by Joe Meno
“Odile and Jack are . . . two characters in search of authentic emotion . . . their pas de deux is . . . dynamic. Meno’s plain style seems appropriate for these characters and their occasions, and the low-key drawings and amateur photographs that punctuate the narrative lend a home-video feel to this story of slacker bohemia, the temp jobs, odd jobs and hand jobs.”—Chicago Tribune
“Meno’s book is an honest look at the isolation of being a creative person in your twenties living in a city . . . Cody Hudson’s hand-drawn illustrations, which relate to the text only laterally, add a charm akin to the small doodles that break up long New Yorkerarticles. The photos by Todd Baxter add a third level to the package, helping to make Meno’s book feel more like an artwork.”—The Daily Beast, “3 Must-Read Offbeat Novels”
“A beguiling and slyly disquieting storyteller, Meno forges surprising connections between deep emotion and edgy absurdity, self-conscious hipness and timeless metaphysics. In this geeky-elegant novel, Meno transforms wintery Chicago into a wondrous crystallization of countless dreams and tragedies, while telling the stories of two derailed young artists, two wounded souls, in cinematic vignettes that range from lushly atmospheric visions to crack-shot volleys of poignant and funny dialogue. With bicycles in the snow emblematic of both precariousness and determination, Meno’s charming, melancholy, frank and droll love story wrapped around an art manifesto both celebrates those who question and protest the established order and contemplates the dilemmas that make family, creativity, ambition and love perpetually confounding and essential.” —Kansas City Star
“A wispy, bittersweet (emphasis on the bitter, not the sweet) romance, Office Girl is the story of Odile and Jack, a pair of alienated twentysomething bohemians whose artistic ambitions are being worn away by one soul-killing call-center job after another in Chicago.” —Chicago Sun-Times
“Office Girl is a bittersweet little love story framed by Bill Clinton’s 1999 impeachment trial and the turn of the millennium . . . By letting his characters be emotionally vulnerable, even shallow or trite—which is to say . . . real—Meno supplies an off-kilter, slightly inappropriate answer to the Hollywood rom-com. Meno is a deft writer. The dialogue in Office Girl is often funny, the pacing quirky, and some of its quick, affecting similes remind me of Lorrie Moore.” —Chicago Reader
“Meno’s books have become increasingly liminal and idiosyncratic. In this latest, it feels as if Meno has written the book he’s been wanting to write for years, combining all of those classic elements of his previous work: the stop-and-start of youthful inertia, the painful purity of romance, the way childhood informs (i.e. wrecks) us as adults and a direct prose cut into vignettes and montage. He also works with longtime collaborators photographer Todd Baxter and painter Cody Hudson . . . Gorgeously packaged, it’s like a Meno box set 15 years in the making.” —Time Out Chicago
“It might be a standard boy-meets-girl tale, if not for the fact that the boy likes to record the sounds of gloves abandoned in snowdrifts, while the girl has a penchant for filling elevators with silver balloons. It’s 1999. Odile has left grad school while Jack’s wife has recently left him; after both stumble into jobs at the same telemarketing firm, they meet, and it isn’t long before he is supporting her attempt to create a whimsical, anti-establishment art movement.” —Time Out New York
Best-selling novelist Joe Meno is back with fantastic new novel about two young people and a visionary, doomed art movement
No one dies in Office Girl. Nobody talks about the international political situation. There is no mention of any economic collapse. Nothing takes place during a World War.
Instead, this novel is about young people doing interesting things in the final moments of the last century. Odile is a lovely twenty-three-year-old art-school dropout, a minor vandal, and a hopeless dreamer. Jack is a twenty-five-year-old shirker who's most happy capturing the endless noises of the city on his out-of-date tape recorder. Together they decide to start their own art movement in defiance of a contemporary culture made dull by both the tedious and the obvious. Set in February 1999—just before the end of one world and the beginning of another—Office Girl is the story of two people caught between the uncertainty of their futures and the all-too-brief moments of modern life.
