From Library Journal
The man in the window is Louis Malone, whose disfigurement in a fire has caused him to view the world from his window for half of his 32 years. When he finally ventures out for his father's funeral, he inadvertently meets Iris, a dumpy nurse at the town hospital. The growing relationship between these two lonely, self-proclaimed "monsters" is the focal point of this gentle tale. We also meet their widowed parents and explore the loneliness known to those who lose their mates after a long and successful marriage. For a book concerned with loneliness, mutilation, and death, this is remarkably upbeat, filled with easy humor. These characters may lead limited lives, but they come to understand that life's simple joys are its most precious. No sex, violence, or intrigue, just a fine writer telling a good story about decent people. Cohen is the author of Max Lakeman and the Beautiful Stranger ( LJ 3/1/90). Recommended.
- Dan Bogey, Clearfield Cty. P.L. Federation, Curwensville, Pa.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
By the author of the arresting Max Lakeman and the Beautiful Stranger (1990): a Marty-themed, whimsical novel with flashes of bright fantasy and high hilarity--all about two losing loners who find each other--and love. The story begins with the death of retired hardware-store owner Atlas Malone--no simple affair, involving as it does greetings, conversing with, and digging the message of a most familiar angel. Here, dying is a far from peaceful matter--whether in the Malone preserves, where live Atlas's wife Gracie and horribly disfigured son Louis, or in the Intensive Care Unit of the local hospital, where toils short, squat, unlovely Iris. Take one long-term patient, the dying comatose Tube Man who will speak--one ghostly word at a time. Then there's the town undertaker, who grabbed a gold ring after dying--for a reason having to do with an old dirty deed. Another wrongdoer will show up in the hospital, the ever-drunk Harvey, a link to Louis because Harvey had shared a transcendent moment with Louis 16 years before, when the teen-age and then handsome Louis had yet to be disfigured by the fire Harvey claims he set. Of course, Louis, a recluse these many years, always encased in a scarf and hat, and Iris the lowly and lonely, do get together--but it's only after Louis's plummet (or was it an ascension?) from a second-story window and a gathering of the world as represented by the neighbors who accompany him in a loud caravan to the hospital. Then, while Iris and Louis heed the incredible summons to love, Gracie and Iris's tottery father also pair off. An attractive flight into romance's more fabulous dimension- -but whether or not the fantastic palls, the ructions and crackings wise by the nurses laboring at incredible machines and patients are a fascination and delight. Cohen continues to bemuse and entertain. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Review
"An off-beat love story…alternately deeply moving and laugh-aloud funny." —Good Housekeeping
"A fascination and a delight…a whimsical novel with flashes of bright fantasy and high hilarity….An attractive flight into romance’s more fabulous dimension." —Kirkus Reviews
"Jon Cohen conjures magic, weaving a gentle romantic fantasy of piercing and eccentric beauty." —Boston Globe
"Amusing, entertaining, and haunting…With his style of mystical, humorous imagery, Jon Cohen creates characters and scenes that stay with a reader for a long time." —St. Louis Dispatch
"His characters are drawn with such affection that even the meanest is bathed in the warmth of his humor…A novel to savor." —Time Out
"The Man in the Window is written with a vivid cinematographic eye and ear for black humor. It is irreverent and boisterous, a novel about loneliness, love, and the basic human needs of even the most unlikely." —Washington Times
About the Author
Jon Cohen, a former critical care nurse, wrote his first novel between hospital shifts and raising two children. After receiving a creative writing grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, he turned to writing full time. His two novels, both critically acclaimed, are The Man in the Window and Max Lakeman and the Beautiful Stranger. Setting his sights on Hollywood, he purchased a “how-to” book on screenwriting. He has since written numerous screenplays for Fox, Warner Bros., and Sony, and he is the cowriter of Minority Report, directed by Steven Spielberg. Jon lives with his wife outside of Philadelphia and is currently working on a new novel.
Nancy Pearl is a librarian and lifelong reader. She regularly comments on books on National Public Radio’s Morning Edition. Her books include 2003’s Book Lust: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment and Reason, 2005’s More Book Lust: 1,000 New Reading Recommendations for Every Mood, Moment and Reason; Book Crush: For Kids and Teens: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment, and Interest, published in 2007, and 2010’s Book Lust To Go: Recommended Reading for Travelers, Vagabonds, and Dreamers. Among her many awards and honors are the 2011 Librarian of the Year Award from Library Journal; the 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association; the 2010 Margaret E. Monroe Award from the Reference and Users Services Association of the American Library Association; and the 2004 Women's National Book Association Award, given to "a living American woman who …has done meritorious work in the world of books beyond the duties or responsibilities of her profession or occupation."
