Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

The Great Perhaps

3.58 of 5 stars 3.58 · rating details · 961 ratings · 159 reviews

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

Jonathan, a paleontologist, is searching in vain for a prehistoric giant squid; his wife, Madeline, an animal behaviorist, cannot explain her failing experiment; their daughter Amelia is a disappointed teenage revolutionary; her younger sister, Thisbe, is...more

Hardcover, 416 pages

Published May 11th 2009 by W. W. Norton & Company (first published 2009)

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

Beautiful Book Cover Design

18th out of 51 books — 30 voters

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith

Best Book Cover 2009

485th out of 568 books — 2,968 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 2,029)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Jan 13, 2009 Hannah Messler rated it 5 of 5 stars

Bef0re: I am quickly and immediately in love with this book. Oriana, you're next!

After: This is the best 0ne by this guy that I have read. I l0ve his f0ndness f0r the w0rd "small," I l0ve the way his characters seem like dearly-bel0ved d0lls in a careful, h0peful d0llh0use, I l0ve the little letters Henry writes t0 himself S0 much (I l0ved these t00 much, in fact--they are the 0nly pr0blem I had with the b00k--I wanted m0re with the little letters . . . ), and I l0ve that this is the kind 0f g00...more

6 likes · like · see review

Dec 27, 2008 Imogen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Yeah! I like Joe Meno a lot and I think it's nice that here he's taking a swing at the great American Novel. And- this is awesome- I sent an e-mail to his publisher as soon as I found out this was coming out, like Hey can my store have an advance reader copy please? And they were like, Well, there's no bound ARCs, but would you like this 300-pages-of-printer-paper manuscript I've got? So I got to read this thing in a big sheaf of 8 1/2 x 11s. I felt very, very cool.

And the book itself, for abou...more Yeah! I like Joe Meno a lot and I think it's nice that here he's taking a swing at the great American Novel. And- this is awesome- I sent an e-mail to his publisher as soon as I found out this was coming out, like Hey can my store have an advance reader copy please? And they were like, Well, there's no bound ARCs, but would you like this 300-pages-of-printer-paper manuscript I've got? So I got to read this thing in a big sheaf of 8 1/2 x 11s. I felt very, very cool.

And the book itself, for about 180 pages, I was like: hooray! Joe Meno perfected the McSweeney's short story in Demons in the Spring; he perfected New American Magical Realism in The Boy Detective Fails; he nailed the suburban punk fake memoir in Hairstyles of the Damned; and he has written a lot of other brilliant things, too, and now he has actually written the great american novel. Like, THE one. Capital letters.

But then this weird thing happens because this book is totally a multigenerational family epic, a history of fear, and a story about a ... is there a word for 'quirky' that doesn't connote 'annoying?' A story about a family that's that word.

But ultimately, I think, the reason Mr Meno's writing sings so loudly to me is that it's really light, it's transparent, it floats. And the words in this one are no different, it's just that the heavy subject matter kind of clashes with that feeling, you know? Or maybe... I mean, he has written brilliantly about some serious shit before, so maybe it's not the subject matter so much as the amount of stuff, the weight of the story itself, the weight of all the history he's writing about? I don't know, I mean, I was still super into it, and I was flying for hours and hours on a Christmas vacation so I was kind of grumpy while I was reading it, but something about a novel with this kind of scope being written so lightly felt off. Or something.

Still, it's brilliant. The family is real, and you love all of them, except the mom who's kind of just weird. The punk anarchist 16-year-old is my favorite; the world war 2 grandfather is maybe my least favorite. But whatever. I still recommend this one pretty hard and I'm excited to see it blow up all huge and be on Oprah's book list. (less)

3 likes · like · see review

Mar 04, 2009 oriana rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-2009, the-new-new-new-new-thing, i-liked-it-so-there

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. after: This is the first time I have ever wanted to do a half star. This book was totally awesome, see, but honestly it is kind of overshadowed by The Boy Detective Fails, which was obviously one of the all-time greatest books ever, not to mention Demons in the Spring, which was only incrementally less superb, and so The Great Perhaps is definitely not as good as all that. But I guess that really means that The Boy Detective and Demons should have gotten like six stars, and this one merely five....more

3 likes · like · see review

May 16, 2009 Jason Pettus rated it 3 of 5 stars

(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com:]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted here illegally.)

