Lord Fear: A Memoir

(Paperback)

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From the author of the widely praised Class A--a memoir that investigates the life and death of his enigmatic brother, who died of a heroin overdose, and compels him to redefine his own place in a family whose narrative is bisected by the tragic loss. Lucas Mann was only thirteen years old when his brother Josh-charismatic and ambitious, funny and sadistic, violent and vulnerable-died of a heroin overdose. Although his brief life is ultimately unknowable, Josh is both a presence and an absence in the author's life that will not remain unclaimed. As Josh's story is told in kaleidoscopic shards of memories assembled from interviews with his friends and family, as well as from the raw material of his journals, a revealing, startling portrait unfolds. At the same time, Mann pulls back to examine his own complicated feelings and motives for recovering memories of his brother's life, searching for a balance between the tension of inevitability and the what ifs that beg to be asked. Through his investigation, Mann also comes to redefine his own place in a family whose narrative is bisected by the tragic loss. Unstinting in its honesty, captivating in its form, and profound in its conclusions, Lord Fear more than confirms the promise of Mann's earlier book, Class A; with it, he is poised to enter the ranks of the best young writers of his generation.

Reviews

BEST OF YEAR: Selected by Miami Herald, Kirkus Reviews, Largehearted Boy, and Oprah.com

Both moving and intimate. . . . Its rare to find a book that reads as if it were written out of necessity. This book is one; absorbing and with an undeniable current of truth. Oprah.com

Mann creates a stunning, and chilling, portrait of the brother he hardly knew. This type of investigation could easily slip into exploitation but doesnt, because contained in the voice of the adult narrator is the yearning of the eight-year-old boy, who wonders,Why was my brother the way he wasMann the boy demands an answer; Mann the adult understands he may never know. . . . Lord Fearis Manns attempt to make his brothers untimely death mean something significant, and in doing so, to imbue his own life with deeper meaning. Alizah Salario, Los Angeles Review of Books

In Lord Fear, Mann folds Joshs writings in with contemplative renderings of his interviews, imbuing those conversations with the buzz and herky-jerky flow of a postmodern detective novel. The result is a nonlinear, scrapbook-style investigative memoir as redolent of the bluesy crime pursuits ofRaymond ChandlersPhilip Marloweas it is of the narcotized reveries of William Burroughs. San Francisco Chronicle

Lord Fearis not a biography or an elegy or a even a memoir so much as it is a meditation on the function of grace, proof that love can defy all logic, transcend facts or even reality itself until it is almost indistinguishable from faith. . . . Manns first book, 2013sClass A, was a genius piece of narrative reportage. . . . WithLord Fear, although its roots are firmly planted in the soil of fact, Mann allows himself something more akin to a fiction project, in the way that he sends out his imagination to inhabit those whose lives were affected by Josh. . . . The best we can do sometimes is to look at things honestly, describe them as accurately as possible and say to each other, Well, this is really kind of sad, isnt it In his sensitivity for these sorts of states, Mann proves himself one of the most talented young nonfiction writers working today. Nicholas Mancusi, Miami Herald

I read this book in a sustained state of near-tears. Its a masterpiece. . . . Lord Fear is the most evocative treatment of this kind of crooked adolescent male logic that Ive ever read, and the most affecting elicitation of boys conflicted thirst for danger. . . . I read it with gratitude. John Lingan, Chicago Tribune

Lucas Manns genre-bending first book,Class A . . . heralded an impressive new talent in narrative nonfiction. Manns second book, Lord Fear,reaffirms that talent . . . [and]demonstrates that Mann is a writer who avoids reductionism, instead embracing complexity and uncertainty. Heller McAlpin, NPR

Manns compact, almost New-Journalistic attempt to understand his older brother, who died of an overdose when Lucas was 13, isnt the first or even the tenth bereaved-sibling memoir, but its blend of taut novelistic style and documentary rigor makes it one of the strongest. Mann has a knack for tracking down uncomfortable truths (did you love him he asks his brothers best friend) and burrowing in, like a metaphysical gumshoe, where others would turn away. Mann wants us to know his beautiful mess of a brother better than he ever did. Boris Kachka, Vulture, New York Magazine (8 Books You Need to Read This May)

Mann grasps at splinters of spasmodic speculation. His prose jabs at and probes the unknown. You can feel his own life and soul are on the line here. This is an awesome, emotionally riveting memoir. Providence Journal

I know when Ive found a good book when it slows me down, as Lucas Manns Lord Fear did. Its also a good sign, I find, when the book is hard to describe, asLord Fearis. On the surface, its a memoir about Manns enigmatic older brother, who died of a heroin overdose when Mann was thirteen. But its more about memory, myth-making, and desire than its plot suggests. Written mainly from the perspectives of those who knew his brother at different points in his life, the books scenes, reconstructed from interviews, are delicately rendered and hyper-self aware; with this unflinching, fractured examination of his brother, Mann suggests that writing about and investigating any life produces infinite contradictory representations that orbit around an indefinable center. Mann is driving at how we know that unknowable thingtaking us right up to languages edge, where we watch him peer over. Jeffery Gleaves, Paris Review


When he was just thirteen, Lucas Mann lost his older brother Josh to aheroin overdose. In his moving and strikingly honest memoir,Lord Fear, Mann interrogates this loss and grapples with the frustrating fragility of memory in attempting to understand a man he deeply adored, but hardly got the chance to know. It is this exquisite tension of knowing and not knowing that lends the book its power and makes it worth sinking your teeth into. Esquire (6 Books You Absolutely Cant Miss This May)

