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THE GREAT PERHAPS

a New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice.

winner of the Great Lakes Book Award for Fiction 2009.

starred reviews in Booklist and Library Journal.

"Bracketed by two wartimes, "The Great Perhaps" is a novel about the pros and cons of cowardice. Meno's plain style is set off nicely by his taste for modernist formal daring: the novel makes room for drawings, long transcripts of old radio serials, declassified government documents and several chapters consisting of exactly 26 short sections, each headed by a letter of the alphabet. Amelia and Thisbe, are the book's most brilliantly lifelike and engaging creations. Meno is thinking hard about why the world is the way it is and about where hope for change might reasonably lie. 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." New York Times Book Review

"Laugh-out-loud funny but frequently sad, Joe Meno's new novel runs the gamut of emotions and techniques as it depicts a Chicago family in turmoil. This ambitious, adventurous writer throws in every thing but the kitchen sink -- historical digressions, magic realism, fervent prayers, sordid sex, academic politicking, three wars and the 2004 election -- as he follows two confused teenagers, their bewildered parents and a disoriented grandfather through one eventful month. Although he's an unmistakably American author, Meno -- a winner of the Chicago Tribune's Nelson Algren short story award -- recalls Anton Chekhov with his amused appreciation of human foibles, his unsentimental affection for people who often behave badly but usually mean well." Chicago Tribune

"Meno's distinctively imaginative and compassionate fiction is forged at the intersection of ordinariness and astonishment. In this tragicomic family drama, his fifth novel, he creates a topsy-turvy household. Jonathan and Madeline Casper, timid and insular, are scientists at the University of Chicago. He is devoted to the elusive giant squid and prone to seizures at the sight of a cloud; she is conducting a bizarrely disastrous lab experiment involving pigeons. Amelia, the older of their two teen daughters, is suspended for writing inflammatory editorials in the school paper, while Thisbe has taken to ardent prayer. With anxiety running high over the Iraq War and the 2004 election, Madeline takes off in pursuit of a strange man-shaped cloud; Jonathan hides in a child's fort of sheet-draped furniture; their valiant, neglected daughters run amok, and Henry, Jonathan's ailing father, escapes from the nursing home. As Meno masterfully, and meaningfully, conflates the fantastic with the everyday, he reaches back to Henry's broken childhood and a stint in a World War II internment camp for German Americans. 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." Booklist

"There's an old adage in theater to "make 'em laugh before you make 'em cry." In his previous four novels and two story collections (e.g., Hairstyles of the Damned), Meno has demonstrated a rare ability to do so not just once but continually over the course of a story, and he manages to do it again. His new novel chronicles a family of five tortured souls on the verge of total dissolution. Scientist Jonathan, who gets epileptic fits from seeing clouds, has had his life's work scooped by a bitter rival, social scientist Madeline has lost him to his research while hers suffers, daughters Amelia and Thisbe are outcasts struggling to find their place in the world, and grandfather Henry desires only to escape his hellish nursing-home existence. Not exactly knee-slapper material, but somehow there is always slight hope, though no assurance, of transcendence. The text contains more elements of magical realism than Meno's previous work, yet even the human-shaped cloud that Madeline chases for weeks somehow seems real thanks to the note-perfect dialog and narrative. Highly recommended for all public and academic libraries." Library Journal

THE GREAT PERHAPS is the story of the Caspers, a family of cowards: Jonathan, a paleontologist, searching in vain for a prehistoric giant squid; his wife, Madeline, an animal behaviorist with a failing experiment; their daughter, Amelia, a disappointed teenage revolutionary; her younger sister, Thisbe, on a frustrated search for God; and grandfather Henry, who wants to disappear, limiting himself to eleven words a day, then ten, then nineÉ Each fears uncertainty and the possibilities that accompany it. When Jonathan and Madeline suddenly decide to separate, this nuclear family is split, each member forced to confront his or her own cowardice, finally coming to appreciate the cloudiness of the modern age. With wit and humor, The Great Perhaps presents a revealing look at anxiety, ambiguity, and the need for complicated answers to complex questions.

In these video clips, Joe Meno speaks about the novel and reads an excerpt from the book.

Two short films based on Joe Meno's work have been recently produced: Our Neck of the Woods, which premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and the forthcoming Tender as Hellfire.

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