Mark Glassman looks for enlightenment in bars, night clubs, and coffee shops, but he gets more than he bargains for when he finds it: the residual wisdom of the street.

Despite the fact that he is beset by contemporary problems —including a paralyzing fear of sex— Glassman manages to hold himself together until he meets Teresa Devlin. But Devlin proves to be too much for him in more ways than one.

Mean Thoughts was a semi-finalist for the 2002 Peter Taylor Prize for the Novel, a national competition sponsored by the University of Tennessee Press.