Martin John (eBook)

Description

Finalist for the 2015 Giller Prize.Martin Johns mam says that she is glad he is done with it. But is Martin John done with it? He says he wants it to stop, his mother wants it to stop, we all want it to stop. But is it really what Martin John wants? He had it in his mind to do it and he did it. Harm was done when he did it. Harm would continue to be done. Who will stop Martin John? Will you stop him? Should she stop him?From Anakana Schofield, the brilliant author of the best-sellingMalarky, comes a darkly comic novel circuiting through the mind, motivations and preoccupations of a character many women have experienced but few have understood quite so well. The result confirms Schofield as one of the bravest and most innovative authors at work in English today.PRAISE FORMARTIN JOHNDazzling With its discomfiting portraiture brain-puzzle of a storytelling technique, and utter assurance,Martin Johneasily matches the tremendous promise ofMalarky, Schofields debut.MacleansBrilliant While Schofield has digested all of postmodernisms tics and tricks, her writing is fundamentally empathetic, and the various interventions feel like necessary attempts to render the unspeakable, rather than as flashy mystifications of a straightforward narrative. In its social critique,Martin Johnhas much in common with the brilliant journalism of Ann Brocklehurst and Ed Tubb, but as an avant-garde novelist, Schofield is in a class unto herself.David B. Hobbs,The Globe & MailExhilarating The weird and recursive prose makes the language startlingly vivid, and Martin Johns fractured narrative perspective is positively adrenal Schofields ability to get us jacked up from exquisitely written and deeply troubling jokes about a middle-aged public masturbator makes [her] one of the highest-flying and funniest working today.Emily Keeler,The National PostThe novel all your favourite novelists will be reading.Mark Medley,The Globe & MailVirtuosic [Schofield] has crafted a wholly believable journey into the mind of a deeply warped young man An astoundingly focused piece of writing.The Georgia StraightSchofields trademark Celtic-Gothic sensibility is evident once again as Martin John explores madness, dark comedy, isolation and sexual compulsion.Toronto StarFearless Pick [up this book] if you are enthralled by what the novel with its variable and elastic form can do as Schofield pushes the boundaries in careful calibrations of narrative structure and language that bites.The Vancouver Sun[A] stylistically audacious second novel.Steven Beattie,Quill & QuireEffective and captivating The authors tone in these segments is coolly detached and nearly journalistic, generating in the reader a sensation of voyeurism that is profoundly unsettling and in keeping with the experience of readingMartin John.Shawn Syms,Quill& QuireProfane, strange, hilarious, and necessary,Martin Johnis a beguiling triumph.Patrick deWitt, author ofThe Sisters BrothersThis is a very moving and terrific book.Daniel Handler, author ofWe Are PiratesConveyed in hilarious, deadpan beautiful prose Schofields first achievement is to burrow into Martin Johns rackety mind. Her second crucial achievement is to turn this unsettling apprehension into a necessary, extraordinary act of empathy.Alison Gillmor,The Winnipeg ReviewHumorous fast-paced for a novel about a sexual deviant,Martin Johnis positivelybreezy.Pickle Me ThisThis is literature serving its most essential function: illuminating the darkest recesses; dragging the unspoken and suppressed to the foreground of our consciousness; throwing light across the blackest of humanitys vistas. This is writing at its most fearless: visceral and searing, yet textured and nuanced; the darkest of comedy and the deepest of insight, combined in a manner unique to Anakana Schofield.Donal Ryan, author ofThe Thing About DecemberandThe Spinning HeartYou might hold your breath while reading this novel. The story transgresses the body with or without our permission, and illuminates important ideas we ordinarily look away from. And yet it is now, more than ever, that we need to reread the body.Lidia Yuknavitch, author ofThe Chronology of WaterMartin John is singular in contemporary literature. [The novel takes] a deeply imagined, almost operatic view of marginal characters trapped in the absurdities and perversions of systems: mental, social, and familial. Anakana uses devastatingly specific prose that conversely portrays the poetry of human suffering. Moving, profoundly human, insightful, and darkly humorous.Thalia Field, author ofBird Lovers, BackyardAnakana Schofields first book,Malarky, was one of my favourite books last year. This one is different; it is darker, creepier. But it is every bit as clever and bold.Consumed by InkPRAISE FORMALARKYCaustic, funny and moving.Emma DonoghueElectrically alive.Colum McCannA fine book.Margaret AtwoodQuirky, racous, and utterly unconventional.Readers DigestPotent and fresh In certain moments, we are not so far from Becketts Molloy Our Woman comes close to enlivening not only the political and the personal but also the human.San Francisco ChronicleDelightfully offbeat Schofield offers a deft and altogether welcome comic touch One of the seasons best reads.The National Post