Published Works
Michael Thunder's first published work,Call Me Manneschewitz,was written under the name Thomas McMenamin. This novel was published by Charles Scribner's Sons,New York.
It is a delight that every reader will share, for CALL ME MANNESCHWITZ is one of the funniest and most captivating books of the year. It is a joyful book. James Parnell O'Shanahan and Sarah Riecher meet at a party in Iowa City. Jim O'Shanahan is long-haired, stringy and energetic and he feels an obligation to make girls happy. All of them. But in Sarah he finds a special girl. They live together, and then they decide to get married.
This means a visit to Sarah's well-to-do parents in Akron, Ohio, where Jim is received warmly by Leonard Riecher and with deep suspicion by Minnie, who has a score system for rating her aggravations. She drags in the Rabbi at 3 A.M. to explain why the marriage would be a mistake; but that doesn't work. Finally, Minnie capitulates. In spite of herself, she gets fond of Jim and takes to calling him Manneschewitz. She plunges into frenzied arrangements for a big wedding. As these preparations go forward, Jim and Sarah continue their exuberant delight with each other.
Michael Thunder, who has also written under the name Thomas McMenamin, was born in Tacoma, Washington in 1945. He attended several universities and worked at a variety of jobs, including that of a Safety Deposit Vault attendant, and he received an MFA from the University of Iowa in 1969.