Martin Sloane

by Michael Redhill

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.

Genres: Fiction, Canada, Literary Fiction, Art, Literature, Book Club, Contemporary

282 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Aka Inger Ash Wolfe.

Michael Redhill is an American-born Canadian poet, playwright and novelist.

Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Redhill was raised in the metropolitan Toronto, Ontario area. He pursued one year of study at Indiana University, and then returned to Canada, completing his education at York University and the University of Toronto. He was on the editorial board of Coach House Press from 1993 to 1996, and is currently the publisher and editor of the Canadian literary magazine Brick.

His play, Building Jerusalem, depicts a meeting between Karl Pearson, Augusta Stowe-Gullen, Adelaide Hoodless, and Silas Tertius Rand on New Year's Eve night just prior to the 20th century.

Reviews

[Krista · Rating 5 out of 5]

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. In this kind of world, orders are revealed within our own order, our beginnings woven with other beginnings, endings with endings. In this way, life is seen to rhyme with itself. For a long time this was my own religion.

Martin Sloane, simply put, is a perfect book; why did I resist reading it for so long? There's a mystery central to its plot, and coupled with the poet Michael Redhill's lyricism and insight, I was urgently and gently drawn along right up to an ending that left me in tears – not tears of sadness, but the tears that come from being touched deeply; from recognising, aha, that's right, that's how it is to live a life.

In 1984, Jolene Iolas was a university student in upstate New York, and after seeing (and being denied the right to purchase) a piece of art by the little-known Martin Sloane, she struck up a correspondence with the Irish-Canadian artist. Once they met, the two became May-December lovers; she acting as his muse and anchor for eight years, until the night he disappeared. Gotta go. While this – and its aftermath – is essentially the plot, Martin Sloane is about so much more: about art and memory and love and absence.

Firstly, I loved the art that Martin created: primarily dioramas made from found objects in small display cases; this was modern art that I could understand (unlike that described in The Blazing World or The Woman Upstairs), and as presented here, I would love to see a gallery show of these works. (As Martin and his art were based on the real-life Joseph Cornell, that's approximately possible.) And maybe it's just my literal mind at work, but it felt like genius to me that Martin's childhood was eventually revealed, spotlighting what events would have inspired each of his most famous pieces. In fact, so many of his childhood experiences involved capturing something within something else that his life's work felt inevitable: A fetus in a jar full of formaldehyde; a woodcock in a box trap; or this conversation with a little girl in the TB ward of a hospital after another boy died –

He was inside his mum once, she said, like she was reciting a nursery rhyme, and lived in a house. Everything is inside something else, even the air. But now that boy's in a box and he's in the ground. A worm will eat his eyes, and a bird will eat the worm, and then he'll be able to see his mum from the sky.

That's how we recapture what we've lost, isn't it? By finding a way to put what we've loved into a box, even if it's just within ourselves. When Molly discovers that Martin's father had never seen one of his boxes, she states, “Well, at least he's in them. It's not a bad place for a person's soul to end up.” On its face, I found that to be a profound statement, but when later events reveal the irony of that exchange, it was elevated to genius.

Jolene, too, holds her memories in diorama-like imagery; ideas that could be preserved in shadow boxes if she had the skill to make them: A willow's roots search for underground streams “like someone reaching their hand down through your roof at night”; she remembers her time with Martin “as if I were walking by a window where someone I used to know was sitting, looking almost like their old self”; her childhood memories are a disconnected jumble of gardening gloves, dusty shag carpet, a banana-seated bicycle, and jackdaws “creaking in the air over gravestones”. She also laments what is lost to history, like the crumbling walls of a once awe-inspiring castle or the ancient gravestones she finds with their names eroded by wind and rain, “Their stories, with their scandals, their love affairs, their unexpected kindnesses, all of it gone”. Additional layers of meaning are added as Jolene retraces Martin's childhood in Ireland and discovers those things that he had remembered wrong, and those that he had invented.

