The Great Perhaps: A Novel - Hardcover

Meno, Joe

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0393067963 ISBN 13: 9780393067965

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 2009

Synopsis

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

The sky is falling for the Caspers, a family of cowards: for Jonathan, a paleontologist, searching in vain for a prehistoric giant squid; for his wife, Madeline, an animal behaviorist with a failing experiment; for their daughter, Amelia, a disappointed teenage revolutionary; for her younger sister, Thisbe, on a frustrated search for God; and for grandfather Henry, who wants to disappear, limiting himself to eleven words a day, then ten, then nine... 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. 4 drawings

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:

Winner of a Nelson Algren Award, a Pushcart Prize, and a finalist for the 2008 Story Prize, Joe Meno has written two short story collections and four novels, including Hairstyles of the Damned and The Great Perhaps. He teaches creative writing at Columbia College in Chicago.

About this edition

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0393067963
• ISBN 13: 9780393067965
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 414