Vromans Bookstore Blog » Joe Meno http://blog.vromans.com Independent Bookstore Wed, 08 Feb 2012 02:19:44 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 My Year in Books: The Great Perhaps http://blog.vromans.com/my-year-in-books-the-great-perhaps http://blog.vromans.com/my-year-in-books-the-great-perhaps#comments Fri, 18 Dec 2009 19:31:58 +0000 Patrick http://blog.vromans.com/?p=1169 The Great Perhaps is set in the days leading up to the 2004 presidential election.  It couldn’t have been set at any other time.  If I might delve into a little bit of personal history here, I think the incredible anxiety, fear and anger that so many of my friends felt as that election approached were heavily diluted thanks to an event that occurred days before the election (an event that doesn’t make into Meno’s novel, I might add):  the Boston Red Sox rallied from three games down to beat the New York Yankees and then went on to win their first World Series in 86 years.  That election, which I think had disastrous effects for the country and, one could argue, for the world as a whole, will forever be associated with one of the great joys of my life.

That being said, reading The Great Perhaps brought me back to the tense moments before that election.  It’s a strength of the book and of Meno’s writing that he can conjure a time and a moment in the nation’s psyche so fully and so accurately.  Meno himself has said that this book was about control, how we crave it and how it’s constantly eluding us.  Each of the members of the Casper family of Hyde Park, Chicago, is struggling with a crises, either professional or personal.

At the time, I liked the narrative of the two teenage daughters best, but looking back on the book, it’s the plight of Madeleine, the biologist wife, that I keep thinking about.  Madeleine can’t figure out why the pigeons in her experiment keep murdering each other.  She also can’t quite figure out how she feels about her marriage either.  As a result, she finds herself following a mysterious man-shaped cloud all over Chicago.  While this might sound ridiculous, in Meno’s hands, it’s heartbreaking.

The Great Perhaps is a bold novel, a big book that spans generations in its own curious way.  It also pulls off the rare feat of being somewhat unconventional (each chapter is from a different character’s point of view, with each character getting his or her own style, as well) without being alienating or confusing.  Despite having a bunch of books under his belt already, Meno is at the beginning of his great career.  Thank God for that.

]]> http://blog.vromans.com/my-year-in-books-the-great-perhaps/feed 1 Some Light Reading for Thursday http://blog.vromans.com/some-light-reading-for-thursday http://blog.vromans.com/some-light-reading-for-thursday#comments Thu, 14 May 2009 20:52:21 +0000 Patrick http://blog.vromans.com/?p=799 Later on today, I’ll be posting the latest in our fabulous video series, so that’s something to look forward to, right?  In the meantime, check out these excellent articles:

  • At the Millions, Edan interviews Joe Meno, author of the tremendous new novel The Great Perhaps:  “After I finished the first draft, I realized the book was about complexity, and the need for it, and how terrified we, as Americans, seemed to have become of anything complicated or uncertain.”  Also worth a click is Meno’s “Book Notes” entry at Largehearted Boy, where he discusses, among other things, The Beatles “Yellow Submarine.”
  • At Jacket Copy, Carolyn Kellogg interviews George Pelecanos.  I think he distilled the relationship between power and evil in “The Wire” better than anywhere else I’ve seen it:  “We were always on the side of labor, as I am. We were on the side of the police officers who walk the beat, kids on the corner who are selling drugs — anybody who was the working person. If you were in management, you were a bad guy.”
  • Who’s excited to see Angels & Demons?  From A.O. Scott’s NY Times review of the movie: “The only people likely to be offended by “Angels & Demons” are those who persist in their adherence to the fading dogma that popular entertainment should earn its acclaim through excellence and originality.”
  • Malcolm Gladwell responds to criticism about his latest New Yorker piece about “underdogs.” There’s some interesting stuff here.  I think critics of the piece seem to focus too much on the idea that the full-court press is the key to underdog success when it really seemed to me that doing something novel – changing the rules in a heretofore unexplored or unpleasant way – was what really led to success.  Still, folks do have a point.  That 1996 Kentucky team was loaded with talent (It’s also worth noting that the Kentucky team met a true underdog in the finals that year, Syracuse.  How did Syracuse make the finals?  By employing a two-three zone defense that gave opponents fits).
]]> http://blog.vromans.com/some-light-reading-for-thursday/feed 0 It’s All Over: The Tournament of Books Recap & Prediction http://blog.vromans.com/its-all-over-the-tournament-of-books-recap-prediction http://blog.vromans.com/its-all-over-the-tournament-of-books-recap-prediction#comments Tue, 31 Mar 2009 20:34:17 +0000 Patrick http://blog.vromans.com/?p=703 The Tournament of Books picked its winner today: A Mercy, by Toni Morrison.  After all that talk of YA novels and underdogs, it’s one of the heavy-hitters who takes it home.  As for our little pool, who won this thing, anyway?  Well, after I made the mistake of bragging, my pool went in roughly the same direction my NCAA pool went:  down.  In the end, the winner of our pool was … a tie!  Of course.  Here’s how it broke down:  Edan won easily up to the Zombie round, accumulating 15 points.  Emma was getting shredded through the Zombie round, but she still had her champ alive, and when A Mercy won in the finals, that gave her 6 more points, bringing her into a tie with Edan.

Here’s how the standings shaped up:

1.  Edan – 15 points

1. Emma – 15 points  (And the only person to correctly predict the winner!)

3. Patrick – 14 points

4. Jennah – 6 points

4. Erik – 6 points

4. John – 6 points

The two winners will get some sort of prize.  At some point.  I’ll have to figure that out (I probably should’ve done that first, no?).  Regardless of what you might think of the Tournament of Books, it’s difficult to deny that it stimulates conversation about the books involved.  I’m a big fan, and I can’t wait for next years.  I wonder what books will be in it?  In any case, I’m going to call it now:  The Great Perhaps by Joe Meno will win next year’s Tournament of Books (provided that the last two chapters of his book don’t go pro).  You heard it here first.

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