Marvel and a Wonder
Description
Grandfather and grandson must journey into the underworld of the American Midwest in search of both courage and redemption.
—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.
Praise for Marvel and a Wonder
Marvel and a Wonder . . . [is] a great contemporary Western that’s deliciously dark and full of unpleasant characters. I loved it, for whatever grim reason that lurks in my soul (and it’s got a fantastic cover), though I’d say it’s probably not for the faint of heart.
— Library Journal
But in two new books—a big novel, Marvel and a Wonder, and the anthology Chicago Noir: The Classics, published simultaneously in early September by Akashic in hardcover and paperback—we’re reminded that Meno has a dark side that on occasion he lets out of jail, allowing it to cast a long and menacing shadow.
— Chicago Tribune
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.
— Booklist, Starred Review
“Faulkner-ian epic for the contemporary age. . . . [Meno] 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 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. . . . A grandiose, atmospheric portrait of Middle America in all its damaged glory.”
— Kirkus Reviews
The latest by Meno 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. . . . 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.
— Publishers Weekly
