Every Other Weekend - by Anthony J Mohr (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Anthony's father, Gerald Mohr, is a well-known radio actor before slipping to the Hollywood B-list thanks to the advent of television. Accepting the lead in a dying Swedish TV series, he falls for the script girl and divorces Mohr's mother, who goes on to meet and marry another divorcee, credit card industry pioneer Stanley Dashew.

As his stepfather's career rises and his biological father's eases downward, Anthony tries to find his place. One weekend he's sailing on his stepfather's fifty-eight-foot catamaran; the next, his Swedish stepmother tells him that they're poor. Coming of age in a time when divorce is rare and viewed as shocking, Anthony lives at the edges of what others regard as a dream world, a place where reality and fantasy blend, maps lead to the homes of the stars, and obstacles abound.

Review Quotes

"A lesson in love and fortitude, Every Other Weekend is a must-read for those who treasure family in all its iterations."

-Rebecca Forster, USA Today bestselling author of the Witness Series and Finn O'Brien Crime Thrillers

"Anthony Mohr's Every Other Weekend is a memoir of life with divorced parents in a place-Beverly Hills-where, believe it or not ( I know!) divorce was uncommon in the '50s and '60s. Mohr's life toggling between two sets of parents-a mom and stepfather of wealth, an actor father on his way 'down'-is sensitive and astute, and shows how the back-and-forth perspective affected Mohr's life path. I became a journalist because of my parents' dramatic and unusual divorced state; Mohr became a judge. The wisdom he uses in judicial decisions is keenly on view in these fascinating and eloquent pages."

-Sheila Weller, author of Dancing At Ciro's: A Family's Love, Loss, and Scandal on the Sunset Strip, and Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon-and the Journey of a Generation

"Set in Southern California in the early sixties, Every Other Weekend encapsulates the life of Tony, a young boy who learns to 'toggle between households' after his parents' divorce. Gerry, the B-movie actor who is as rough around the edges as the characters he portrays, considers his son a pal, while Stan, Tony's stepfather, is a successful businessman who keeps his distance from the boy. While Tony yearns for Gerry's understanding and acceptance, it is Stan who ultimately provides the stability and family life Tony so desires. Anthony Mohr's clever, intelligent writing, with its nostalgic references and inside look at Hollywood, kept me reading throughout the night. I can't wait to see what he comes up with next."

-Renée Thompson, author of The Plume Hunter and The Bridge at Valentine

"Nobody understands the DNA of Southern California as well as Anthony J. Mohr, and no one better evokes the life of a post-war boy as he shuttlecocks between his father and his stepfather. Every Other Weekend brilliantly describes what Mohr calls 'the scary backwash of divorce.' Bring smiles and tissues. You'll need both."

--Bob Levey, former columnist, The Washington Post

"One could cut granite with Anthony Mohr's incisive, imagistic Every Other Weekend: Coming of Age With Two Different Dads. This memoir is profound in in its distillation and delineation of memory, father and stepfather emerging from these pages as a result of Mohr's honed, crystalized prose."

-Nathan Leslie, editor of Maryland Literary Review