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46th out of 63 books
—
26 voters
How the Hula Girl Sings
by
Joe Meno
A young ex-con in a small Illinois town. A lonely giant with a haunted past. A beautiful girl with a troubled heart. Strange and darkly magical, How the Hula Girl Sings begins exactly where most pulp fiction usually ends, with the vivid episode of the terrible crime itself. Three years later, Luce Lemay, out on parole for the awful tragedy, does his best to finds hope: in...more
Paperback, 209 pages
Published
September 1st 2005
by Akashic Books
(first published 2001)
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If you've never read a Joe Meno book, I suggest you go out and buy one right now. I would suggest starting with Hairstyles of the Damned, which is what got me started and is also one of my favorite books. It's different from the rest of his work, for sure, but wonderful. I've found each and every one of his books that I've read since to be great, quirky, weird, and somehow heartbreaking.
This is the story of Luce Lemay who is an ex-con returning to his hometown after a three year stay in prison....more
This is the story of Luce Lemay who is an ex-con returning to his hometown after a three year stay in prison....more
I did not enjoy this book.
Joe Meno's massive repertoire of tics was incredibly distracting, to the point where I couldn't focus on the story. The book is in the first person, so you could, theoretically, pass the tics off as the the character's "voice". But I had the same experience reading The Boy Detective Fails, so I suspect the issues are Meno's, not Luce Lemay's (the narrator/protagonist).
Allow me to nitpick:
First, there are the unnecessary, cliched adjectives. ("Her hair was so curly and...more
Joe Meno's massive repertoire of tics was incredibly distracting, to the point where I couldn't focus on the story. The book is in the first person, so you could, theoretically, pass the tics off as the the character's "voice". But I had the same experience reading The Boy Detective Fails, so I suspect the issues are Meno's, not Luce Lemay's (the narrator/protagonist).
Allow me to nitpick:
First, there are the unnecessary, cliched adjectives. ("Her hair was so curly and...more
I liked this book, but I didn't love it. I decided to read it because I read Hairstyles of the Damned and loved it, but HTHGS was very different. I'm not sure if I didn't enjoy it as much because it wasn't what I expected or if I just wasn't that into the story. Maybe a little bit of both. There are nice things about - the descriptions are generally vivid but I did at times find the writing full of cliches. It almost felt like it needed another round of editing in places where the descriptions f...more
A good book, not a great one. It's a quick read, less than 200 pages. At first it has a tender, meditative quality, where we kind of grow to feel for the narrator, who is mild and somewhat reformed ex-con. He falls in love, and the relationship didn't move me one way or another. Near the end the action picks up, giving this novel a semblance of plot. The writing is plain, I imagine because the narrator is kind of a plain, slow dude. What saves this and ultimately makes it a pretty good book is t...more
Mneh.
There is only one part of this book that stood out for me and it wouldn't have stood out if I had teeth.
"No dainty gloom could make a body feel more lonesome than missing a tooth. It made me feel improper to smile. Losing that molar over a girl who wouldn't even spare me a kiss made me feel like the imperial king of all fools."
Nothing else really stood out, except some adorable southern slang, which might just be all the True Blood talking.
There is only one part of this book that stood out for me and it wouldn't have stood out if I had teeth.
"No dainty gloom could make a body feel more lonesome than missing a tooth. It made me feel improper to smile. Losing that molar over a girl who wouldn't even spare me a kiss made me feel like the imperial king of all fools."
Nothing else really stood out, except some adorable southern slang, which might just be all the True Blood talking.
A good book, kept me entertained while stuck in a small room for days with nothing to do. I learned to not be as judge mental to the ex cons. People make mistakes, or don't at all but get caught up in it. Its a tragedy really. There's a very realistic love story during it all. I can very much relate to! I know i'll end up reading this book again!
Joe Meno's second novel - I read it while taking his fiction class at Columbia College. At this time he hadn't yet wrote Haristyles of the damned and was probably much more accessable. That doesn't make it a good book. I know he went over it for republication, and changed the cover, because he was having issues with his first publisher, but I read the first edition. The cover is blue with a hula girl on it and had nothing to do with the story. The book is similar to Tender as Hellfire, in that i...more
I love this book with every ounce of my being. The minute I opened it and started reading I fell in love with the story, and the characters. How The Hula Girl Sings is one of those books that you never want to be over. It sucks you in, and you'll never ever want to put it down. I might have to read it again.
I got this for Xmas and after reading Hairstyles of the Damned, I figured I'd binge on another Meno book. It was better than Hairstyles. It has a sort of neo-noir feel that I can imagine would make a good Coen brother's style film. A quick read but not overwhelmingly fabulous.
