Customer Reviews

Tender as Hellfire: A Novel

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Tender as Hellfire is a colorful, imaginative, extremely humorous, yet ultimately truthful novel. The themes and motifs within are tight, the story given to us in entertaining instances that combine in the end as one whole picture of an alienated youth. Meno shows his talent for storytelling by simply casting his character into a chaotic environment and seeing how that charatcer will react. Simple as that. Within it is contained a complex story of a child trying to come to terms and cope with his father's downfall, so that he may escape a similar fate and rise above his 'cursed' surroundings.

It's a good read that moves well, entertains and will be remembered as a colorful piece of contemporary style. For how can one ever forget the Pigpen mascot scene? The King of the Tango? Chief? The fire motifs add a nice edge and hold it all together. The novel is by no means perfect; a formal review could name various flaws, but this book comes from a first time novelist who, with such voice, color, style and humor can only get better. If you like an easy read and cutting edge stuff, this is a great book to check out.

But a note to St. Marten's Press: fire your copyeditor. First time authors are already at a disadvantage, why make their situation harder by your incompetence in printing?

Joe Meno clearly has a lot of talent---far more than the proofreader who allowed the abundance of typos in the book to slide by---but the end result is rather disappointing. Not only is the main character's thought pattern and point of view often difficult to follow, but I never truly felt as though I got to know any of the characters. Although Meno has a real flair for detail in scenes where heavy action action is occurring, large chunks of the prose drift by like zombies, never making an impression or creating better understanding of the characters. The author makes the mistake of showing rather than telling far too often to give readers a chance to see things through the eyes of these underdeveloped characters. The result is a story that drives home only a feeling of confused hopelessness, rather than fulfillment.

Meno's book entices you with savory characters and gritty prose, but suffers badly from a recurring point of view problem. As you read, you have the sense that with the start of each chapter, the narrator forgets everything he's previously told his audience. The magical connection writers create with their reader is dangled in front of us in one chapter and then snatched away in the next by this out of touch narrator. A sharp editor's pen could have reduced the redundancy of overdone description, and helped this first time novelist move through a narrative that mattered to the reader. A collection of short stories may have been a wiser choice for St. Martin's.

The author really paints a picture of Mid-Western life I have never seen before in fiction. It is a story of two brothers and how they might be cursed by the Devil because of their father's criminal life. The book is full of surreal twists and turns and kept me hooked the whole way.

From the moment I picked this book up I was immediately captured by its unbelieveably vivid and well-told story. And the characters are so compelling and imaginative that I know they will stay with me for a long time to come. This is one of those rare works of literature that once you start reading it, everything else takes a back seat. I highly, highly recommend it.

This novel does a wonderful job of drilling into your head just how stagnant and alienated a child must feel after being forced into such an unpleasantly dull environment during his formative years. The author's voice is exceptional, and few stories I've read have had such unique characters. Each chapter is a short story in and of itself, a few so compelling that I was tempted to flip back and read them a second time before moving on in the book, but at the same time I could hardly help but race to the end.

This book is about loneliness, and the ways we fight it. The stories savage all our comforting beliefs -- our parents can always protect us; the Midwest is peaceful; religion provides comfort -- and proves psychologist Sheldon Kopp's verdict: Childhood is a nightmare. Joe Meno writes with such power that you can't put this book down, no matter how much you wish you could.

--And that's exactly what I liked about it. Many readers, no doubt missed the themes of desperation and alienation that accompanied a boy's transition into adolescence. In a time where the answer to avoiding another Columbine is a cocktail of ritalin and anti-depressants, "Tender as Hellfire," displays the stark realities of poverty, where the liminal state from child to man becomes (quite literally) a trial by fire. Most striking of all, Meno is able to bring sympathy to his narrator's older brother, whose reaction to his socio-economic-imposed ostracism is pyromania. I call it a dangerous novel, because it dares to tell the story of American "trailer trash." Someone had to publish news of their existence; not pretty, but Meno certainly couldn't wait on Hollywood.

"Tender as Hellfire" is an easy read about complex characters, and Meno doesn't pull any punches. Leave your judgments at page one, or stick with PC Oprah books.

Tender as Hellfire is an excellent piece of work. Meno writes with such emotion that you will become instantly involved, from start to finish. The author has the true talent of describing a place and characters that you feel as if are true--which is the mark of a great writer. Can't wait for the next one!

Tender As Hell Fire is an inspiring story of adolescence and the general problems that go along with it. Exceptional writing makes this a book to own and read over and over again. This is definitely a first novel that forecasts further success.