So before anything else, let's acknowledge that I have a complicated relationship with the work of Chicago wunderkind Joe Meno; I rather disliked his literary debut, for example, the popular punk-rock coming-of-age tale Hairstyles of the Damned (prompting not exactly hateful letters from his passiona...more

11 likes · like · see review

Sep 12, 2011 Becky Everhart rated it 5 of 5 stars

Reading this book was a way for me to see that so many of the braveries of my life could so easily be seen as cowardices. Still, this revelation came in a warm light with the knowledge that there is still time to change without becoming too much of a different person than what I have built upon for so long. The lessons and realizations of this book came so gently.

As for the book itself, I enjoyed it greatly, obviously. It was well-written. The characters were very much in the round and adaptive....more

2 likes · like · see review

Mar 26, 2013 Jen rated it 5 of 5 stars

I have to admit that knowing the author does make me like this book even more than I otherwise would. Reading this felt a bit like being home for me. It took me back to living in Chicago during the autumn of 2004, and my memories and experiences of that place and time certainly made the book more vivid for me. But even more than having been in the place and time he’s describing, the strength of Joe’s voice is what really makes reading his work feel personal. When I read something of his, it’s ne...more I have to admit that knowing the author does make me like this book even more than I otherwise would. Reading this felt a bit like being home for me. It took me back to living in Chicago during the autumn of 2004, and my memories and experiences of that place and time certainly made the book more vivid for me. But even more than having been in the place and time he’s describing, the strength of Joe’s voice is what really makes reading his work feel personal. When I read something of his, it’s nearly the same as talking with him: I hear the words on the page in his voice and see his expressions change as he tells the story. And anyone that knows Joe can attest to the fact that conversing with him or listening to him do a reading is unlike listening to anyone else.

But I can also definitely say I would’ve still really liked this book even if I didn’t happen to know Joe. Uncertainty and self-doubt are obviously feelings every person has dealt with, but Joe manages to explore them through every character in the book without the ways in which he does so overlapping from character to character. They each have their own anxieties, regrets, and attempts at redemption while still easily fitting together in one familial tapestry. Joe also employs a handful of ancestral time jumps that create the sense that this family has been doomed to cowardice and self-doubt forever, yet each one of them ultimately is individually responsible for their successes or failures. And while Joe may have begun writing the book to explore, in his words, “how the country could’ve made such a terrible mistake in re-electing Bush”, the political aspect of the novel doesn’t overshadow the characters because he treats the setting of October 2004 as the perfect backdrop for his story rather than treating the characters as the perfect way to anthropomorphize the setting. In the end, he manages to find a truth about humanity in general rather than simply answering his own question. Add to all this the dashes of magical realism in Madeline’s pursuit of a man-shaped cloud as it walks about the city and you’ve got a wonderfully unique novel that I highly recommend to anyone, even if you don’t happen to know Joe Meno.(less)

like · see review

Mar 26, 2013 Thurston Hunger rated it 3 of 5 stars

I believe the accent here falls on the Perhaps, not the Great.

Hmmm, read this after "The Boy Detective Fails" and similarities
flow strongly. Characters nearly paralyzed by their flaws, old
men in rest homes grappling with their end, clouds a plenty in
this one (and in TBDF there was a page of clouds created from
typesetting of that word).

There are various deviations from the cloud-fearing man's
family we first meet to reflect back upon previous generations
of Caspers. All of the Casper ghosts seem t...more

like · see review

Jan 20, 2013 Laura rated it 4 of 5 stars

Meno makes magic out of the mundane. Not just another intergenerational family drama, The Great Perhaps is set in Chicago during the weeks leading up to the 2004 presidential election. In this tragicomedic tale, we meet the Caspers: a family on the verge of dissolution composed of Jonathan (a university professor and researcher in pursuit of an elusive, giant squid), Madeline (an avian behaviorist disturbed by the sexual violence displayed by pigeons under her care), their children (sullen, seve...more

