Marvel and a Wonder

July 13, 2015
The latest by Meno (Office Girl) is a compelling mash-up of magic and the absurd with the grittiness of a world inhabited by punks, thieves, and losers, as a grandfather and his grandson take a road trip through 1990s rural America in search of their stolen horse. The novel opens with the ne’er-do-well daughter of Jim Falls, a Korean War veteran, abandoning him and her 16-year-old son, Quentin, and breaking their hearts. As Falls struggles to raise his grandson on his rural Indiana farm in devastating poverty, while battling his personal demons, he receives a mysterious gift: a pure white quarter horse that immediately gives Jim and Quentin hope for the future. The horse attracts the attention of two troubled meth-dealing brothers, who steal the animal in a violent altercation, only to lose the animal to an even more vicious criminal. As Jim and Quentin drive through a desolate landscape of small-town America in pursuit of their stolen horse, scenes of the two alternate with scenes of the criminals they’re pursuing. This is a provocative reflection on the lives of the disenfranchised in the waning days of the 20th century, with a bittersweet resolution that will resonate with readers.

Starred review from September 15, 2015

In 1995, the fading farm town of Mount Holly, IN, has an air of mourning. Shops are empty and factory farms have muscled out people like Jim Falls, a struggling chicken farmer. A Korean War veteran with old-age ailments, he fights to survive each day while raising his biracial teenage grandson Quentin. With an off-putting weirdness, Quentin hides the pain of his absent drug-addicted mother by playing video games, sniffing glue, and raising exotic pets. A miraculous second chance arrives when a white mare is delivered in a shiny silver trailer by a man who hands Jim the papers of ownership but won't say from whom the horse is delivered. Jim knows very little about horses, but he does know that racing the animal will improve their lives. Quentin has already come out of his shell to care for the creature. Jim's hopes are dashed when two local meth dealers steal the horse to sell. Guided by the spirit of his dead wife and calling on a waning inner strength, Jim sets off with his grandson on an unforgettable adventure to reclaim the horse. VERDICT Talented Meno has penned a wise and touching novel (after Office Girl) of love, loyalty, courage; an extraordinary book not to be missed.--Donna Bettencourt, Mesa Cty. P.L., Palisade, CO

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from September 15, 2015
Meno writes fiction of high-wire imagination and incisive compassion. In Office Girl (2012), The Great Perhaps (2009), and other works, he mines pop culture, art, and science in fabulist yet lacerating urban stories. In his seventh novel, a tale of gripping intensity, Meno cycles back to the rural midwestern destitution he explored in his first two books. Abandoned by his drug-addicted single mother, Quentin, a mixed-race teen avid about video games and reptiles, is spending the summer of 1995 with Jim, his wary grandfather, a widower, Korean War vet, and struggling Indiana farmer. One day an actual gift horse is inexplicably delivered in a silver trailer, a living treasure that will either be their salvation or get them killed. When two ineptly criminal brothers, one a violent meth-head, steal the magnificent white steed, they jump-start a reckless cross-country chase across a blighted landscape, catalyzing an escalating series of berserk confrontations, beatings, stabbings, and shootings. Narrating with piercing empathy in the indelible voices of his characters, Meno parallels the frantic search for the racehorse, an embodiment of nature's pure glory, with the complicated troubles of a coltish young woman on the run. Evoking William Faulkner and Cormac McCarthy, Meno's suspenseful, mordantly incisive, many-layered tale can also be read as an equine Moby-Dick. As he tracks the bewildering seismic shifts under way in America, Meno celebrates everyday marvels, including the hard-proven love between grandfather and grandson.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)