The World I Made for Her [Paperback]

Thomas Moran (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1999

James lies in the intensive care unit of a New York hospital, ravaged by mysterious infections and cared for by Irish immigrant nurse Nuala. As Nuala gets to know him, she begins to connect the handsome man in the photograph above the bed with her wasted, feverish patient and a love grows.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In Thomas Moran's first novel, The Man in the Box, his title character was a Jew hiding from Nazis in a tiny, hidden space at the back of an Austrian farmer's hayloft. In his second novel, The World I Made for Her, Moran once again confines his protagonist--this time making him a prisoner of his own body. James Blatchley is the victim of a freak illness--chicken pox, a normally harmless disease that can, on occasion, kill otherwise healthy adults. One of the unlucky few, Blatchley ends up in an intensive-care ward, unable to eat or even to breathe without machines. Numbed by morphine, his body ravaged by one infection after another, the one anchor in his life is Nuala, the Irish immigrant nurse who is assigned to his case: "Nuala means 'white shoulders' in Irish, but no one much remembers these old things anymore.... Nuala's small, not above five and a half feet. Her shoulders are thin but broad, like a young boy's and creamy white where I've glimpsed them." Nuala's shoulders may be thin, but it's her strength that is keeping James Blatchley alive. Though he slips in and out of coma, and when conscious, is able to communicate only by mouthing words or spelling them out on an alphabet board, Blatchley manages to develop relationships with his nurses, and he becomes fascinated by Nuala in particular. The little he knows about her difficult life leads him to imagine a better one for her--a cozy cottage in Ireland, a trip around the world. Eventually, however, Blatchley's fantasies become more intimate and soon the line between imagination and a real, if unspoken, love becomes blurred.

The World I Made for Her is an intensely personal novel and one straight from the heart. For five months, Thomas Moran hovered at the brink of death, a victim of the same rare condition that afflicts his fictional alter ego. He was given only a 5 percent chance of surviving. The fact that he lived is something of a miracle; that he was able to take such suffering and turn it to the service of this memorable, profoundly moving novel is a testament both to the author's talent and to the power of art to make even the most uniquely individual experience universal. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

Moran follows The Man in the Box (1997) with a surprisingly compelling tour of the inner life of a young man on life-support. James Blatchley lives in the Intensive Care Unit. A bout of chicken pox turned lethal, and now he breathes with the help of a ventilator, eats via tubes, and mouths words but can't produce sounds. His muscles are so atrophied that he can barely move. Once an NYC detective with an active social life, now Jamess only real-life respite from his fantasy life is his friendship with two nurses, Brigit and Nuala. The two emigrated from Ireland together, and they entertain him with stories of their nocturnal adventures at a bar called the Belle of Hell. Flirty Brigit secretly shoots up the fentanyl that keeps Jamess pain at bay. Nuala is more solid and, to James, more poetic: He recognizes the vulnerability that is almost hidden by her forthright, no-nonsense style. As he drifts in and out of consciousness, James makes up a better life for Nuala. First, its set in a cottage in Ireland; then he even imagines squiring her around the world. But as time passes, the fantasies become more mundane and more intimate. James's mind takes him to Nualas apartment, where the walls are deep colors and the furniture consists of hammocks and a picnic table. Soon the two are communicatingin dreams? in reality?about the things that matter: Nuala serves up childhood vignettes and oblique glimpses of her own pain; James circles endlessly around his questions about death. The boundaries between nurse and patient waver and melt as James takes a turn for the worse, leading to a profoundly startling scene between the two. Moran deftly combines the smells, tastes, and politics of the ICU with a haunting, unhackneyed exploration of loneliness and its antidotes. Despite the grim premise and the graphically rendered bodily functions, Morans hospital- stay novel is fast-paced, filled with vivid human detail, and ultimately deeply affecting. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 275 pages
• Publisher: Riverhead Trade (June 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1573227315
• ISBN-13: 978-1573227315
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,295,449 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of those books, November 29, 1999

By 

Michele T. Woodward (Arlington, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The World I Made for Her (Hardcover)

This is one of those books that make a reader work. The prose is compelling, the story engaging but Moran forces the reader to pay attention -- is James hallucinating? Is it fantasy or is it real? This would be a difficult book for some people to read because on one level it is about the loss of control -- of your mind and your body. I think Moran chooses his words carefully but achieves an astonishing balance -- his writing is not at all self-conscious. I will admit that I began to care about James so much that I worried about being able to finish the book -- so, I skipped ahead, read the end and then was able to go back and read the rest. If I hadn't, I doubt I would have been able to finish for the emotion. This is a wonderful book, and you should buy it.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Haunting and Beautiful, March 20, 2001

By 

Addie (San Diego, California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The World I Made for Her (Paperback)

Years of reading independently, and then what was required of me as an English major have left me clinging to and re-reading just less than a handful of books. As Moran suggests, in the end, what matters are the few true connections we have made to those we love. Books function in much the same way for me; few stories remain compelling regardless of how often I return to them. This book passes the test again and again.

Much like reading about the noteless, but wildly expressive world of the death, Moran's book explores the human capacity for expression on many subtle levels. James is unable to speak, but his dreams, his fantasies, his honed abilities to observe and reflect, all merge to create a character as rich, if not richer, than any imaginable speaking character.

How to sum up this story? It's chilling, luminous, perspective-altering.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars May be the most moving book I've read in five years., November 22, 1998

By 

[e-mail] or John Cunningham (Denver, Colorado) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The World I Made for Her (Hardcover)

superb writing, no dead wood or wasted words.

The scene is frightening, an ordinary man felled by a runaway virsus - strapped to a hospital bed, helpless, tubes running everywhere, drifting in and out of comas and drug inducted trances, unable to speak, no control whatsoever. All the more poignant, because the story is actually about love, the choice to be.

The man, James Blanchely, has every reason to be consumed with fear and self-pity, but he choses the other path and decides to love his two Irish nurses instead: Bridget for her wicked humor and buccaneer ways, Nuala for her strength and approach to the art of life. He loves them both, but he loves Nuala best.

As he drifts between conscious and unconscious worlds, not always sure is more real, James dreams a better world for Nuala than might be hers in real life. So vivid are the dreams and so much does he want her to enjoy a happy life that Nuala begins to share in the same dreams. Thus does their lives merge in a way that surpasses physical undrstanding.

I cared about all three of these characters, cheering them on, from near the beginning to the final fleeting kiss of life. Against the odds, against conventional wisdom, they chose love and had the courage to pursue it to the very end. Heroes!