like · see review

Jul 14, 2012 Valerie rated it 5 of 5 stars

I absolutely loved this book! Perhaps it was the excessive alone time I had or the fact that I read it in Chicago, Illinois, but I found this book to be thoroughly entertaining and thought-provoking. A few things unique to "The Great Perhaps" that made it so awesome were the different symbols. Each character had some kind of symbol that constantly followed them. For Jonathan, the prehistoric squid represents that fear--his fear of everything--which consistently plagues him. For Madeline, I found...more I absolutely loved this book! Perhaps it was the excessive alone time I had or the fact that I read it in Chicago, Illinois, but I found this book to be thoroughly entertaining and thought-provoking. A few things unique to "The Great Perhaps" that made it so awesome were the different symbols. Each character had some kind of symbol that constantly followed them. For Jonathan, the prehistoric squid represents that fear--his fear of everything--which consistently plagues him. For Madeline, I found the cloud-figures to be a reflection of herself; like the sad cloud man, Madeline seems wandering in her life, confused with her own occupation and lost within her marriage. For Amelia, she's like her very own black beret: A beret encompasses a sophisticated feel or idea (like her Marxist beliefs), however, the beret is nonetheless a manufactured article of clothing. It will never be as original as it seems to be, also like Amelia who strongly desires to be perfect and powerful. For Thisbe, I think her religion is her symbol. Religion follows Thisbe everywhere: she uses it to guide her. Despite Thisbe's warped view on religion, she constantly judges herself based on its core fundamentals, often unfairly. And, for my beloved Henry, I choose the origami flower to represent him. Of course, I thought at first the plane would represent Harry (after all, his passion is flying and he has a history with that line of work), but no, I believe the delicate paper flower best encompasses his spirit. Henry is as delicate as the flower in every way, but just as beautiful. He loves unconditionally--at least, those who deserve his love--and, like the ancient flower, he has survived odd, and difficult, situations in his life that would utterly break anyone else. Of course, the whole "dysfunctional family" background demonstrated an interesting take on our world: is our world perfect? Is it possible for our world to be perfect? Or, have we gone so far and irrevocably impaired not only our society but Earth itself, so much to the point that it is impossible to fix our actions? Can anyone--or anything--be truly good? These are only a few questions this fantastic book prompts.(less)

like · see review

May 19, 2012 Lily rated it 5 of 5 stars

I started this book at 9 AM this morning. This means I read it in 8.5 hours, with occasional breaks to eat and do my job. This is not because it is an "easy read"--it is not light on pages or content. It's because this is just an amazing book. It's amazing in lots of ways, and probably different ways for every reader, but let me list my three favorites.

1) Experimental Style. This book is successfully experimental. It breaks with "normalcy" by writing in the present tense; by including illustrati...more

1 like · like · see review

Sep 13, 2011 Holly rated it 2 of 5 stars

"The Great Perhaps" is a novel that revolves, by chapter, around each member of the Casper family - Jonathan, the science professsor obsessed with the search for a giant squid, his wife, Madeline, whose confusion amidst her mid-life crisis rings through in every scene, Jonathan's father, Henry, and their two children, Thisbe and Amelia.

Jonathan is a professor whos rivalry with the French science team in the search for the great ellusive squid drives him to obsession. He was the most likeable, o...more "The Great Perhaps" is a novel that revolves, by chapter, around each member of the Casper family - Jonathan, the science professsor obsessed with the search for a giant squid, his wife, Madeline, whose confusion amidst her mid-life crisis rings through in every scene, Jonathan's father, Henry, and their two children, Thisbe and Amelia.

Jonathan is a professor whos rivalry with the French science team in the search for the great ellusive squid drives him to obsession. He was the most likeable, or at least the most acceptable character for me. His wife flutters between being irresponsible in her scientific career and the oddness of chasing down man-shaped clouds... and she always remains annoying. I couldn't stand her, and I couldn't figure her out. Is she insane? Amelia is an angry high school girl who does such outlandish things as devising pipe bombs and have sex with one of her professors. She was intriguing at first, but quickly became overdone. Her little sister, Thisbe, was a good character. She's a young girl who's experimenting internally with both sexuality and God. The grandfather seemed misplaced and frankly I did not enjoy reading about him.

