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.


From Booklist
(*Starred Review*) Martin Sloane is an Irish-Canadian artist haunted by his past, who retells his stories (both true and embellished) by creating magical boxes and dioramas. Jolene Iolas, a typically lost college freshman, first falls in love with the art and then with the older man behind them. They begin a passionate, 10-year affair that follows the heightening of both of their careers, and ends abruptly when Martin suddenly vanishes in the middle of the night after a strange visit from Jolene's college roommate. Jolene mourns, sinking in and out of depression, as she tries to reassemble the scraps of her life, and she tries to love again, still wondering what happened to Martin, questioning herself, feeding her guilt, and still, after all this time, searching for him. When a trace of him appears years later, she is forced to confront her loss directly all over again. Redhill presents a remarkable first novel--his powerful language and mastery of character are thrilling, and the plot, though it sometimes threatens to, never becomes cliche or predictable. A fantastic exploration into the guises and complexities of art, love, and memory. Michael Spinella
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Michael Ondaatje, author of THE ENGLISH PATIENT and ANIL'S GHOST
"...a deeply moving first novel that reveals human truths with grace and humor... a book of constant surprises."


Myla Goldberg, author of BEE SEASON
"...a thoughtful, quietly engrossing novel whose truths are all the more powerful for the delicacy with which they are revealed."


A.L. Kennedy, author of ON BULLFIGHTING, ORIGINAL BLISS, and EVERYTHING YOU NEED
"...a writer of considerable humanity and insight. His first novel is a highly crafted and subtly disturbing delight."


Wayne Johnston, author of THE COLONY OF UNREQUITED DREAMS
"...such a good novel it is hard to believe it is Michael Redhill's first. Lyrical, funny, movingÖa wide readership."


Mary Morris, author of THE NIGHT SKY and ACTS OF GOD
"...a precision of emotions, life in miniature with all its details and complexity... a stunning debut, life-size and moving."


New York Times, 6/19/02
…entrancing…a novel of simultaneities, advances and flashbacks…an extraordinarily strange and affecting conclusion…


New York Times Book Review, 7/7/02
"...made me feel...hopeful, amused, energized, unnerved...and finally grateful that occasionally a writer...gets real life just right..."


Time Out New York, 7/4/02
"...a book of high polish...aptly recreates the way romantic passion can be difficult, sometimes impossible, to relinquish..."


Washington Post Book World, 8/25/02
"...unveils itself with an offhand disquiet...but once revealed, very difficult to dislodge..."


San Francisco Chronicle Book Review, 6/9/02
"...a work of fiction in which thoughts speak more loudly than words..."


Book Description
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.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

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 nearly 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.

FROM THE CRITICS

Michael Ondaatje

A deeply moving first novel that reveals human truths with grace and humor a book of constant surprises.

Mary Morris

A precision of emotions,life in miniature with all its details and complexity a stunning debut,life-size and moving.

Wayne Johnston

Such a good novel it is hard to believe it is Michael Redhill's first. Lyrical,funny,moving a wide readership.

Martha Cooley

Sails right along,buoyed by graceful plotting and many surprises - but it also unnerves,which makes it a very satisfying novel this one's a keeper.

Myla Goldberg