Demons in the Spring

Demons in the Spring is a collection of twenty short stories by Chicago author Joe Meno, with each story illustrated by a different artist, including Charles Burns, Archer Prewitt, Ivan Brunetti, Jay Ryan, Paul Hornschemeier, Anders Nilsen, Geoff McFedtridge, Kelsey Brookes, Kim Hiorthoy, Chris Uphues, Caroline Hwang, Rachell Sumpter, kozyndan, Evan Hecox, and Cody Hudson. The book was a finalist for the 2008 The Story Prize, alongside Tobias Wolff and Jhumpa Lahiri.^[1][2]

Meno's second collection of short work,^[3] it was originally issued as a limited edition of 4,000 by Akashic Books in 2008.^[4] A paperback edition by Akashic Books was published in 2010. A portion of proceeds from both editions was donated to 826 Chicago.^[5]

The stories explore depression, loneliness and insanity, and feature characters who are "misfits at odds with the world or with themselves".^[6]

Kirkus Reviews called it an "inspired collection of 20 stories, brilliant in its command of tone and narrative perspective", and also praised the illustrations.^[6]

MAKE Literary Magazine said that "There is magic in the type of melancholy that Meno dishes out" and noted that "Meno’s sentences, like Vonnegut’s, are simple, poignant, and playful".^[5]

in Vol 1 Brooklyn, Tobias Carroll found that "there’s an outstretched intimacy to the best of these stories, an emotional rawness expanded by Meno’s rational, yearning prose", and concluded that "for all that Meno creates memorable characters, it may be that his true strength is in documenting their interactions, in sketching out the bonds — extant or broken, familial or emotional — that unite disparate lives".^[3]