All the characters are well-developed, but there are too many of them to be handled appropriately. Meno tries to tell you the tale of five characters, a chapter at a time. As we know, this means that when it comes to incidents overlapping in the plot, he has to wait until the following chapter to cover it with that character; so you're left going back and forth between what you've already read.

I would definitately NOT say this novel "conjures a story that delves deeply into the human heart," as one description I read had said. Honestly, there is nothing too deep here. I think there are too many unmoving characters for that and too much fluffy plot. I was really looking forward to this read, and I was able to get through the book without too much discomfort. After about the later half, though, I was getting very irritated with Meno's writing style. I felt that he let his own ego sneak into the writing, and this is a gross error for me, as a reader, to find. And the whole "cloud" theme was, come on ... way overdone. I know Meno was trying to perform some grand literary themes here with the issue of clouds appearing from generation to generation, but it rang cheap.

Overall, an entertaining and quick read, but not something I would pick up again, and only worth renting from the library.(less)

1 like · like · see review

Aug 17, 2009 Maren rated it 2 of 5 stars

This is one of those books that I picked up from the library on a whim merely because I've gotten to that desperate, "I haven't read a good book in a while" kind of a place and I'm just sort of grasping at straws. For better or worse, "The Great Perhaps" definitely filled that void but it did little more.

It's the story of a somewhat dysfunctional (but mostly normal) family in Chicago - two parents, both of whom are scientists and two daughters who are, of course, polar opposites yet dealing wit...more This is one of those books that I picked up from the library on a whim merely because I've gotten to that desperate, "I haven't read a good book in a while" kind of a place and I'm just sort of grasping at straws. For better or worse, "The Great Perhaps" definitely filled that void but it did little more.

It's the story of a somewhat dysfunctional (but mostly normal) family in Chicago - two parents, both of whom are scientists and two daughters who are, of course, polar opposites yet dealing with somewhat similar challenges. The book spends each chapter on a separate character's point of view (including forays into the childhood and current, debilitating state of the father's father and a couple of the family's ancestors).

I want to be able to write much more about the novel than what I already have but for some reason, it's difficult to say much about it. There's a neat-ness to the novel that's pleasant but also easily forgettable, as the author tries to represent this theme of ordinary yet astonishing. It's true that the characters' problems ARE fairly ordinary - the father is a forgetful academic, the mother is thwarted at her work, the youngest daughter struggles to find a spiritual core and the oldest daughter is a burgeoning anarchist. What the separate chapters and separate focuses serves to demonstrate is that they're a family entirely uninterested in each other; the few moments where they show any interest in each other are usually disappointments on one or both sides. Since each chapter jumps so much, it's hard to get interested in any one character (though I liked the youngest daughter's storyline the best, since it's the most original) and the author sometimes relies too much on easy sentimentality.

Ultimately, it killed the time I needed it to kill but I forced my way through the last several pages because I was interested more in finishing the book in order to break my curse of not being able to finish a book these days and not because I was actually interested in any of the characters. Ultimately, it was too 2 dimensional a portrayal of reality and what few chances he takes with more postmodern modes of storytelling felt undeserved. (less)

2 likes · like · see review

Jan 16, 2013 Brian rated it 3 of 5 stars

This was a quick read, and not an unenjoyable one either. The story of a modern family fighting against the little bits and pieces of life that seem pesterish at various points along the road of life was an engrossing read, if rather bland in the end. It underscores the idea that life is full of tough choices, even for those folks who seem mundane to others. Each character is presented in obvious, outward ways a bit selfish, but by the end of the novel it seems that the author is trying hard to...more

like · see review

Nov 25, 2009 Venessa rated it 4 of 5 stars

"Beneath all of her thoughts and worries, beneath the complication of conflicting identities and needs, maybe it's as simple as loving the way some other person looks when they're sleeping."

Would give it 4 and 1/2 if it existed; not quite a 5 because I'm not sure even Meno can live up to the brilliant high school angst and heartbreak that is one of my favorites: Hairstyles of the Damned!

