Marvel and a wonder / Joe Meno.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

--Long-listed for the American Library Association's 2016 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction.



"Meno makes the most banal prose--grunts and salutations, small talk over meals--compelling and necessary . . . [He] has a knack for giving small happenings emotional weight . . . Meno knows how to make you love his characters, want what they want. But don't think he's going to let things turn out well for them. Marvels and wonders aren't worth the trouble. Fortunately, this book is." --New York Times Book Review



"[A] rugged page-turner . . . There's a bit of the country noir of Daniel Woodrell's Winter's Bone in the stark atmosphere Mr. Meno evokes ('A faded town, fading, harried with dusty light, midafternoon'), and a bit of the Clint Eastwood movie Gran Torino in the story of the vigilante grandfather. But the writing is propulsive enough to make you forget its influences. And at moments the book's consuming darkness is lifted by potent, if inscrutable visions of the talismanic horse--a flash of lightning curving along the horizon." --Wall Street Journal

Marvel and a Wonder is a darkly mesmerizing epic and literary page-turner set at the end of the twentieth century. In summer 1995, Jim Falls, a Korean War vet, struggles to raise his sixteen-year-old grandson, Quentin, on a farm in southern Indiana. In July, they receive a mysterious gift--a beautiful quarter horse--which upends the balance of their difficult lives. The horse's appearance catches the attention of a pair of troubled, meth-dealing brothers and, after a violent altercation, the horse is stolen and sold. Grandfather and grandson must travel the landscape of the bleak heartland to reclaim the animal and to confront the ruthless party that has taken possession of it. Along the way, both will be forced to face the misperceptions and tragedies of their past.



Evoking the writing of William Faulkner and Denis Johnson, this brilliant, deeply moving work explores the harrowing, often beautiful marvels of a nation challenged by its own beliefs. Ambitious, expansive, and laden with suspense, Marvel and a Wonder presents an unforgettable pair of protagonists at the beginning of one America and the end of another.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

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 Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

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. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Booklist Review

*Starred Review* 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.--Seaman, Donna Copyright 2015 Booklist

Kirkus Book Review

The mysterious gift of a snowy white quarter horse upends the rural existence of a family in Indiana. Postmodernist Meno (Office Girl, 2012, etc.) changes things up dramatically with this ambitious attempt to reinvent the Faulkner-ian epic for the contemporary age. Where much of the author's previous work has been based around twee tales of young adulthood and familial drama, here he draws on the grave themes and austere styles of writers like Cormac McCarthy and Daniel Woodrell to offer a mix of biblical allegories, tinder-dry prose, and noble characters trying to survive in a wretched world. The main character is Jim Falls, an aged Korean War vet who lives on a farm in southern Indiana. His daughter, Deirdre, is a drug-addicted mess who splits on her son, 16-year-old Quentin, whose care falls to Jim by default. One summer day a surprise delivery arrives in the form of a stunning quarter horse as the result of a legal error. Just as grandfather and grandson are gaining hope they might get to keep the magnificent animal, it's stolen by two meth-dealing brothers. The brothers intend to sell the horse in Kentucky, so Jim and his grandson chase them across the great American landscape of dive bars, truck stops, strip clubs, and Winn-Dixie shops, all presented in panoramic vistas. Eventually, Meno introduces a proper villain in Rick West, a sexually abusive grifter who eyes the horse as his prize. The novel's prose is marvelous in its spare, convincing grit while the story's themes of family, redemption, sacrifice, and faith echo the plays of Sam Shepard at times. The novel is occasionally trying too hard, particularly in its portrayals of racial issues in America (the novel is set in 1995 during the O.J. Simpson trial), but these small oversteps don't distract from the novel's elaborate emotional arc. A grandiose, atmospheric portrait of Middle America in all its damaged glory. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.