Nose Down, Eyes Up: A Novel, Markoe. Yes. I love Merrill Markoe. I’ve been a fan of her work since the mid 80s, when I figured out how much of what I found funny on a then-favorite show was her responsibility. That said, I did not love this book as much as I wanted to. The characteristic I can most easily identify as jarring is that the first-person narrator is a guy. I can’t say for sure whether the fault is in me or the writing: maybe if I had been reading it without having my expectations dialed to “Markoe,” I would have completely believed that a guy who was doing the things the narrator was doing was also thinking the things the narrator was thinking. I fear, though, that if I hadn’t had my expectations so dialed, I would have simply put the book down.