Martin Sloane: A Novel (Paperback)

by Michael Redhill (Author) "SOME PEOPLE BELIEVE IN A CONNECTED WORLD IN which every one thing is cognate with every other thing, the bell tolling for you, for me..." (more)
Key Phrases: Martin Sloane, Iona Road, Michael Redhill (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
When Martin Sloane, Toronto poet and playwright Michael Redhill's first novel, appeared in Canada, it made headlines for its decade-long gestation through 12 complete drafts. In an age when many blockbuster novels read as though they never saw an editor's pencil, Redhill's stamina and ruthless self-appraisal were enough to make him newsworthy. But all that attention to its composition raises a basic question about the book itself: was Martin Sloane worth all the effort?

As it turns out, Redhill's debut is an intense, poetic evocation of the experience of time and place and the personality of a fictional Irish-Canadian collage artist, Martin Sloane, whose work, if not his life, resembles the nostalgic boxes built by the real-life artist Joseph Cornell. Told in the voice of his abandoned lover Jolene Iolas, the story explores the connection between Sloane's life and his art. Iolas, who had a relationship with the older Sloane in her youth, ends up following the cold trail of his life back to Dublin, where he lived as a boy before he was exiled by illness and first began to pack up his life in little boxes. Redhill has created a powerful meditation on life and memory, his work as a poet standing him in good stead. Even if some of the characters are not quite fully realized and the narrative transitions are at times a little rough, Martin Sloane proves that hard work pays off. Long live revision. --Robyn Gillam

From Publishers Weekly
Martin Sloane, the protagonist of Redhill's elegant debut, is an Irish-born Canadian who makes dioramas from "found objects." Among these chanced-upon entities is the book's narrator herself, Jolene Iolas, a Bard undergrad who happens upon Martin's work and falls in love with the artist. Their affair lasts several years, until one day Martin purposefully and inexplicably vanishes. Achingly sweet in its execution, the novel explores what it means to love, as we follow a dual narrative: Jolene's attempt to recover after Martin disappears, and Martin's own childhood memories of Ireland, as retold by Jolene. "It's not really safe to love other people, is it?" asks Jolene's former college roommate Molly, in Ireland years later to help Jolene track Martin down. Redhill's book reminds us that love can be half imaginary. even Jolene's recollections of Martin's childhood must pass through the lens of Martin's inventiveness: one story that Martin tells Jolene and Molly is proven a lovely fabrication. Then, too, our sense of love is shaped by our own desire. In a surprise ending, Jolene visits someone who asks for information about Martin, to which Jolene responds: "Whatever I tell you about him will just end up being about myself." A memorable and satisfying read, Redhill's book leaves the reader with a child's sense of nostalgia and a sympathy for the impasses of adulthood.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Back Bay Books (July 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316739367
• ISBN-13: 978-0316739368
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #685,750 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A surprising book, with personal messages for each reader., June 16, 2002

By	Mary Whipple (New England) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

I can't recall a recent book in which so many professional reviewers find so many different messages at the heart of the story... It's not that Redhill is vague or obscure; in fact, multiple messages are probably what he was hoping for.

Integrating all these themes into a deceptively simple story, Redhill emphasizes that for each of us, our past always shapes our understanding of the present. Martin Sloane, a fifty-ish artist who creates enigmatic boxes, and Jolene Iolas, a college student who falls in love with him and his artwork, speak to the reader unpretentiously about the past and present, and one quickly identifies with them, falling into the rhythm of their alternating voices. Martin's inexplicable disappearance from Jolene's apartment and Jolene's renewed search for him many years later provide a framework for the story, along with unlimited opportunities for the author to explore themes of love and loss, home and family, death and dying, childhood and memory, and, most of all, our personal identities as a result of our separate pasts. As the reader filters the separate and combined stories of Martin and Jolene through his/her own past experiences, s/he also distills from the author's themes whatever personal messages are relevant, pertinent, or even unique for him.

Redhill's background as a poet is obvious here. His ability to compress allows him to pack short scenes with big meanings, to ensure that every detail advances his story and themes, and to create fresh images which allow the reader to see common experiences in new ways. Wonderful, pithy observations keep the reader energized and involved on many levels, while an intriguing mystery maintains the suspense. Though a transition might help to avoid some minor confusion (eventually resolved) in a couple of scenes, and a few questions of character remain unresolved, this is an amazing debut novel, one of the year's most enjoyable for me. Mary Whipple

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the finest novels I have ever read, August 31, 2003

By	Martin Ternouth (Dorchester, England) - See all my reviews

I read my first adult novel something over forty years ago. Since then I have read three or four books a week.

Martin Sloane is quite simply one of the finest novels I have ever read, crafted by a magnificent intelligence. Read it once for the story, then twice more page by page to pick up the textures and evocations and resonances. Then read it again - and again next year.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Enigmatic powerful literature, February 10, 2003

By A Customer

Martin Sloane is a novel worthy of the Pulitzer Prize, Booker Award, Governor's General Award and/or any other noteworthy award for distinctive, discriptive, and evocative literature. The novel tugs at the central core of the reader's heart and mind by taking you into the interior and intertwining lives of the main characters, Martin, Joleen, and Molly. The author, writes with deft clarity and an uncanny understanding of human foibles,and evokes powerful emotions of happiness and pain in the reader.

Martin is an artist with a deep and dark past with an erstwhile desire to come to grips with his past when he embarks upon a love affair with a young woman who might have been his soul-mate, had he allowed himself to accept the depth of her love and understanding. Unfortunately, the meddling and controlling influence of Molly, Joleen's best-friend dooms the relationship by grabbing at the fragile psyche of Martin through a jealous encounter with him when she attempts to expose to him his weaknesses and motivations during a visit to the couple's home after years of separation after college from Joleen. Molly, thereafter, embarks upon a vicarious desire to live through the lives of these two people by trying to re-establish a connection between them that spans from the US to Ireland all the while trying to mend her shattered friendship with Joleen. Joleen, glistens as the true survivor as all who read this book will find.

This is a novel worthy of reading for those who love good literature. Martin Sloane was a reading experience of exceptional magnitude that I did not beyond my wildest expectations hope to find between the covers of this marvelous novel when I purchased it.