A Face in Every Window - Softcover

Nolan, Han

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0152064184 ISBN 13: 9780152064181

Publisher: Clarion Books, 2008

Synopsis

After Grandma Mary dies, sixteen-year-old JP’s safe, secure world quickly unravels. He finds himself living in complete chaos when his mother wins a farmhouse in an essay contest and insists on sharing her good fortune with other neighborhood outcasts. Suddenly there are no rules, and the house is filled with poets, musicians, a reformed drug addict, an abused teen, and too many others who seem to have replaced JP and his father in his mother’s life.       JP longs for his family to be restored to what it once was. But then somehow, amid the madness, his idea of family is redefined in ways he never expected.

About this title

Review:

Life at James Patrick's house is a party that never ends--and he hates it. Grandma Mary was the caring matriarch who previously had held his small family together in a haven of comfort and order, a safe place where no one ever had to grow up. But now that she has died, Mam, his childlike and formerly introverted mother, has become enraptured in newfound self-discovery. After entering a contest and winning a country house, she invites a crowd of young wannabe poets, musicians, and lost souls to move in. All-night fun-a-thons, piano and guitar music, readings, arguments, and cookouts in the snow ensue. "Isn't this so fun?" says Dear Pap, JP's sweet-natured but "mentally challenged" father, as he surveys the scene from the roof (where he hangs out next to life-size Nativity figures). Mam's happy dream of "a face at every window" has come true. But JP wants stasis and order. He's miserable with these people he considers pretentious lunatics in his kitchen, his bedroom, his closet, and he wants his parents back for himself. Even worse, Mam is getting far too cozy with her arrogant friend Dr. Mike, and when she returns from a trip pregnant JP finds it impossible to face her.

Han Nolan, winner of the 1997 National Book Award for Dancing on the Edge, creates complex characters and an outlandish household in this richly textured novel about a young man learning lessons of life, love, and acceptance. (Ages 12 and older) --Patty Campbell

Book Description:

Hardcover edition 1999978-0-15-201915-00-15-201915-4
Penguin paperback 2001978-0-14-131218-7 pb0-14-131218-1 pb

About this edition

• Publisher: Clarion Books
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0152064184
• ISBN 13: 9780152064181
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 276