Fiction. A young ex-con in a small Illinois town. A lonely giant with a haunted past. A beautiful girl with a troubled heart. Strange and darkly magical, HOW THE HULA GIRL SINGS begins exactly where most pulp fiction usually ends, with the vivid episode of the terrible crime itself. Three years later, Luce Lemay, out on parole for the awful tragedy,does his best to find hope: in a new job at the local Gas-N-Go; in his companion and fellow ex-con, the giant Junior Breen, who spells out puzzling messages to the unquiet ghosts of his past; and finally in the arms of the lovely but reckless Charlene. How the Hula Girl Sings is a suspenseful exploration of a country bright with the far-off stars of forgiveness and dark with the still-looming shadow of the death penalty.

"A wonderful accomplishment... The power is in the writing. Mr. Meno is a superb craftsman."—Hubert Selby Jr

"The author moves the story along at a surprisingly fast and easy pace. The evil eyes of small-town America seem to peer from every page of Meno's claustrophobic noir, where the good and the bad are forced down the same violent paths."—Kirkus Reviews

Author City: Chicago, IL USA

Joe Meno is a fiction writer and playwright who lives in Chicago, Illinois. He is a winner of the Nelson Algren Literary Award, a Pushcart Prize, the Great Lakes Book Award, and was a finalist for the Story Prize. He is the author of six novels and two short story collections including HAIRSTYLES OF THE DAMNED, The Great Perhaps, THE BOY DETECTIVE FAILS, DEMONS IN THE SPRING, and OFFICE GIRL. His short fiction has been published in One Story, McSweeney's, swink, LIT, TriQuarterly online, Other Voices, Gulf Coast, and broadcast on NPR. His nonfiction has appeared in The New York Times and Chicago magazine. He is an associate professor in the fiction writing department at Columbia College Chicago.

Reviews and Other Links
author site
Publishers Weekly