Book of Extraordinary Tragedies
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Description
"As in all his tender and edgy fiction, Meno's poetic prose is infused with sweet compassion and sharp protest as he marvels over 'the beautiful failure of all human beings struggling against their own glorious mistakes' while, somehow, finding a way forward." --Booklist, Starred Review
Aleksandar and Isobel are siblings and former classical music prodigies, once destined for greatness. As the only Eastern European family growing up on their block on the far southside of Chicago, the pair were inseparable until each was forced to confront the absurdity of tragedy at an early age and abandon their musical ambitions.
Now in their twenties, they find themselves encountering ridiculous jobs, unfulfilling romantic relationships, and the outrageousness of ordinary life. Doomed by fate, a family history of failure, an odd mother, an absent father, and a younger brother with a peculiar fondness for catastrophes, the two siblings have all but given up.
But when an illness forces Isobel and her three-year-old daughter to move back into the family home, Aleks becomes deeply involved in the endless challenges that surround his relatives. Once Isobel begins playing cello again, Aleks comes to see a world of possibility and wonder in the lives of his extraordinarily complicated family.
Told in Aleks's exuberant voice, and full of as much comedy as tragedy, this entertaining novel asks, Is it ever truly possible to separate our fates from those we've come to love?
Book Information
Posts
I would like to thank Joe Meno for writing this book and myself for dedicating hours of my life to rummaging through secondhand bookstores on a quest to find books the almighty algorithm would have never suggested to me. Chicago's southside, 2008: Aleks, Isobel and Daniel, the children of an immigrant family from Eastern Europe, are struggling to make ends meet. All of them are extraordinarily gifted - Aleks is a musical genius, Isobel got accepted into MIT at seventeen, Daniel spends his days buried in library books, seemingly studying nonstop. And yet, the financial struggles of their family, the lack of social security, their troubled history and their neighborhood of lost souls (their words, not mine) are placing more obstacles in their way than they have the strength to overcome. In fast-moving, sober and yet literary prose Joe Meno tells a story so tragic it makes you want to do nothing but curl up and contemplate the appalling injustice of the capitalist hellscape we all live in. I would love to force-feed this book to any *eNtRePrEnEuR* who tells people that all you have to do to succeed is work hard. The "Book of Extraordinary Tragedies" lets you meet wonderful, dedicated, intelligent people who want nothing but to be good and do their part - in a system that was designed to make them fail. If this hasn’t become blatantly clear by now: I loved this book more than I ever would have thought. Get your hands on it, read it, learn from it, and then recommend it to all your friends. We need it.
Description
"As in all his tender and edgy fiction, Meno's poetic prose is infused with sweet compassion and sharp protest as he marvels over 'the beautiful failure of all human beings struggling against their own glorious mistakes' while, somehow, finding a way forward." --Booklist, Starred Review
Aleksandar and Isobel are siblings and former classical music prodigies, once destined for greatness. As the only Eastern European family growing up on their block on the far southside of Chicago, the pair were inseparable until each was forced to confront the absurdity of tragedy at an early age and abandon their musical ambitions.
Now in their twenties, they find themselves encountering ridiculous jobs, unfulfilling romantic relationships, and the outrageousness of ordinary life. Doomed by fate, a family history of failure, an odd mother, an absent father, and a younger brother with a peculiar fondness for catastrophes, the two siblings have all but given up.
But when an illness forces Isobel and her three-year-old daughter to move back into the family home, Aleks becomes deeply involved in the endless challenges that surround his relatives. Once Isobel begins playing cello again, Aleks comes to see a world of possibility and wonder in the lives of his extraordinarily complicated family.
Told in Aleks's exuberant voice, and full of as much comedy as tragedy, this entertaining novel asks, Is it ever truly possible to separate our fates from those we've come to love?
Book Information
Posts
I would like to thank Joe Meno for writing this book and myself for dedicating hours of my life to rummaging through secondhand bookstores on a quest to find books the almighty algorithm would have never suggested to me. Chicago's southside, 2008: Aleks, Isobel and Daniel, the children of an immigrant family from Eastern Europe, are struggling to make ends meet. All of them are extraordinarily gifted - Aleks is a musical genius, Isobel got accepted into MIT at seventeen, Daniel spends his days buried in library books, seemingly studying nonstop. And yet, the financial struggles of their family, the lack of social security, their troubled history and their neighborhood of lost souls (their words, not mine) are placing more obstacles in their way than they have the strength to overcome. In fast-moving, sober and yet literary prose Joe Meno tells a story so tragic it makes you want to do nothing but curl up and contemplate the appalling injustice of the capitalist hellscape we all live in. I would love to force-feed this book to any *eNtRePrEnEuR* who tells people that all you have to do to succeed is work hard. The "Book of Extraordinary Tragedies" lets you meet wonderful, dedicated, intelligent people who want nothing but to be good and do their part - in a system that was designed to make them fail. If this hasn’t become blatantly clear by now: I loved this book more than I ever would have thought. Get your hands on it, read it, learn from it, and then recommend it to all your friends. We need it.