I really want to love Joe Meno. He is considered the Punk Rock Writer and he has amazing titles and covers for his novels, but I did not get the book. It had moments, and I was interested in it off and on but eventually it was a pretty boring book with a pretty boring ending.
Fail
Fail
While the story's plot unfolds in the parts of the country most of us pass through without much thought (the gas sations, the all-night diners) its essence meditates on the hope and longing from the most often unreckognized and unacknowledged parts of our souls.
Joe Meno is a writer I recommend. This was a good book, although it could have used some editing (for example I think the entire chapter entitled "Stange Customer" could have been left out).
Nevertheless, I like this book and still think Joe Meno great characters.
Nevertheless, I like this book and still think Joe Meno great characters.
This was just one of those books that is an easy quick read-decent story, writing, and characters, but is also easy to forget. I like Joe Meno's writing, but you can tell this is one of his earlier books.
I read this book when I was supposed to be reading some other books. I wanted to like this book, because I really enjoyed The Boy Detective Fails. I spent a lot of time in the bookstore trying to decide whether to buy this one or Hairstyles of the Damned, settling on this one on the strength of the first 50 pages. In the end, though, it just reminded me of every other penitent-soul-returns-to-the-Midwest story I've read or seen.
Though the narration was kind of average, there was a kind of mournf...more
Though the narration was kind of average, there was a kind of mournf...more
Numero four! I really loved this book it is full of things you know aren’t right in your real world life but in this book fits together like a perfect puzzle!
Let me begin by saying I love Hairstyles of the Damned and The Boy Detective Fails. Joe Meno's writing style works so well on thse novels, I think, because he has something very definite to say. I have no idea what he was saying with How the Hula Girl Sings.
Maybe I'm too dumb to catch Meno's oh-so subtle hints. All I know is one minute Luce has to stay and make a stand-- like his very manhood depends on it. Then suddenly (after yet another meaningless and seemingly random incident) it's not such...more
Maybe I'm too dumb to catch Meno's oh-so subtle hints. All I know is one minute Luce has to stay and make a stand-- like his very manhood depends on it. Then suddenly (after yet another meaningless and seemingly random incident) it's not such...more
I really liked this book, didn't love it. Kind of depressing, but also kind of uplifting. I don't know, you tell me.
Very noir. Parts freaked me out and made me cringe. But I kept reading for the occasional gorgeous sentence.
A funny, bleak look at how two ex-cons make it on the outside -- or don't -- as they realize that their crimes will never be forgiven.
What a devastating, wonderful, lovely book. Why is Joe Meno so sad?
Bird killed by getting hammered to a wall = I stop reading. The writing was good.
I enjoyed this book very much.
It did some things to my heart
Jul 07, 2010
Laura Stewart
added it
Short and bittersweet.
I read this one pretty fast but I liked it just the same, I will probably read it again someday. I wanted to get into another Joe Meno book after reading "The Boy Detective Fails" and was not disappointed at all by "How the Hula Girls Sings". Although the events that happen and the kind of world it takes place in is so far off from anything I've experienced, it was difficult for me not to relate to some of the situations and feelings Meno's characters had gone through.
i love meno's writing style. this was a great story about an ex-con trying to find redemption, but it didn't smack you over the head with morality stuff. the love story is bittersweet, the imagery is simple and beautiful. the overall premise is perhaps part of an overdone genre, but meno manages to freshen it up a bit. looking forward to reading more of his work.
Does not compare with his later story collections (first novel I believe).
The pace of this story felt really static. While there were some beautiful/funny/clever lines, there weren't nearly enough to get me through the whole thing. Meno's other work is better.
LOVED.
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Joe Meno is a fiction writer and playwright that lives in Chicago. A winner of the Nelson Algren Literary Award and the Society of Midland Author's Fiction Prize, he is the author of four novels, The Boy Detective Fails (Akashic 2006), Hairstyles of the Damned (Akashic 2004), Tender as Hellfire (St. Martin's 1999), and How the Hula Girl Sings (HarperCollins 2001). His short story collection is Blu...more
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“Maybe that's why people have friends at all. Not because they like them so much but because they don't make them feel so much worse.”
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16 people liked it
“Go to a goddamn priest if you wanna be lied to. I've seen too many of your kind slip back inside to fool myself. If you wanna think you're a new man, hell, that's fine. But don't think you're looking any different in anyone else's mind.”
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1 person liked it
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Nov 09, 2009 06:55am