Thoroughly modern Meno

Short stories both quirky and accessible

The first enticing element about Demons in the Spring, Chicago-bred writerJoe Meno's new collection of short stories, is the sheer beauty of the book itself. With its cranberry fabric cover, its delicately patterned and tinted endpapers, and its original illustrations (with a different artist selected to evoke each of the 20 stories), the volume itself has the irresistible charm of a bygone time.

The stories are thoroughly modern -- at once quirky and accessible. Take, for example, the very first one, "Frances the Ghost." On the surface it is about an overwhelmed mother trying to cope with an emotionally troubled grade-school girl and a new baby -- a woman not beyond self-medication. As it happens, the mother is trying to keep things together while her husband is far away at war. Discover that, and all the pieces suddenly fall into place with stunning understatement.

In "Stockholm 1973," Meno tells the story of Jan, a young loser who rather impulsively decides to hold up a bank, and in the process tests the devotion of Clark, his best and perhaps only friend in the world. What happens during the holdup has a touch of the absurd to it (and an odd bit of sweetness, too), and the aftermath, which involves Clark and one of the pretty tellers who was held hostage, suggests the strange (but true) ways of human connection.

For thwarted romantics familiar with the ache of an unfulfilled office flirtation there is "An Apple Could Make You Laugh," accompanied by the beguiling line drawings of Geoff McFetridge. The story is familiar but lightly and charmingly told, and its opening refrain is like a song: "Apples are kissing other apples. Gray cats are kissing other gray cats. Trees are kissing trees. You and I are not kissing."

He has a nice touch, too, when it comes to the loneliness and distance that can be part of a marriage. Consider an opening riff in "People Are Becoming Clouds": "Each time John goes to kiss his wife, Eleanor simply laughs politely into the palm of her hand and immediately turns into a puff of soft white vapor."

And then there is the utterly odd story, "Iceland Today," exquisitely illustrated by Rachell Sumpter. I read it as Iceland appeared to be on the brink of bankruptcy in recent weeks. As Meno asks at one point: "Why do these Icelanders love their imperfect little country when it has so often been the source of unending misery?" He supplies the answer in the form of another decidedly wistful question: "Why love anything?"

And this says all you need to know about Meno's stories.

Hedy Weiss is the Sun-Times theater critic.