Great Perhaps - Softcover

Joe Meno

Softcover

ISBN 10: 033051248X ISBN 13: 9780330512480

Publisher: Picador, 2011

Synopsis

Meet the Caspers ...Jonathan is a palaeontologist, searching in vain for a prehistoric squid. His wife, Madeline, an animal behaviourist, cannot explain why the pigeons she is studying are becoming increasingly aggressive. Their older daughter Amelia is a fervent anti-capitalist and disappointed teenage revolutionary, while their younger, Thisbe, has become a devout Christian. Meanwhile, the girls' grandfather, Henry, is slowly absenting himself from life. Before he can absent himself altogether, however, Jonathan and Madeline decide to separate and, suddenly, each family member has to confront their fears about the world in which they live. 'The wisest, most humane and transcendental novel on the contemporary family since The Corrections' Irvine Welsh 'The flat, uninfected language, interspersed with sudden absurdist flights of fancy, is reminiscent of Kurt Vonnegut; the comic-book influence contains traces of Jonathan Lethem; while the forensic examination of familial dysfunction sho

About this title

From the Back Cover

A breakout new novel from the critically acclaimed novelist and playwright Joe Meno, author of Hairstyles of the Damned.

Praise for The Great Perhaps . . .

“The Great Perhaps is a darkly funny, lyrical, and shrewdly observant chronicle of a family on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Joe Meno has the rare ability to evoke midlife melancholy and teenage angst with equal authority.”―Tom Perrotta, author of Election and The Abstinence Teacher

“I think The Great Perhaps is the wisest, most humane and transcendent novel on the contemporary family since The Corrections. A marvelous book.”―Irvine Welsh, author of Trainspotting and Crime

. . . and for Joe Meno

“Joe Meno is an interesting case: a punk/noir stylist who can imitate something more rarefied, poetic, and universal.”―Elle

“Meno is the closest thing [Chicago’s] got to a literary ambassador.”―GQ

“What to make of Joe Meno, whose icepick-sharp books include many elements that might reasonably be described as quirky, but are rather heartfelt, beautifully written and vivid as a bad dream―or a very, very good one?”―Washington Post Express

About the Author

Joe Meno is the author of four previous novels, and his short fiction has been published by the likes of McSweeney's, Witness and TriQuarterly. He is a professor of creative writing at Columbia College Chicago.

About this edition

• Publisher: Picador
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 033051248X
• ISBN 13: 9780330512480
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 416