The Man in the Box

by Thomas Moran

Book Overview

The Man in the Box is a story of ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances--a first novel about the inextricably intertwined relationships of a young girl and boy, the Jewish doctor the boy's... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1573226491
• ISBN13: 9781573226493
• Release Date: January 1998
• Publisher: Riverhead Books
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.2" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Is Niki A Boy or a Girl?

I liked this novel very much and thought the characters were believable and memorable. I think Moran captured the moral reality of everyday heroism--as well as the fact that many people who do good just do it and aren't sure why, just as those who do evil just do it. But I am very puzzled by Moran's handling of Niki and am still not sure of the sex of the protagonist although, unlike my co-reviewers,............... Perhaps Niki's vague sexual identity is meant to represent the thin line between good and eveil, Christian and Jew, who knows? I found it all a bit distracting. But I loved the book and will buy Moran's other works.

Moran better not lose his grip...

Because he is on the verge (in my opinion) of greatness. If he challenges himself more as a writer and a wordsmith and deepens his thinking, he will be under serious consideration for the Nobel. He is a humanist. And his writing is great humanist writing, but his ability (again, my humble opinion) has not yet matured. *ALL* of his books so far are worth reading.

Interesting gem with complex characters

The strength of The Man in the Box is the clarity of the depiction of complex characters - even bit characters. The narrator's grandfather, for example, is referred to only in one short passage explaining the half-orphanhood of the narrator's best friend. Yet in the short passage a real three dimensional portrait of a hard, drinking man unmissed except, perhaps, by his wife.No one is wholely evil or wholely saint ... in fact the motivation for hiding the Jew in the box is less than morally pure. And the Jew, isolated in his box with adolescents as his primary audience, has a wide range of responses to his current situation and to his excessive time to review his past.This is not yet a great book but it is very good and its strength indicate that Thomas Moran is a writer well worth watching for.

If the author wrote 100 novels, I'd read every one.

Moran's characters fully find their voice. Life is wierd, and Moran gives us a full color picture from inside their brains. Like nothing you've ever read.

A highly exiliirating account of very human problems

I would give my .... to be able to write this way. Everything is fresh as seen through the eyes of a adolesent growing up in a remote village in Austria during the war. His father hides a jew to pay back a old debt, but soon the responsibility to keep this man alive and sane falls to the boy and his blind friend. The life in this village is discribed until you began to care about the school teacher, wince when something embarrassing happens, dispise the town bully, and wish you could visit the place yourself. Nothing in this book was predictable, I didn't know what was going to happen until the end and I didn't want the end to come to soon. This is not a typical comming of age novel. It is written in a way that shows the good & bad in everyone. It does not try to solve the "race" problem. Nobody is perfect yet everyone is very human. I can't wait for his next novel.