by Joe Meno
“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.
The Boy Detective Fails is part of our Punk Planet Books imprint, which originates from Punk Planet magazine.
The Boy Detective Fails is available in 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.
Hairstyles of the Damned
Hairstyles of the Damned a selection of the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers program (Nov. 2004-Jan. 2005 season).
"This book is hella good. Joe Meno manages to sink into the teenage-outcast experience, challenge segregation, and provide step-by-step instructions on dyeing hair pink in this realistic account of finding your identity. After reading Hairstyles of the Damned, I'm glad I'm not in high school anymore." —Amy Schroeder, Venus magazine
"Hairstyles of the Damned is observational comedy of the best kind, each glittering small detail offering up a wave of memories for anyone alive in the latter part of the previous century. Did you imagine you had forgotten the smell of arcades, the allure of muscle cars, the dress codes and emotional rebellions, the cringing horror of adolescence? Beware: Joe Meno can make you remember." —Bee Lavender, HipMama magazine
"Joe Meno knows Chicago's south side the way Jane Goodall knew chimps and apes— which is to say, he really knows it. He also knows about the early '90s, punk rock, and awkward adolescence. Best of all, he knows the value of entertainment. Hairstyles of the Damned is proof positive." —John McNally, author of The Book of Ralph
"Joe Meno writes with the energy, honesty, and emotional impact of the best punk rock. From the opening sentence to the very last word, Hairstyles of the Damned held me in his grip." —Jim DeRogatis, pop music critic, Chicago Sun-Times
Hairstyles of the Damned is an honest, true-life depiction of growing up punk on Chicago's south side: a study in the demons of racial intolerance, Catholic school conformism, and class repression. It is the story of the riotous exploits of Brian, a high school burnout, and his best friend, Gretchen, a punk rock girl fond of brawling. Based on the actual events surrounding a Chicago high school's segregated prom, this work of fiction unflinchingly pursues the truth in discovering what it means to be your own person.
Hairstyles of the Damned is the debut novel on our Punk Planet Books imprint, which originates from Punk Planet magazine.
Hairstyles of the Damned is available in 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.
Tender as Hellfire
"Extremely vivid . . . Any number of novels have been written about unhappy childhoods and bizarre families, but this one surpasses many." —Kirkus Reviews
"The power is in the writing. Mr. Meno is a superb craftsman." —Hubert Selby, Jr.
Long before he established himself as an indie-publishing sensation with his hit novels Hairstyles of the Damned and The Boy Detective Fails, Joe Meno brought out his debut novel, Tender As Hellfire, with St. Martin's Press. Here, with a re-edited paperback edition, Meno limns a near-fantastical world of trailer park floozies, broken-down '76 Impalas, lost glass eyes, and the daily experiences of two boys trying to make sense of their random, sharp lives.
Dough and Pill are brothers bound by more than blood. The anguish of their past, the terror of their present, and the uncertainty of their future all underscore the only truth that is within their grasp: each other. For beneath the cruel surface of their trailer park community lies a menagerie of odd characters, each one strange yet somehow beautiful. Surrounded by the strange and displaced, Dough and Pill must navigate through a world of constant pain and confusion.
Finding beauty in unexpected places and maintaining a reverence for hard-won scars, these two brothers learn, finally, that even broken things can be perfect.
Tender as Hellfire is available in paperback and e-book editions. Our printed books are available from our website and in online and brick & mortar bookstores everywhere. Digital editions of Tender as Hellfire can be purchased from Amazon, Barnes & Noble's Nook Books, the Sony eReader Store, the Kobo Store, Google Play, on iTunes, and on the websites of independent booksellers everywhere.
JOE MENO is a fiction writer and playwright who lives in Chicago. He is the winner of the Nelson Algren Literary Award, a Pushcart Prize, the Great Lakes Book Award, and a finalist for the Story Prize. He is the editor of Chicago Noir: The Classics and the author of two short story collections and multiple novels including the best sellers Hairstyles of the Damned and The
Boy Detective Fails; Office Girl; and his latest novel, Marvel and a Wonder. He is a professor in the Department of Creative Writing at Columbia College Chicago.
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Akashic Books is an award-winning independent company dedicated to publishing urban literary fiction and political nonfiction by authors who are either ignored by the mainstream, or who have no interest in working within the ever-consolidating ranks of the major corporate publishers. Akashic Books hosts additional imprints, including the Black Sheep for Young Readers, the Akashic Noir Series, the Akashic Drug Chronicles Series, the Akashic Urban Surreal Series, Infamous Books (curated by Albert "Prodigy" Johnson of Mob Deep, Kaylie Jones Books (curated by Kaylie Jones), the Edge of Sports (curated by David Zirin), Punk Planet Books, Dennis Cooper's Little House on the Bowery Series, Open Lens, Chris Abani's Black Goat Poetry Series, and AkashiClassics: Renegade Reprint Series.
Our books are available from our website and at online and brick & mortar bookstores everywhere.
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