A Window Across the River [Hardcover]

Brian Morton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 8, 2003

Isaac and Nora haven't seen each other in five years, yet when Nora phones Isaac late one night, he knows who it is before she's spoken a word. Isaac, a photographer, is relinquishing his artistic career, while Nora, a writer, is seeking to rededicate herself to hers.
Fueled by their rediscovered love, Nora is soon on fire with the best work she's ever done, until she realizes that the story she's writing has turned into a fictionalized portrait of Isaac, exposing his frailties and compromises and sure to be viewed by him as a betrayal. How do we remain faithful to our calling if it estranges us from the people we love? How do we remain in love after we have seen the very worst of our loved ones? Brian Morton explores these issues with the same "astonishingly
sensitive appreciation for his characters" (Library Journal) that marks his previous work.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In A Window Across the River, author Brian Morton raises a question most writers ask themselves at some point: is it OK to follow your muse when the artistic result may hurt your loved ones?

Nora struggles constantly with this issue--it seems her best characters are always based on the less than attractive qualities of close friends and family. With first-hand knowledge of the havoc this can wreak, she finds herself stuck in a writer's block (and a stagnant relationship) and decides to contact an old love. When Nora reaches out to him, Isaac is having his own creative difficulties, worrying that his artistic integrity has plummeted since he can't seem to find anything he wants to photograph any more. The artists' reconnection is inspiring for their work, but threatens to ruin their relationship.

There isn't much action here--most pages are filled with the internal thoughts of Nora and Isaac. We meet a lot of walk-on characters, whose sole purpose seems to be getting us out of the main characters' heads for a moment. But in the end, the story is an engaging one, filled with funny insights about relationships ("when our lovers try to leave us, we suddenly become lawyers"), and driven by two compelling characters we come to know inside and out. --Brangien Davis

From The New Yorker

Isaac and Nora—he's a photographer, she's a writer—were once a couple. After a five-year separation, a late-night telephone call draws them together, but their reunion, as Morton reveals in his affecting third novel, becomes increasingly problematic. Nora is ready to break up with her boyfriend, a professor who wants to become a "public intellectual." Isaac, who always believed that he and Nora were destined for one another, is frustrated by the world's indifference to his photography. What's more, he is about to become a character in one of Nora's unnervingly lifelike short stories. Morton is particularly skilled at describing the sharp rattle of artistic failure, and at bringing to life the streets and rooms of New York, where the fates of his lonely and desperate characters unfold.
Copyright © 2005 The New Yorker

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; 1 edition (September 8, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0151007578
• ISBN-13: 978-0151007578
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,452,719 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Read this book!, March 23, 2004

By 

Sara Heard "Mrs. H." (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Window Across the River (Hardcover)

This is truly one of the best books I've ever read by someone who's still breathing.

It all rang true, from the New York atmosphere to the ups and downs of the couple's relationship to the slight tinge of resentment over Nora's mostly giving and sweet relationship with her aunt. Every page brought the sort of "ah-ha" moment when you read something that seems like it should be obvious but that is worded in a way that makes it seem entirely new and fresh--kind of, "I could have thought of that--nah, who am I kidding."

This is one of those books that you finish and instantly turn back to page one to start again and recommend to your friends while envying them the experience of discovering it for the first time.

Wonderful, just wonderful.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a writer's read (and for non-writers too!), September 23, 2004

By 

dailyreader (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Window Across the River (Paperback)

Starting Out In the Evening, Brian Morton's second novel, made me an afficianado of his work, since the book was that refreshing and rare treat: a novel about a writer. Writers often avoid writing about writers, perhaps fearing that their fiction will be disdained as being too autobiographical. As a result, there are far too many writer-characters out there who are thinly and inadequately disguised as artists, composers, etc. It's a blessing to find an author brave enough--and in love enough with the mysteries, joys, and challenges of the writing process--to step up to the plate and address them. (Starting Out also offers heartbreaking meditations on aging--the main character reflects, for instance, that he feels ashamed of his aging body, as if he's done something wrong in getting old.)

In his third novel, A Window Across the River, Morton offers more trenchant writer portraiture: one of his protagonists, Nora, struggles with her inevitable penchant for cannibalizing the less savory characteristics of those she loves in order to create her fiction. As any serious writer knows, the question of what and how much to borrow from those around us results in some serious moral quandaries, which Morton explores here with his typical compassion, delicacy, and humor. Window and Starting Out are both Bibles of sorts for writers who want to read about writers--along the lines of the novels of Andre Dubus. And both books are highly recommended for discriminating readers who aren't writers but are seeking the old-fashioned, ultimately satisfying good read.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Brian Morton gem!, September 23, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: A Window Across the River (Hardcover)

How does he do it? Language is used sparingly - there's no flim-flam or fancy stuff - but every word counts as Morton creates fully-developed, real people. There are: Nora, who writes short stories in which she skewers those she cares about; Isaac, the love of her life whom she left but wants back; Aunt Billie, weak - but wonderful; and a supporting cast of characters with quirks and egos that are immediately recognizable. I found myself reading it fast, wanting to find out what would happen to everyone I had met. I was not disappointed, from the first page to the last.