Mann spent nearly 10 years ferreting out this picture of his older half brother, Josh, dead of a drug overdose. Mann was much younger than his blustery, angry brother. The actions that seemed incomprehensible and abnormal to the adults in their lives are seen by the younger Mann as sometimes admirable or brave or normal but scary. Thus, amid the terror found in this book are also moments of joy. . . . Lord Fear treads carefully, but the shards on this path are ever painful. Booklist

I know when Ive found a good book when it slows me down, as Lucas Manns Lord Fear did. Its also a good sign, I find, when the book is hard to describe, as Lord Fear is. On the surface, its a memoir about Manns enigmatic older brother, who died of a heroin overdose when Mann was thirteen. But its more about memory, myth-making, and desire than its plot suggests. Written mainly from the perspectives of those who knew his brother at different points in his life, the books scenes, reconstructed from interviews, are delicately rendered and hyperself aware; with this unflinching, fractured examination of his brother, Mann suggests that writing about and investigating any life produces infinite contradictory representations that orbit around an indefinable center. Mann is driving at how we know that unknowable thingtaking us right up to languages edge, where we watch him peer over. Jeffery Gleaves, The Paris Review (Staff Picks)

An ambitious, literary-minded memoir of the authors relationship with his late brother, a much older heroin addict. Mann works on a number of different levels, delivering a narrative of addiction, memory, and family dynamics; of the attempt to see someone through the eyes and different memories of other people; and of the challenges faced by a writer as he attempts to fulfill his literary ambitions. Ultimately, this is a memoir about trying to write a memoir: the challenge, the impossibility, and the catharsis. . . . In constructing his aching, poignant narrative, Mann offers a fine meditation on fate and on how the story of addiction is the story of memory, and how we never get it right. Kirkus(starred review)

I loved this bookan artifact of the making of memory. The prose is striking and emotional, and the excavation of the dead brother, the meaning of the life cut short, will resonate with many readers. Lord Fear is a psychological and artistic juggernaut. Anthony Swofford, author of Jarhead

"The books called Lord Fear, but its very existence is testament to its authors fearlessness in confronting the twined, barbed wires of guilt and grief. Lucas Mann wears many hats in this memoirjournalist, stylist, Nabokovian explorer of sense and memorybut in the end it turns out that theyre all the same hat: survivor. Lucas Mann is a rare talent, and Lord Fear is that rare book which matches intellect with emotional candor, and the human condition is presented in all its nudity and terrifying nuance.Adam Wilson, author of Whats Important is Feeling

A searing, complexly rendered memoirthat is at timesan investigation of the lifeand deathof Mannsheroin addict brother, at timesa frankmeditation onbrotherhood.Thisbook is made from the onehis brother, a writer,never wrote, and isthe book only Manncould write. Atriumph. Alexander Chee, author of Edinburgh

This is a disturbing book, and a powerful one, for its honesty, its emotional precision, and most of all for Manns ability to probe, accede to, and resist the mythologizing power of memory. Joan Wickersham, author of The News from Spain and The Suicide Index

Lord Fear isnt just a book about brothers, or addiction, or bereavementthough it is about all of these things, in beautiful and surprising ways; its ultimately a book about one mans fierce and futile desire to fully know his own brother. This is a gorgeous examination of what it means to love someone once hes gone, what it means to love someone you wishas Mann puts it so powerfullycould have felt better than he did. Leslie Jamison, author of The Empathy Exams

Lucas Mann is the most incredible young memoirist in this country. And in Lord Fear, hes balancing humor, incisive critique and masterful storytelling as only he can. Every now and then, you read books and know that only one person on earth is skilled and loving enough to be that books author. Lord Fear is that book and Lucas Mann is that author. Kiese Laymon, author of Long Division

Like the best memoirs, Lord Fear isnt really about its authors life: its about his brother, Josh, an addict who died young, and the ways we mythologize and grieve a loss like that. This book is generous, unsentimental, often funny, and always smart; Mann has a striking ability to wring meaning from each moment. To sum it up with something I wrote in the margins: Damn, he can write. Justin St. Germain, author of Son of a Gun

Lord Fear is a hard bookas it should be, as its subject (a brothers fatal overdose) is hard; reconstructing the life and death of another is hard; families are hard; masculinity edging into misogyny is hard; addiction is hard; remembering is hard; grief is hard. Lucas Mann heads straight into these thickets armed with an uncommon emotional intelligence and the capacity to hold great mysteries, fears, horrors, and sorrows in taut, gripping sentences. This is a moving, frightening, expertly written book that stands at the nexus of imagination, encounter, document, and dirge. Maggie Nelson, author of The Art of Cruelty

This book is achingly tender, violent, bittersweet, and bold. Lucas Mann has told the story of his brother in so unpredictable and enthralling a way that he has opened up the story of memory itself wide enough for a new kind of memoir to emerge. John DAgata, author of About a Mountain

Author Bio

LUCAS MANNwas born in New York City and received his MFA from the University of Iowa, where he was the Provost's Visiting Writer in Nonfiction. He is the author of Class A- Baseball in the Middle of Everywhere, and his essays and stories have appeared in many publications, including TriQuarterly, Slate, and The Kenyon Review. He teaches writing at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, and lives in Providence, Rhode Island.