Joe Meno's characters are dying. Or else they're heartbroken, or they're lonely, or dangerously disturbed. This is perhaps an overgeneralization, but Demons in the Spring has an aura of sadness and despair about it unlike any novel or collection of stories I've ever read.
The collection begins with a whimper, not a bang. The first story, "Francis the Ghost," is about a broken family - a father away at war, a self-medicated mother, and a neglected infant, and Francis, a small girl who only finds solace in wearing a sheet over her head. Francis gets stung by bees.
"Stockholm 1973" follows with the tale of Jan Olsson,a small-time Swedish crook, and a bungled bank robbery. I particularly felt the potential of this story when Jan, upon taking hostages, ludicrously demands that his best friend, Clark Olofsson, be brought to the bank. A brief and absurd drama unfolds as Meno lays out how he imagines the derivation of the "Stockholm Syndrome" phenomenon.
The collection begins with a whimper, not a bang. The first story, "Francis the Ghost," is about a broken family - a father away at war, a self-medicated mother, and a neglected infant, and Francis, a small girl who only finds solace in wearing a sheet over her head. Francis gets stung by bees.
"Stockholm 1973" follows with the tale of Jan Olsson,a small-time Swedish crook, and a bungled bank robbery. I particularly felt the potential of this story when Jan, upon taking hostages, ludicrously demands that his best friend, Clark Olofsson, be brought to the bank. A brief and absurd drama unfolds as Meno lays out how he imagines the derivation of the "Stockholm Syndrome" phenomenon.
It's not until I reach "An Apple Could Make You Laugh," that I begin to realize how intimately Meno draws his characters, how infectious his stories can be. "An Apple Could Make You Laugh" is the story of a frustrated office flirtation told to the woman involved from the man's point of view:
"...we only have ideas, you and I, about whether we should kiss or not. These ideas are both good and bad, probably. At work, we do not say these ideas out loud but make elaborate diagrams for one another using pink phone-message sheets. You write these words: Kissing you would be like this, and draw a picture of two butterflies being struck by lightning. You hand me the note over the gray cubicle wall. I stare at it and wonder if you may be right. I do my own drawing and write, Kissing you would be like this, and sketch a picture of a man made of ice kissing a woman who is actually a stove. We have made hundreds of these drawings."
"An Apple Could Make You Laugh" is sensual, heartbreaking. There is much heartbreak in Demons in the Spring. "Animals in the Zoo" begins with all of the zoo animals being released from their cages. It is a premise I love and one employed by The Flaming Lips in their song, "Christmas at the Zoo." Meno, of course, predicates this premise upon the actions of a broken-hearted character, and the mayhem that ensues when the animals hit the streets of town is also viewed through the eyes of loss.
"...we only have ideas, you and I, about whether we should kiss or not. These ideas are both good and bad, probably. At work, we do not say these ideas out loud but make elaborate diagrams for one another using pink phone-message sheets. You write these words: Kissing you would be like this, and draw a picture of two butterflies being struck by lightning. You hand me the note over the gray cubicle wall. I stare at it and wonder if you may be right. I do my own drawing and write, Kissing you would be like this, and sketch a picture of a man made of ice kissing a woman who is actually a stove. We have made hundreds of these drawings."
"An Apple Could Make You Laugh" is sensual, heartbreaking. There is much heartbreak in Demons in the Spring. "Animals in the Zoo" begins with all of the zoo animals being released from their cages. It is a premise I love and one employed by The Flaming Lips in their song, "Christmas at the Zoo." Meno, of course, predicates this premise upon the actions of a broken-hearted character, and the mayhem that ensues when the animals hit the streets of town is also viewed through the eyes of loss.
Even the sweet aspects of Joe Meno's stories are bitterly so, as in "People are Becoming Clouds," in which Eleanor turns into a cloud each time her loving husband kisses her.
"The Unabomber and My Brother," like many of these stories, is a tale of broken people. The narrator tells the story of his older brother, remarking on its parallels to that of the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski. The story is haunting - the image of a normal, happy family caught up in one member's transformation from a merely abusive sibling to a debilitatingly mentally ill individual. As with many of the stories in Demons in the Spring, the characters here are so intimately drawn that the reader is quickly entranced by them. Also, as with other stories in the collection, the ending is no ending at all. The reader is left with a sense that these characters' lives continue well beyond the page.
I was drawn to Meno's stories by his use of magical surrealism - a miniature city is found growing within a woman's chest, the only elephants left on the planet are the size of cats and kept as pets, a father is mysteriously transported to the moon. In Meno's hands such surreal elements become matter-of-fact, blended into the struggles of his characters. Rather than drawing attention to the surreal, the author uses the surreal to further enliven his characters, making them more real.
"The Unabomber and My Brother," like many of these stories, is a tale of broken people. The narrator tells the story of his older brother, remarking on its parallels to that of the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski. The story is haunting - the image of a normal, happy family caught up in one member's transformation from a merely abusive sibling to a debilitatingly mentally ill individual. As with many of the stories in Demons in the Spring, the characters here are so intimately drawn that the reader is quickly entranced by them. Also, as with other stories in the collection, the ending is no ending at all. The reader is left with a sense that these characters' lives continue well beyond the page.
I was drawn to Meno's stories by his use of magical surrealism - a miniature city is found growing within a woman's chest, the only elephants left on the planet are the size of cats and kept as pets, a father is mysteriously transported to the moon. In Meno's hands such surreal elements become matter-of-fact, blended into the struggles of his characters. Rather than drawing attention to the surreal, the author uses the surreal to further enliven his characters, making them more real.
This, I've decided, is the secret of Joe Meno's storytelling powers. Whether a story is infused with dreamlike and magically surreal elements or utterly realistic, as in the case of "Oceanland," about a marine park that is crumbling in the wake of family rivalries, the characters upon which these tales are built are, in a short span of time, made to be palpable, lively, and worth caring about. They persist in our thoughts after the covers have closed.
The collection is a mixed bag for sure, but the good in here is really good, as evidenced by Demons in the Spring having been nominated as a 2008 Story Prize finalist. Demons in the Spring is also a beautiful book, artfully packaged with each story receiving its own unique graphical element from top-tier illustrators, artists, and graphic designers, a facet that even further enlivens this inspired work.
The collection is a mixed bag for sure, but the good in here is really good, as evidenced by Demons in the Spring having been nominated as a 2008 Story Prize finalist. Demons in the Spring is also a beautiful book, artfully packaged with each story receiving its own unique graphical element from top-tier illustrators, artists, and graphic designers, a facet that even further enlivens this inspired work.
