Martin Sloane: A Novel - Softcover

Redhill, Michael

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0316739367 ISBN 13: 9780316739368

Publisher: Back Bay Books, 2002

Synopsis

What does it really mean to love another person? The question hovers like a persistent wisp of fog over the story of Martin Sloane, an Irish-born artist who creates intricate, object-filled boxes, and Jolene Iolas, the young American woman who finds herself drawn first to Martin Sloane's art and then to the man himself. The story of their relationship across two decades, and of Jolene's search for Martin Sloane when one day he disappears from their home without warning or explanation, is told in a novel that brilliantly and movingly explores the vagaries of love and friendship, the burdens of personal history, and the enigmatic power of art.

About this title

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 realised and the narrative transitions are at times a little rough, Martin Sloane proves that hard work pays off. Long live revision.--Robyn Gillam

Review

"It is rare to read a novel that pulses with such pleasure that you don't want it to end, but this is what Redhill's debut delivers" (Independent)

"A deeply moving first novel... profound and full of affection. It is a book of constant surprises." (Michael Ondaatje)

"Beautifully structured, and shards of cleverness and humour run through it... hard to put down" (TLS)

"Reading "Martin Sloane" made me feel melancholic, hopeful, amused, energized, enlightened, unnerved, touched, and finally grateful that occasionally a writer comes along who gets real life just right." (New York Times)

"Redhill [has] a gift for studied lyricism, a complex kind of emotional intelligence and, most of all, a poet's understanding of the workings of time... a powerful meditation on the implications of memory and the vacancies opened up by the loss of love... Redhill paces this sad and oblique detective story with great heart and delicacy." (Observer)

About this edition

• Publisher: Back Bay Books
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0316739367
• ISBN 13: 9780316739368
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288