A Life In Books: The Rise and Fall of Bleu Mobley

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GOFF BOOKS, Novato, CA, 2013, English

Fiction, Comics and Graphic Novels

7.5 x 9.5 inches, hardcover, 380 pages, over 150 full-color illustrations

ISBN: 9781939621023

Suggested Retail Price: $34.95

From the Publisher. A Life In Books: The Rise and Fall of Bleu Mobley is an illuminated novel containing 101 books within it, all written by Lehrer’s protagonist, author Bleu Mobley, who finds himself in prison looking back on his life and career.

Nearly a year after the controversial author is thrown into a federal prison for refusing to reveal the name of a confidential source, he decides to break his silence. But it’s not as simple as giving up a name to the grand jury. Over the course of one long night, in the darkness of his prison cell, he whispers his life story into a microcassette recorder, tracing his journey from the public housing project of his youth, to a career as a journalist, then experimental novelist, college professor, accidental bestselling author, pop-culture pundit, and unindicted prisoner.

In A Life In Books, Mobley’s autobiography/apologia is paired with a review of all 101 of his books. Each book is represented by its first-edition cover design and catalogue copy, and more than a third of his books are excerpted. The resulting retrospective contrasts the published writings (which read like short stories) with the author’s confessional memoir, forming a most unusual portrait of a well-intentioned, obsessively inventive (but ethically challenged) visionary.

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Warren Lehrer

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