Joe Meno's latest novel also features black-and-white illustrations by renowned artist Cody Hudson and photographs by visionary photographer Todd Baxter.
Office Girl is available in hardcover, paperback, and ebook editions. Our printed books are available from our website and in online and brick & mortar bookstores everywhere. Digital editions are available wherever e-books are sold.
Demons in the Spring
"Eclectic, funny, constantly surprising—these are the things a short story collection should be allowed to be, and Joe Meno's Demons in the Spring absolutely is. Add to his rock solid prose and big heart a wonderful idea—how each story is illustrated by a modern master—then you have a rich, unforgettable stew of a book." —Dave Eggers
"The power is in the writing. Mr. Meno is a superb craftsman." —Hubert Selby, Jr.
*Finalist for the 2008 Story Prize
*Kirkus Reviews Best Books of 2008
*Time Out Chicago Best Books of 2008
"An inspired collection of twenty stories, brilliant in its command of tone and narrative perspective … Creativity and empathy mark the collection … Illustrations enhance the already vivid storytelling."—Kirkus Reviews, *starred review*
"The strongest stories in this collection (with accompanying illustrations by different artists) don't try too hard to dazzle with formal virtuosity but let Meno slowly pull his characters out from their own peculiar inner worlds into the one we recognize, for better or for worse, as the 'real' world. Loss seems to be the lingua franca that unites these souls; Meno's sympathy for them is acute, and he never lets fictional pyrotechnics blind him, or us, to their humanity."—New York Times Book Review
"Meno knows just how to press a variety of emotional buttons ranging from giddy delight to not-quite-hopeless despair. Highly recommended for all public and academic libraries."—Library Journal
"Mr. Meno's fiction pops with the energy of youth, its purity and heart … Mr. Meno has a finely tuned grasp of the fumblings—romantic, existential and otherwise, that make up the first twenty-five years of our lives."—New York Observer
"These playful, postmodern stories find the Chicago author's artistry reinforced by illustrators who provide divergent perspectives on his prose … The range of illustrations adds to the volume's appeal, but Meno's writing is strong enough to stand on its own … There's a profound empathy in Meno's work that makes it more than just a stylistic exercise."—Time Out New York
"Meno shows his mastery of the short form with his twenty latest tales of whimsy and loss. Meno's best stories fuse together postmodern ideas with subjects that have concerned literature through the ages, such as love, heartbreak, death, and malaise … Intriguing and eccentric, Meno's stories never distract with their surreal flights of fancy but instead draw the reader in deeper to their magical reconfiguration of the modern world. Twenty different graphic artists provide idiosyncratic illustrations that perfectly complement this daring collection."—Booklist
"Nothing like getting inventive. Local author Joe Meno continues to push the limits of traditional lit with each of his releases … Meno's tales are funny, heartbreaking and in-sightful, most of the time all at once—he's getting better with age."— Newcity (Chicago)
"Demons is a beautifully crafted collection and benefits greatly from the illustrations of twenty diverse and well-matched artists from around the world. Consider also that a portion of the book's proceeds are being donated to 826CHICAGO, a nonprofit tutoring center in the Windy City, and you've got a great book that's giving to a good cause."—Philadelphia City Paper
"In Joe Meno's newest collection, even the table of contents reads like a story, each title an evocative verbal starburst [and] the stories don't disap
point. They pop and bristle with the tender, with the weird and with great appreciation for the limitless resources of storytelling."—Time Out Chicago
"The twenty clever and sometimes surreal stories in Joe Meno's new collection, Demons in the Spring, reveal the workings of a curious and inventive mind. The pieces are diverse in style and setting, but for the most part their characters are all trying to navigate a world that's at best indifferent and more often bewildering or downright cruel."—Chicago Reader
"These tales have the feel of whole novels distilled into tone poems and lyric fragments of natural dialogue, lucid dream states, and pure, all-too-human existential ludicrousness."—ELLE
"The first enticing element about Demons in the Spring is the sheer beauty of the book … The volume itself has the irresistible charm of a bygone charm. The stories are thoroughly modern—at once quirky and accessible."—Chicago Sun-Times
"Prolific South Sider Meno is the closest thing we've got to a literary ambassador … No one has captured the odd blend of grit and fantasy, community and danger, that comes with an urban upbringing quite like Meno."—GQ
Twenty new Meno stories accompanied by twenty original pieces of art by twenty different groundbreaking visual artists.