Jonathan has a unique problem: he faints whenever he sees a cloud, or something in the shape of a cloud, or ev...more

1 like · like · see review

Jun 11, 2009 Pam rated it 4 of 5 stars

The members of the Casper family are pulling its existence apart at the seams. Running headlong in four vastly different directions, John, Madeline, Amelia and Thisbe each seem to embody one faction of American society in their own convoluted ways.
John, a paleontologist, is on a frenzied nautical life-mission to track down a prehistoric, giant squid. He faints at the sight of clouds of any form unless he has taken a pill. When we find him, both predicaments have worn thin on the three women in...more The members of the Casper family are pulling its existence apart at the seams. Running headlong in four vastly different directions, John, Madeline, Amelia and Thisbe each seem to embody one faction of American society in their own convoluted ways.
John, a paleontologist, is on a frenzied nautical life-mission to track down a prehistoric, giant squid. He faints at the sight of clouds of any form unless he has taken a pill. When we find him, both predicaments have worn thin on the three women in his life but neither one seem to be at any near point of conclusion.
Madeline, an animal behaviorist, is observing pigeons in captivity to track trends in power dynamics. She has committed the researcher sin of forging an attachment with several of the birds, making it emotionally devastating when they begin destroying each other in a murderous hierarchy. This tragedy compounds her disappointment with her failing marriage. Soon after the story starts, Madeline beings to see a man-shaped cloud, an entity she eventually leaves to pursue.
Their oldest daughter, Amelia, is a teenage anarchist intent on blowing up her school, which she finds to be the embodiment of corrupt politics, or the local, Starbucks or both. She continually lands herself in sticky situations with the school staff, such as publishing a school paper blast exposing their alleged labor atrocities involving the kitchen staff.
Their younger daughter, Thisbe has recently taken up the hobby of praying which she does from sun up to sun down at every turn in her day, much to the annoyance of her parents and sister who have deemed the practice of any religion antiquated. Her born-again, borderline xenophobic tendencies serve to confuse and exasperate her mother who believes that they are in direct relation to the problems in the parents’ relationship.
Henry, John’s father, is confined to a nursing home and is attempting to silence himself out of existence by limiting his words, dropping one word from the count every day. The institution warns his family that he has limited time left but the Caspers seem too disorganized to assemble any concrete sense of worry.
Meno has created a beautifully abstract yet hauntingly realistic look at the current state of the American family. His prose is simple and succinct but the overall dynamic of the book is complex enough that the larger effect is one of intricate, layered storytelling. The book is written moving forward in a tag team effort, alternating through the five family members in order. In this manner, we never see the same exact scene from two different views but we do have a sense of similar themes along the same timeline in different voices.
I will say this as a warning: I loved this book but I enjoy post-modern, experimental literature. I adore Pynchon and Vonnegut. Meno follows closely behind those two gentlemen. It is much more accessible than Pynchon while remaining more complex than a Vonnegut. If abstract wanderings and surrealist flashbacks are not your cup of tea than this will most likely hit a low note for you. If you are looking for a quick and readable, albeit dark and twisted mini-romp through the postmodern family, however, this is definitely a book for you.
(less)

1 like · like · see review

Apr 18, 2010 Anne rated it 4 of 5 stars

Oh my word! This is a difficult book to review, it is so unlike anything I have read before and I doubt that I would have even attempted it if I had not been sent a review copy from the publisher. I'm left wondering and pondering by the whole thing - I have greatly enjoyed reading it, but have to admit that some of the concept and ideals have passed me by.

On the face of it, this is a novel about a family, made up of Dad, Mum, two sisters and a Grandfather. To say this is one weird, wacky and uni...more

Oh my word! This is a difficult book to review, it is so unlike anything I have read before and I doubt that I would have even attempted it if I had not been sent a review copy from the publisher. I'm left wondering and pondering by the whole thing - I have greatly enjoyed reading it, but have to admit that some of the concept and ideals have passed me by.

On the face of it, this is a novel about a family, made up of Dad, Mum, two sisters and a Grandfather. To say this is one weird, wacky and unique family is putting it lightly! Each chapter (narrated in the third person) is devoted to a family member. This is a family who live together only - although closely related, and on the outside, fairly respectable - each member lives in their own little world that is rarely shared with their relatives.

