 |
Reviewed by Michael Paul Mason
Read more GalleyCat Reviews
The scene is a bank robbery, and the robber, Jan Olsson, is a charming, drug-addled anti-robber. The story is “Stockholm 1973,” the second story in Demons in the Spring, a wonderfully-illustrated collection of stories by Joe Meno.
The cinematic set-up is quintessential Meno, whose short stories lend themselves to film adaptations–two of which have already been produced into short films. The prose, too, written in a choppy, present-tense voice, gives you the impression that you’re about to read a movie synopsis: “Jan Ollson decides now is as good a time as any and pulls the pistol from his pocket, raising it above his head, his dark eyes wide and menacing.”
It’s an engaging enough introduction, but soon enough Meno adds the characteristic touches that sets his writing in a class of its own. During a moment in which Olsson first catches sight of four bank tellers, Meno writes “In colorful turtlenecks and blouses and skirts, they look like far-off planets Jan would like to visit.” It’s that masterful turn of a sentence that makes you feel like Meno’s prose couldn’t be any more delightful, but in “Stockholm 1973,” the sentences keep emerging, the overall effect being a high-saturation slideshow illuminating the inner and outer experiences of a bank robbery, with all the verve and depth of a poet. The understated illustrations of Evan Hecox only add to the story’s colorful texture.
Olsson summons up a bizarre list of demands, to the confusion of others trapped in the surreal caper. He wants his best friend brought in, along with some guns and a fast car–things most other robbers might’ve planned to have prior to a stick-up. Because Meno takes us into the odd dance in Olsson’s head, we find ourselves as readers hoping to somehow educate him on how to properly conduct the robbery. And it is this particular trick of Meno’s, this conjuring of sympathy for Olsson that we develop as readers, that makes the ending satisfying in the most literary and fulfilling way.
I won’t tell you how “Stockholm 1973” ends, but I can tell you that after reading it, I can’t wait to visit the other stories in this collection.
Editor’s Note: This review is part of a story-by-story mass book review of Meno’s new collection. Other reviews will be posted around the Internet.
Michael Paul Mason is the author of ‘Head Cases: Stories of Brain Injury & Its Aftermath,’ published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux. His work appears in magazines and newspapers, including Discover, The Believer, and NYT. Learn more at michaepaulmason.com