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Book reviews for "Meno,_Joe" sorted by average review score:

How the Hula Girl Sings : A Novel
Published in Hardcover by Regan Books (04 September, 2001)
Author: Joe Meno
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POW! now that's what i call a story!
This book is the type that I find few and far between. Without so much as blinking i was already through the first hundred pages. Since i have a very short attention span, you can see why this is a big deal. This book made me not want to sleep, eat, or do anything to deter me from its pages. When it was over I was left sated but wishing there were a thousand more pages to come. Luce Lemay's auspicious heart, dealt a hard luck hand, kept me filled with hope, wonder and awe. Even after a month since I finished it, I still can't help but wonder what old Luce is doing now.

A great surprise!
This book was quite a surprise to me.
In college I became deeply infatuated with a
certain style of writing—that of such Southern
writers as William Faulkner, Flannery
O'Conner and especially Carson McCullers.
Joe Meno carries on this great Southern gothic
tradition in his new book How the Hula Girl
Sings.
Meno creates a claustrophobic
small town seething with sickness
and hate. He fills it with characters such as
an abusive father whose feet were eaten by
gangrene, a woman who kills small animals
and nails them to her walls in hand-crocheted
sweaters so that she can mourn them, and a
back stabbing ex-con who fashioned his fake
teeth out of gravel.
While this book is not a traditional
mystery I believe that it is well worth the read.
The story moves along at a good pace and is
extremely engaging. (The Librarian, 5 cats)

You should really read this book
What can I say? This is just an excellent read. Meno combines the quick, tight story movement of a pulp novel with a poet's view of the world. The language is simple but moving. Combine all that with some solid, fascinating, very human characters, finish it up with a powerhouse ending and you know what you got? One hell of a book.


Tender As Hellfire
Published in Hardcover by St. Martin's Press (April, 1999)
Author: Joe Meno
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Trash from a small mind
Joe grew up in Evergreen Park, IL. Anyone who read the book and knows the village & his school can identify most of the characters. It's like a characture written by a cynical observer to life; not someone content with himself.

Depressing as Hellfire
Joe Meno clearly has a lot of talent---far more than the proofreader who allowed the abundance of typos in the book to slide by---but the end result is rather disappointing. Not only is the main character's thought pattern and point of view often difficult to follow, but I never truly felt as though I got to know any of the characters. Although Meno has a real flair for detail in scenes where heavy action action is occurring, large chunks of the prose drift by like zombies, never making an impression or creating better understanding of the characters. The author makes the mistake of showing rather than telling far too often to give readers a chance to see things through the eyes of these underdeveloped characters. The result is a story that drives home only a feeling of confused hopelessness, rather than fulfillment.

a solid, colorful first novel
Tender as Hellfire is a colorful, imaginative, extremely humorous, yet ultimately truthful novel. The themes and motifs within are tight, the story given to us in entertaining instances that combine in the end as one whole picture of an alienated youth. Meno shows his talent for storytelling by simply casting his character into a chaotic environment and seeing how that charatcer will react. Simple as that. Within it is contained a complex story of a child trying to come to terms and cope with his father's downfall, so that he may escape a similar fate and rise above his 'cursed' surroundings.

It's a good read that moves well, entertains and will be remembered as a colorful piece of contemporary style. For how can one ever forget the Pigpen mascot scene? The King of the Tango? Chief? The fire motifs add a nice edge and hold it all together. The novel is by no means perfect; a formal review could name various flaws, but this book comes from a first time novelist who, with such voice, color, style and humor can only get better. If you like an easy read and cutting edge stuff, this is a great book to check out.

But a note to St. Marten's Press: fire your copyeditor. First time authors are already at a disadvantage, why make their situation harder by your incompetence in printing?


Bridge, Volume 1, Number 4
Published in Paperback by Bridge Stories & Ideas (09 May, 2002)
Authors: Michael Workman, Alex Shakar, Kevin Blasko, Michelle Grabner, Brad Killam, David Andrews, Robert McLaughlin, Toby Olson, Ryan P. Kenealy, and Brian Costello
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