Marvel and a Wonder (42 page)

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 Jack is a twenty-five-year-old shirker who's most happy capturing the endless noises of the city on his out-of-date tape recorder.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 disappoint. 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.

The Boy Detective Fails

“This is postmodern fiction with a head and a heart, addressing such depressing issues as suicide, death, loneliness, failure, anomie, and guilt with compassion, humor, and even whimsy. Meno’s best work yet; highly recommended.”
—Library Journal
(starred review)

“Comedic, imaginative, empathic, atmospheric, archetypal, and surpassingly sweet, Meno’s finely calibrated fantasy investigates the precincts of grief, our longing to combat chaos with reason, and the menace and magic concealed within everyday life.”
—Booklist
(starred review)

“Mood is everything here, and Meno tunes it like a master . . . a full-tilt collision of wish-fulfillment and unrequited desires that’s thrilling, yet almost unbearably sad.”
—Kirkus Reviews
(starred review)

“A delicate blend of whimsy and edginess. Meno packs his novel with delightful subtext.”
—Entertainment Weekly

“A radiantly creative masterpiece . . . Meno’s imaginative genius spins heartache into hope within this fanciful growing-up tale that glows like no other.”
—PopMatters.com

“The search for truth, love, and redemption is surprising and absorbing. Swaddled in melancholy and gentle humor, it builds in power as the clues pile up.”
—Publishers Weekly

“An easy to read sometimes dark tale with a perfect ending. On a scale of 1 to 5, I give it a 4.8.”
—Futures Mystery Anthology Magazine

“At the bottom of this Pandora’s box of mirthful absurdity, there’s heartbreak and longing, eerie beauty and hope.”
—Philadelphia Weekly

“Verbally delectable.”
—Chicago Tribune

“Marinated in mood, richly crafted and devoid of irony, Meno’s newest novel is imbued with both the hopeful and the romantic.”
—Time Out Chicago

“Moving, elegant prose.”
—Washington Post Express

“Surreal, mysterious, and dreamlike.”
—NewCity Chicago

“You know that friend of yours who keeps trying to get you to read his half written novel about his quarter-life crisis? Do yourself a favor and read Joe Meno’s version of turning thirty instead.”
—The L Magazine

“It’s Encyclopedia Brown without the milk and cookies.”
—Chicago Sun-Times

"The Boy Detective Fails will break your heart, and then pick up the pieces and put you back together again." —T Cooper, author of
Lipshitz Six, or Two Angry Blondes

In the twilight of a mysterious childhood
full of wonder, Billy Argo, boy detective, is brokenhearted to find that his younger sister and crime-solving partner, Caroline, has committed suicide. Ten years later, Billy, age thirty, returns from an extended stay at St. Vitus' Hospital for the Mentally Ill to discover the world full of unimaginable strangeness: office buildings vanish without reason, small animals turn up without their heads, and cruel villains ride city buses to complete their evil schemes.

Lost within this unwelcoming place,
Billy finds the companionship of two lonely, extraordinary children, Effie and Gus Mumford— one a science fair genius, the other a charming, silent bully. With a nearly forgotten bravery, Billy treads from the unendurable boredom of a telemarketing job, stumbles into the awkward beauty of a desperate pickpocket named Penny Maple, and confronts the nearly impossible solution to the mystery of his sister's death. Along a path laden with hidden clues and codes that dare the reader to help Billy decipher the mysteries he encounters, the boy detective may learn the greatest secret of all: the necessity of the unknown.