprising ways from one subject to the next, from Porcsches to oranges to Chaucer, touching always on reading. A joy. I will certainly reread it, quote it to my writing students, and read Anderson's previous books.

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This was an interesting and enjoyable read! The author writes this in stream of consciousness on topics of racism and politics to literature and more. These "fragments" were the author's opinions, reflections and thoughts shared in the pages of this book. I thought this was done tastefully and eloquently while still being sensitive when there was a heavier thought. Not exactly what I thought I was going to read but surprised I liked this as much as I did, Recommmended.

Thanks to Netgalley, Donald Anderson and University of Nevada Press for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Available: 4/6/21

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