How the Hula Girl Sings: A Novel

Rating:
Summary: POW! now that's what i call a story!
Review: This book is the type that I find few and far between. Without so much as blinking i was already through the first hundred pages. Since i have a very short attention span, you can see why this is a big deal. This book made me not want to sleep, eat, or do anything to deter me from its pages. When it was over I was left sated but wishing there were a thousand more pages to come. Luce Lemay's auspicious heart, dealt a hard luck hand, kept me filled with hope, wonder and awe. Even after a month since I finished it, I still can't help but wonder what old Luce is doing now.

Rating:
Summary: A great surprise!
Review: This book was quite a surprise to me.
In college I became deeply infatuated with a
certain style of writing—that of such Southern
writers as William Faulkner, Flannery
O'Conner and especially Carson McCullers.
Joe Meno carries on this great Southern gothic
tradition in his new book How the Hula Girl
Sings.
Meno creates a claustrophobic
small town seething with sickness
and hate. He fills it with characters such as
an abusive father whose feet were eaten by
gangrene, a woman who kills small animals
and nails them to her walls in hand-crocheted
sweaters so that she can mourn them, and a
back stabbing ex-con who fashioned his fake
teeth out of gravel.
While this book is not a traditional
mystery I believe that it is well worth the read.
The story moves along at a good pace and is
extremely engaging. (The Librarian, 5 cats)

Rating:
Summary: You should really read this book
Review: What can I say? This is just an excellent read. Meno combines the quick, tight story movement of a pulp novel with a poet's view of the world. The language is simple but moving. Combine all that with some solid, fascinating, very human characters, finish it up with a powerhouse ending and you know what you got? One hell of a book.