Jonathan (Dad) is scared of clouds, he is obsessed with finding the Giant Squid and spends most of his time devoted to that. Madeline (my least favourite character) studies pigeons, wonders where her live is going, becomes obsessed with a cloud and leaves home regularly, only to return and start all over again. Amelia, the oldest daughter wants to revolutionise the USA - she hates capitalism, in that she hates everything and wants to make an impact. Thisbe, the youngest daughter wants to be loved, she wants to sing and prays constantly to a God that she doesnt understand, but prays for the most unusual things to happen. And then there is Henry - the grandfather, and my favourite character. Henry has regrets, his life is almost over and he spends most of his time thinking back over the events that have shaped him.

Henry's story and musings are wonderful, going back to him finding out about his Father's betrayal during the Second World War and his feelings about his own part in the Vietnam War. It is Henry that has shaped the whole family and in a way keeps it together.

I became totally engrossed the more I read, it's a sort of social commentary, set just before the 2004 Presidential Elections and uses humour and some pretty absurd situations to get across a human and social message.

Curious and complex and in the beginning, quite a tricky read, but some wonderful characters and fabulous writing.(less)

like · see review

May 22, 2011 Gretchen rated it 4 of 5 stars

I have kind of a meh/hate relationship with Joe Meno. As a Chicagoan, I want to love him. I do love Hairstyles of the Damned, but that might be because of sheer cussedness on my part (one of the main characters is named Gretchen and it's about punks growing up). I loathed The Boy Detective Fails, but now I can't remember why. Meno is not a very humanistic writer to me; I sometimes find it hard to identify with his characters, but I'm never sure if that's because they're relatable, but not writte...more

like · see review

Oct 03, 2012 René rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book left me unsettled for several reasons:
-I only connected with one character in the whole story and he wasn't even that big of a deal to the whole narrative
-I didn't even like one of the main characters, not even a little bit
-I get that sometimes characters are represented in an unwholesome fashion because that's who they are, but there is no need to dedicate several pages to describing a sexual act(s)
-I felt like the author was trying to preach some kind of message, but could never...more

like · see review

Jul 06, 2009 Michael Hartford added it

Joe Meno’s The Great Perhaps is an inventive, startling novel that is equally comic and affecting. It tells the story of Jonathan Casper’s family in dissolution: his daughters Thisbe and Amelia in their struggles with adolescent sex and politics and ambition; his wife Madeline equally troubled by her research into the social behavior of pigeons and her marriage to a neurotic and unhappy man; his father Henry’s haunting by his memories of a World War II interment camp and his work designing war p...more

like · see review

Jul 05, 2011 Kaycie Hall rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The first half of this book was slow for me--maybe I had a hard time caring about the characters. Oh, another dysfunctional American family story. But, somewhere in the second half, I started to care, and yes, it is another dysfunctional American family story, but I liked it.

I think the turning point may have been one of Henry Casper's (the grandfather) chapters that delved into his past as the son of a German immigrant during WW2. Meno wrote it in such a way that I didn't want to put the book...more

like · see review

Oct 05, 2009 Allie rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was my first Joe Meno. He's always been on my list of "Authors I'm sure I'll like, but haven't gotten around to reading yet". The chapters alternate points of view of one family--grandfather, father, mother, and two daughters. Old man flashbacks are included. When I realized what he was doing with the alternating I assumed it would be frustrating because I didn't think there was anyway to do it thoroughly. Plus I was on loads of percocet, so I worried about following everything. Somehow he...more

1 like · like · see review

Jul 08, 2009 Scott rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: adult-books, first-half-of-2009, summer-reading-2009, older-teens, strange

I imagine those people who don't like this book, or maybe don't like Joe Meno, aren't fans of Wes Anderson either. I suppose that isn't exactly fair to Meno. He doesn't dance around in a quirky but very real alternate reality. His characters are kind of quirky, one is afraid of clouds; one is trying to erase himself by speaking one fewer word a day. But he doesn't use his quirky characters for a mad-cap, laugh-a-minute riot. His quirks instead somehow heighten the flaws and the sadness in them....more

1 like · like · see review

May 14, 2012 Dragon Queen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: addictions, coming-of-age, holocaust, mental-health, lgbt, music, religion, war

Aside from Henry's point of views, the story was great. I was not at all interested in the capturing of the German's for some reason. I understand the story there is a lot of underlining symbolism throughout the book. It proves that religion, family, and faith is what it takes to keep a family together. If one were to subtract religion, they could still keep a family together obviously.