Demons in the Spring is a collection of twenty short stories by Joe Meno, author of the smash hits The Boy Detective Fails and Hairstyles of the Damned, with illustrations by twenty artists from the fine art, graphic art, and comic book worlds—including Charles Burns, Archer Prewitt, Ivan Brunetti, Jay Ryan, Paul Hornschemeier, Anders Nilsen, Geoff McFedtridge, Kelsey Brookes, Kim Hiorthoy, Caroline Hwang, Rachell Sumpter, KOZYNDAN, Evan Hecox, and Cody Hudson.
Oddly modern moments which occur in the most familiar of public places, from offices to airports to schools to zoos to emergency rooms: a young girl who refuses to go anywhere unless she's dressed as a ghost; a bank robbery in Stockholm gone terribly wrong; a teacher who's become enamored with the students in his school's Model United Nations club; a couple affected by a strange malady—a miniature city which has begun to develop in the young woman's chest, these inventive stories are hilarious, heartbreaking, and unusual. While many of them have never been previously published, others have been featured in the likes of LIT, Other Voices, Swink, TriQuarterly, and McSweeney's.
*Some of the author's and contributors' proceeds from the book will go directly to benefit 826 CHICAGO, a non-profit tutoring center, part of the national organization of tutoring centers with branches in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York City, and Seattle.*
Demons in the Spring is available in hardcover, paperback, and e-book editions. Our printed books are available from our website and in online and brick & mortar bookstores everywhere. Digital editions are available wherever e-books are sold.
Hairstyles of the Damned
Hairstyles of the Damned a selection of the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers program (Nov. 2004-Jan. 2005 season).
"This book is hella good. Joe Meno manages to sink into the teenage-outcast experience, challenge segregation, and provide step-by-step instructions on dyeing hair pink in this realistic account of finding your identity. After reading Hairstyles of the Damned, I'm glad I'm not in high school anymore." —Amy Schroeder, Venus magazine
"Hairstyles of the Damned is observational comedy of the best kind, each glittering small detail offering up a wave of memories for anyone alive in the latter part of the previous century. Did you imagine you had forgotten the smell of arcades, the allure of muscle cars, the dress codes and emotional rebellions, the cringing horror of adolescence? Beware: Joe Meno can make you remember." —Bee Lavender, HipMama magazine
"Joe Meno knows Chicago's south side the way Jane Goodall knew chimps and apes— which is to say, he really knows it. He also knows about the early '90s, punk rock, and awkward adolescence. Best of all, he knows the value of entertainment. Hairstyles of the Damned is proof positive." —John McNally, author of The Book of Ralph
"Joe Meno writes with the energy, honesty, and emotional impact of the best punk rock. From the opening sentence to the very last word, Hairstyles of the Damned held me in his grip." —Jim DeRogatis, pop music critic, Chicago Sun-Times
Hairstyles of the Damned is an honest, true-life depiction of growing up punk on Chicago's south side: a study in the demons of racial intolerance, Catholic school conformism, and class repression. It is the story of the riotous exploits of Brian, a high school burnout, and his best friend, Gretchen, a punk rock girl fond of brawling. Based on the actual events surrounding a Chicago high school's segregated prom, this work of fiction unflinchingly pursues the truth in discovering what it means to be your own person.
Hairstyles of the Damned is the debut novel on our Punk Planet Books imprint, which originates from Punk Planet magazine.
