Town House by Tish Cohen - a book review

Town House is an amazing story by Toronto author Tish Cohen, whom I met in June with Gather member and author Patry Francis and Vermont author Jennifer McMahon. Not only did Tish write her book in three and one half-weeks, (it WAS fully plotted - but, still - that is an amazingly fast write - even for a writer who writes, as Tish does - everywhere - on the keyboard or on scraps of paper scrawled while grocery shopping) she soon sold Town House to Fox movies.

  Town House cover, published by Harper Collins

Ridley Scott has been signed as the producer; Doug Wright as the screenwriter.

Tish told me today in an email that filming is slated to begin in January. Most likely city? Boston. Ooh, I can't wait.

 NEWS FROM THE AUTHOR, (Tish herself!), pasted from comment below:We've had some nice film news--John Carney, who directed the much-acclaimed indie film, ONCE, has signed on to direct Town House. ONCE won at Sundance, it's a great film that's getting a lot of Oscar buzz.

Her most recent book, The Invisible Rules of the Zoe Lama, for the YA market, was just published in July.

Tish has a fantastically creative and quirky style. That is one reason her book sold so quickly. Another reason? I have no idea. But hum a few bars for me or give me the recipe and I'll try my hand...Hmm. Maybe not. Tish is sui generis, a unique author with a unique story to tell.

On to Tish's book. Admittedly, an agoraphobe herself, Tish's main character, Jack Madigan, is also agoraphobic. He lives in the house his dead, rock-star legend father, Baz Madigan, left in his will.

(This fictional house and the cover of the book is a Boston Town House, the subject of the book. Once upon a time, Tish fell in love with Boston when she was here for a conference. She skipped the conference but toured Boston with its fabulous history, culture, and architecture.) 

  Tish Cohen

Like Jack's life, the house is a once-glorious enterprise now in near ruins. Yet, Jack is still way too good looking for his own good and is fast spending the inheritance from his father's royalties. However, in Town House, like in real life, once the money runs out, it becomes time to pay the piper. Jack must negotiate his way through many characters in this fast-paced story. The bank is threatening to foreclose; the ex-wife wants to take their son to California - and a maddening girl next door keeps barging in on his life. Then there is the matter of the real estate agent.

So Jack turns to his ingenuity to save his mortgage, his sanity and his son. And to venture out into the real world beyond his front door.  This is a comic read in the best sense - zany characters who seem too nutsy to be real and yet they are characters you recognize as your own neighbors (or, possibly as yourself).

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Excerpt:

This is from the Prologue:

"The pills clung to the bottom of Baz's dry tongue like barnacles. He held his breath, waiting for the nurse's tyrannical bosom to swing away and lead her downstairs, toward the street where her teenage son was waiting, or honking rather, in his shiny new '78 Pinto.

"Swallow," said the nurse, narrowing her eyes.

He opened his mouth to show his empty tongue. "Were you always this bossy?" One of the pills struck the underside of his tongue stud.

"Only with the sneaky ones."

The Pinto beeped again.

"Go ahead, Louisa." Baz's words hung, wafer-thin and dusty, in the stale air of his bedroom. He closed his eyes and swallowed, sending trickles of pain across his temples and down his neck. "I'm going to sleep until Francine comes up with my dinner."

"How that fine woman ever birthed a wretch like you, I'll never know." She gathered his mane into a loose ponytail and stuffed it down his T-shirt. "Your hair smells nice today."

Baz cracked one eye open as she lifted the leather jacket from his shoulders and replaced it with a soft guilt. Having assured himself she wasn't mocking him, he glanced up to admire the giant Bazmaniacs logo on the back of the battered jacket as she hung it on a chair - right next to his Fender Stratocaster electric guitar and three framed gold records."

And from Chapter 1:

" Jack Madigan squeezed his eyes shut. Hard. He wasn't going to cry over this. There were exactly three events in his thirty-six-year-old memory that had brought him to tears, typically life-splintering events; such as his father dying on him while he was away at a sleepover; his son, Harlan, bursting - squalling an bawling - out of the womb and into his heart; and his ex-wife sashaying out the front door of the old Boston town house and wishing Jack a good life.

She'd forgotten the tweezers."
 

So will Jack be able to find love? Save his house and child? Venture outside into the real world? All that will become evident in the final chapters of this highly enjoyable read.

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Tish Cohen edited an online women's magazine and contributed articles to some of Canada's largest newspapers, such as The Globe and Mail and The National Post. She lives in Toronto.

Town House by Tish Cohen
ISBN: 978  006  113  1318
Publisher: Harper Collins, Paperback.
$13.95 USA 

Available new or used from Amazon.com Town House