It proves that one needs strength and a deep love for themselves to make it through life and to understand oth...more

like · see review

Jun 19, 2009 Kasa Cotugno rated it 4 of 5 stars

3 1/2 stars, not quite a 4.

Oddly enough, this book reminded me very much of the movie "The Squid and the Whale" a few years back, so I actually envisioned Jeff Daniels playing the lead character. That movie's title engendered quite a bit of comment since there was neither a squid nor a whale, and it was unclear just who was what. There are squid aplenty and a few whales in this tale of a family suffering a collective meltdown. I found the structure was quite inflexible, alternating chapters fea...more

1 like · like · see review

Jan 17, 2010 Holly Lee (Bellas Novella) rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2009, amazon-vine

I cannot say enough good things about this book. The author Joe Meno is a creative writing Professor at Columbia College in Chicago, and his passion for the art shines in this novel. I would even say that it would be a good Pulitzer Prize contender.

The story is engaging from start to finish. It revolves around one family, each involved in their own complex lives, and ignoring their family ties. As their seemingly unachievable goals come crashing down around them, they all hit rock bottom and hav...more

like · see review

May 01, 2012 Jared rated it 1 of 5 stars

I love Joe Meno, and honestly think he is one of the best in fiction right now, but this book was awful. It feels instantly dated, but worse, it's derivative. It reads like bad a Wes Anderson movie (aren't they all though?).

1 like · like · see review

Oct 13, 2009 Susan rated it 3 of 5 stars

Set in Chicago around the time of the 2004 presidential election, this is the story of 5 individuals within a family. The nursing home-bound grandfather, the academic parents and the 2 high school aged daughters all have quirky personalities but are experiencing ordinary life challenges in a way only slightly exaggerated from what one might call "normal." The relationships among and between the family members are explored. There are some interesting historical sections, recounting experiences du...more

like · see review

Jan 01, 2009 Mickey rated it 5 of 5 stars

Like Hank Williams, Joe Meno knows that there is no greater adventure than gripping books. Since Meno literally created The Great Perhaps, numerous fans have witnessed the book's process of reinventing itself. More naive fans and freewheeling spirits are trying to design the sculpted Joe Meno, the progenitor of numerous masterworks. Photographs capture Meno trying on pioneer outfits.

In The Great Perhaps, a professor is the author of numerous articles. A hillbilly captures the very bedrock of po...more

like · see review

Oct 31, 2011 Twan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I picked this up due to the cover art and really enjoyed it. About a family, the dad studies, or tries to study giant squids and passes out when he sees a cloud or a picture of one, the mother studies pigeons that are being raped and mutilated. The eldest daughter thinks she is some sort of modern day Patty Hearst while the younger daughter has decided that she wants to find god. The grandfather has decided to limit his vocabulary by one word a day starting with 11. One of those book where not a...more

like · see review

May 28, 2010 Matt rated it 4 of 5 stars

One of these days I'll set up an alert on Amazon to let me know whenever Meno has a new book, I enjoy his work so much. But for now, it remains happenstance, with an added air of his books being like aspirin in the medicine cabinet: take one when nothing else seems to work.

This is, I think, the latest book, which mostly matters because it comes after _Boy Detective Fails_, which I think is kind of a breakthru book in terms of defining what kind of writer Meno is, where he really becomes distinct...more One of these days I'll set up an alert on Amazon to let me know whenever Meno has a new book, I enjoy his work so much. But for now, it remains happenstance, with an added air of his books being like aspirin in the medicine cabinet: take one when nothing else seems to work.

