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In Tender as Hellfire, first-time novelist Joe Meno limns a near-fantastical world of trailer park floozies, broken-down '76 Impalas, lost glass eyes, and the daily experiences of two boys trying to make sense of their random, sharp lives. Dough and Pill are brothers bound by more than blood. The anguish of their past, the terror of their present, and the uncertainty of their future all underscore the only truth that is within their grasp: each other. For beneath the cruel surface of their trailer park community lies a menagerie of odd characters, each one strange yet somehow beautiful, including Val, the blowsy bottle-blonde who shows surprising maternal instincts when the boys need it most, and El Ray del Perdito, the "Undisputed King of the Tango," a widower who dances nightly, imagining his wife in his arms, as Dough peers through the window contemplating a love that seems not to die. Surrounded by the strange and displaced, Dough and Pill must navigate through a world of constant pain and confusion. Finding beauty in unexpected places and maintaining reverence for hard-won scars, these two brothers learn, finally, that even broken things can be perfect.
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Joe Meno always talks of his "blue collar" roots because his dad was a steel worker. Columbia professors are not really "blue collar" eh Joe??? A mockery of literature from a small mind who just happened to know people, right Joe???
This guy is a hack, skip it at all costs...
By H. Coburn (Chicago)
I read 3 pages of this and gave it to my upstairs neighbor, a guy who hoards cast-off novels from bargain stores and piles them on his floor to give the illusion of being a wise hermit (he's actually a packrat without a job). Even he didn't like "Tender as Hellfire." It reads like any other college boy's attempt to be "literary" using forced slang and run-on sentences---kind of like Bret Easton Ellis, but dumber. Avoid at all costs (assuming you could even find it).
By Justin Withem (Chicago, IL USA)
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.
By
--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.
By
Joe grew up in Evergreen Park, IL. Anyone who read the book and knows the village & his school can identify most of the characters. It's like a characture written by a cynical observer to life; not someone content with himself.
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