Hairstyles of the Damned is available in paperback and e-book editions. Our printed books are available from our website and in online and brick & mortar bookstores everywhere. Digital editions are available wherever e-books are sold.
How the Hula Girl Sings
“Meno has a poet’s feel for small-town details, life in the joint, and the trials an ex-con faces, and he’s a natural storyteller with a talent for characterization . . . A likable winner that should bolster Meno’s reputation.” —Publishers Weekly
“The author moves the story along at a surprisingly fast and easy pace, never succumbing to the overkill that American gothic tales are often prone to, seeming to take his inspiration equally from the stories of Jim Thompson and the lyrics of Nick Cave. The evil eyes of small-town America seem to peer from every page of Meno’s claustrophobic noir, where the good and the bad are forced down the same violent paths.” —Kirkus Reviews
“An intimate book, wrapped up in the bent logic and lame emotional politics of folks tied by memory and old-school loathings . . . The novel succeeds because Meno gives Luce Lemay the struggling soul of a poet looking to bend anguish into possibility . . . offering what Raymond Carver used to call ‘glimpses’ of what else might be, flashes of another, more comforting brand of reality.” —NewCity Chicago
“Joe Meno writes with the energy, honesty, and emotional impact of the best punk rock.” —Chicago Sun-Times
“Meno’s poetic and visceral style perfectly captures the seedy locale, and he finds the sadness behind violence and the anger behind revenge. Fans of hard-boiled pulp fiction will particularly enjoy this novel.” —Booklist
“A wonderful accomplishment . . . The power is in the writing. Mr. Meno is a superb craftsman.” —Hubert Selby, Jr.
A young ex-con in a small Illinois town. A lonely giant with a haunted past. A beautiful girl with a troubled heart. Strange and darkly magical, How the Hula Girl Sings begins exactly where most pulp fiction usually ends, with the vivid episode of the terrible crime itself. Three years later, Luce Lemay, out on parole for the awful tragedy, does his best to finds hope: in a new job at the local Gas-N-Go; in his companion and fellow ex-con, Junior Breen, who spells out puzzling messages to the unquiet ghosts of his past; and finally, in the arms of the lovely but reckless Charlene. How the Hula Girl Sings is a suspenseful exploration of a country bright with the far-off stars of forgiveness, but still dark with the still-looming shadow of the death penalty.
How the Hula Girl Sings is available in paperback and e-book editions. Our printed books are available from our website and in online and brick & mortar bookstores everywhere. Digital editions are available wherever e-books are sold.
Tender as Hellfire
"Extremely vivid . . . Any number of novels have been written about unhappy childhoods and bizarre families, but this one surpasses many." —Kirkus Reviews
"The power is in the writing. Mr. Meno is a superb craftsman." —Hubert Selby, Jr.
Long before he established himself as an indie-publishing sensation with his hit novels Hairstyles of the Damned and The Boy Detective Fails, Joe Meno brought out his debut novel, Tender As Hellfire, with St. Martin's Press. Here, with a
re-edited paperback edition, Meno limns a near-fantastical world of trailer park floozies, broken-down '76 Impalas, lost glass eyes, and the daily experiences of two boys trying to make sense of their random, sharp lives.
Dough and Pill are brothers bound by more than blood. The anguish of their past, the terror of their present, and the uncertainty of their future all underscore the only truth that is within their grasp: each other. For beneath the cruel surface of their trailer park community lies a menagerie of odd characters, each one strange yet somehow beautiful. Surrounded by the strange and displaced, Dough and Pill must navigate through a world of constant pain and confusion.
Finding beauty in unexpected places and maintaining a reverence for hard-won scars, these two brothers learn, finally, that even broken things can be perfect.
Tender as Hellfire is available in paperback and e-book editions. Our printed books are available from our website and in online and brick & mortar bookstores everywhere. Digital editions of Tender as Hellfire can be purchased from Amazon, Barnes & Noble's Nook Books, the Sony eReader Store, the Kobo Store, Google Play, on iTunes, and on the websites of independent booksellers everywhere.