This is, I think, the latest book, which mostly matters because it comes after _Boy Detective Fails_, which I think is kind of a breakthru book in terms of defining what kind of writer Meno is, where he really becomes distinct from other writers who are like him, and also where his thematic preoccupations become more visible. And I do think this book is a continuation on that same path; maybe it's mildly a retrenchment, but I think it's at least in the same vein, even if it's not quite as reliant on self-awareness as BDF. It's got a more realistic core, though that's troubled here, too.

I'd characterize Meno's style or approach as characterized by a certain arbitrariness; here, that manifests in the choice of MacGuffins-- there's something slightly over the top about the way each character has one thing that haunts them (a notion that is reinforced, hammer-to-the-kneecap style by the painfully unsubtle cover art). So one character is obsessed with giant squid, one with pigeons, one by god (strangely unrepresented on the cover, btw), and etc. It's not that this is, in and of itself strange, but what is maybe notable is how nakedly Meno doesn't try to conceal the constructedness of these character's relation to their macguffin or fetish-- it's just there, for no real reason, seams wildly visible to draw attention to the status of the book as constructed-- it's true, there's a certain metaphorical valence, especially to the squid, but it's worth noting that the narrator's realtionship to that squid is unresolved at the end of the book-- he's still hunting it, and still mostly obsessed with it. Narrative resolution, in other words, has nothing to do with these items; instead, they are just there, as icons or avatars or what have, highlighting the simplicity of other elements of representation in this novel.

Thematically, this book is, I think, interested in understanding why Bush got elected to a second term. Or maybe that's an arbitrary historical marker, a way to dramatize the way this novel valorizes cowardice-- it's a chicken-egg thing, at least as I'm thinking about it now. Either it explains Bush, or Bush is a sympton of the novel's thematics. Either way, it's weird, but this novel does make a lot of interesting comments about the state and direction of human culture, that we've evolved away from being active, that we are, more often than not, better to take flight than to fight. The fact that the novel, and the novelist, seems to concerned but unresolved about this conclusion, made it a particularly rich and captivating experience to read the book-- I'm not sure what Meno is saying, or that I need that telegram from the writer. But I thought that the theme was worked through, was clearly developed; this is a book about something, and more than that, about something I care about. That's not a given.

There were some elements that I feel like were unresolved for me, though, things I'd like to have seen a little more of-- we spend a lot of time with the dying grandfather, and then he dies off camera, an event that is sort of rushed past... I'm not really sure how his story resolved itself, honestly. And as a character with a really compelling story, I felt like I needed that thread to close somewhat more conclusively, not just as an adjunct to the scientist character's story. I feel like that's a problem that affects other parts of the story, too-- Thisbe's story is for sure still up in the air, too, for example, though I think her story, at least thematically, is more resolved through the re-election of Bush. I'm not asking for every stitch to be pulled tight, and I like a certain amount of openness. But I think there's more to the story of the dad/ grandfather, and so far I don't know what it is.

Really, though, a great book by a writer I admire and really enjoy. Idiosyncratic, but not in a way that's off-putting. (less)

like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 67 68 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
A fun read, but disappointing after his other works	3	12	Oct 16, 2012 10:02pm
What's The Name o...: Biologist's husband passes out when he sees clouds. Family falls apart [s]	3	35	Jul 01, 2012 04:47pm

combine
Other Editions (6)

More editions...

Genres

Family

5 users

Adult Fiction

4 users

Book Club

3 users

Religion

3 users

Novels

3 users

Adult

2 users

Glbt > Queer

2 users

See top shelves...

Readers also enjoyed similar books

About Joe Meno

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

More about Joe Meno...

Books by Joe Meno

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About The Great Perhaps

No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »

Quotes from The Great Perhaps

“Beneath all of her thoughts and worries, beneath the complication of conflicting identities and needs, maybe it's as simple as loving the way some other person looks when they're sleeping.” — 22 people liked it

“When she cries, it is quiet, tearless, almost completely imperceptible: one more unheard prayer.” — 9 people liked it

More quotes…

title link	preview: The Great Perhaps
avg rating	preview: The Great Perhaps Goodreads rating: 3.58 (961 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5231962-the-great-perhaps?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1295360582l/5231962.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5231962-the-great-perhaps?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]The Great Perhaps by Joe Meno[/url]

The Great Perhaps

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website