The Great Perhaps - Softcover

For most of the last decade, a lot of prominent fiction writers interested in establishing their realist bona fides, the relevance of their work to the way we live now, seemed to feel they had no choice but to incorporate 9/11. But Meno dares to consign it, and our response to it, to a larger historical and spiritual context, and even to suggest that there is nothing new under the sun. A few years ago that might have seemed heretical, but traditionally such farsightedness is part of a novelist's job. -- Jonathon Dee Tender, funny, spooky, and gripping, Meno's novel encompasses a subtle yet devastating critique of war; sensitively traces the ripple effect of a dark legacy of nebulousness, guilt, and fear; and evokes both heartache and wonder. -- Donna Seaman Meno's writing seems to have hit a new gear...The overall effect is one of mature mastery of form and a deepened compassion for his characters. -- Kevin Nance An affecting domestic portrait, deftly drawn. -- Taylor Antrim Meno is thinking hard about why the world is the way it is and about where hope for change might reasonably lie. --Jonathan Dee A darkly funny, lyrical, and shrewdly observant chronicle of a family on the verge of a nervous breakdown. --Tom Perrotta, author of The Abstinence Teacher The wisest, most humane and transcendent novel on the contemporary family since The Corrections. . . . A marvelous book. --Irvine Welsh, author of Trainspotting Meno masterfully, and meaningfully, conflates the fantastic with the everyday. . . . Tender, funny, spooky, and gripping. --Donna Seaman It's insufferable to be forced to live with a crazy family, especially when you refuse to admit your own share of the madness. Joe Meno delivers tenderness and wit to a family struggling to prop up a house of cards. -- G. Xavier Robillard, author of Captain Freedom The Great Perhaps is a darkly funny, lyrical, and shrewdly observant chronicle of a family on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Joe Meno has the rare ability to evoke mid-life melancholy and teenage angst with equal authority. -- Tom Perrotta, author of Election and The Abstinence Teacher I think The Great Perhaps is the wisest, most humane and transcendent novel on the contemporary family since The Corrections... A marvelous book. -- Irvine Welsh, author of Trainspotting Joe Meno's fiction has it all--humor and heart, moral gravitas, and a formal playfulness that catches you pleasantly by surprise. -- Ed Park, author of Personal Days A terrible fear of clouds, an obscure search for giant squid and a bomb-building teenage girl: Joe Meno has imagination, humor and the rare ability to make characters seem as near as your own family-sometimes almost too close for comfort. An intriguing and heartfelt book. -- Lydia Millet, author of How the Dead Dream

Meet the Caspers . . . Jonathan is a palaeontologist, searching in vain for a prehistoric squid. His wife, Madeline, an animal behaviourist, cannot explain why the pigeons she is studying are becoming increasingly aggressive. Their older daughter Amelia is a fervent anti-capitalist and disappointed teenage revolutionary, while their younger, Thisbe, has become a devout Christian. Meanwhile, the girls' grandfather, Henry, is slowly absenting himself from life. Before he can absent himself altogether, however, Jonathan and Madeline decide to separate - and, suddenly, each family member has to confront their fears about the world in which they live. 'The wisest, most humane and transcendental novel on the contemporary family since The Corrections' Irvine Welsh 'The flat, uninfected language, interspersed with sudden absurdist flights of fancy, is reminiscent of Kurt Vonnegut; the comic-book influence contains traces of Jonathan Lethem; while the forensic examination of familial dysfunction should satisfy Franzen fans' Guardian 'A big, generous-hearted American family novel . . . Meno's characters bristle with humanity, and I think this book will find a huge audience for its wisdom and life-affirming, but unsentimental, qualities' Daily Telegraph