The Great Perhaps

Download or read book The Great Perhaps written by Joe Meno and published by Pan Macmillan. This book was released on 2011-02-28 with total page 395 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Meet the Caspers . . . Jonathan is a palaeontologist, searching in vain for a prehistoric squid. His wife, Madeline, an animal behaviourist, cannot explain why the pigeons she is studying are becoming increasingly aggressive. Their older daughter Amelia is a fervent anti-capitalist and disappointed teenage revolutionary, while their younger, Thisbe, has become a devout Christian. Meanwhile, the girls’ grandfather, Henry, is slowly absenting himself from life. Before he can absent himself altogether, however, Jonathan and Madeline decide to separate – and, suddenly, each family member has to confront their fears about the world in which they live. 'The wisest, most humane and transcendental novel on the contemporary family since The Corrections' Irvine Welsh 'The flat, uninfected language, interspersed with sudden absurdist flights of fancy, is reminiscent of Kurt Vonnegut; the comic-book influence contains traces of Jonathan Lethem; while the forensic examination of familial dysfunction should satisfy Franzen fans' Guardian 'A big, generous-hearted American family novel . . . Meno's characters bristle with humanity, and I think this book will find a huge audience for its wisdom and life-affirming, but unsentimental, qualities' Daily Telegraph