If it's true as Martin says at one point that people get together in order to have a place outside of themselves to store their personal narratives, Martin Sloane perfectly demonstrates this. Characters are haunted by their childhoods, possessed by relationships, and in Molly's case, tortured by a (likely) misunderstanding. With this book, Redhill has created art on so many different levels, and in the end, has captured profound and abiding truths. A perfect novel; this is why I read.

[Ｆｒａｎｋｈ · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the four books I purchased through a 'buy-one-take-one' bargain sale when I took a sabbatical leave from college to explore my options. My attention was caught by the reviews and summary at the back, as well as the eye-catching mysterious cover. Intrigued, I bought it and managed to finish it within the day. The thing about bargain books is you have no expectations whatsoever pertaining to the material you're about to read so I'm always careful with the stuff I buy from thrift stores. Luckily for me, Martin Sloane was as beautiful as a book could get, written with such melodious prose that the reading experience that entailed it just flows through the senses.

An impressionable college student Jolene has admired a middle-aged artist (the titular character) and decided to exchange mail correspondences with him. After writing each other letters, they finally meet and start a relationship. Jolene then becomes Martin's muse, and she unknowingly shone light to some questionable parts of Martin's life that he was forced to forget and get away from. In reflection of his personal history and chaos, Martin Sloane creates intricate miniatures inside boxes which are filled with references to his childhood woes. They were stunningly described by the author that I could really picture what's within every box.

As their love deepens, Jolene tries to understand better why Martin and his art are the way they are. But one night, without any explanation, he gets up from the bed and leaves her for good. The novel then becomes Jolene's tell-all quest to find her lost lover again which took her over ten years. In that expanse, she travels to Toronto where Martin Sloane lived, and then ends up in Ireland, where he grew up. Jolene uses the pieces of art Martin gave her before he disappeared. But the more she puts together remnants of Martin's life, the more she realizes how much you can never truly know people no matter how much you love them and want to connect with them.

Redhill's novel was, in theory, a detective story. But the prose has a more sentimental tone than that of the logical; readers are invited to experience the burden of one's memories, and that oftentimes some of the events we have experienced in the past are not always accurate or worth remembering. Martun Sloane's tale is that of an echo for every loss we had at one point in our lives, and the stubborn ways we try to preserve memories and the feelings that they inspire. The metaphorical significance of Martin Sloane's art pieces is overpowering both for Jolene and the reader, guiding the journey as well as dismantling us with every transient glimpse at Martin's mind space.

This is a haunting novel that offers no resolution, mirroring how real life can be without meaning or finality, especially when it comes to the complexities of human experience. The passages in the books are some of the strongest and vivid descriptions I've ever read, and they often leave me distraught and helpless as I too try to stare into the abyss of my life and wonder if my story ever mattered to anyone; and even if it did, the interpretation would still be subjective, dependent on the outsider's perspective and own set of experiences.

Martin Sloane invites us to question the way we love and hurt each other; the ways we try to assign meaning in everything that is, in the grand of scheme of things, eventually irrelevant. The novel seeks to make us probe at the empty holes in our souls and why we try so hard to have them filled when perhaps we are meant to be incomplete after all.

RECOMMENDED: 10/10

* There are books you read that are visceral and unforgettable in the most inexplicable sense. This is one of them.

[Tami · Rating 2 out of 5]

There is nothing worse than a decent plot that is ruined by an author who is convinced he/she needs to write a novel as opposed to a short story or novella.
There were entire chapters of this book that put me to sleep. They slowed the development of the plot and bored me to hell.

[Ginger Hallett · Rating 4 out of 5]

This haunting story has left me a bit unsettled. I wanted to read it because I enjoyed reading three of Michael Redhill's later works, the detective series set in Ontario and featuring Hazel Micallef, which he wrote under the pseudonym Inger Ash Wolfe. He's a good storyteller.

There is a lot of story-telling in "Martin Sloane", tinged (and sometimes saturated) with melancholy, love and loss, but chock-full of detail and mystery at the same time. I found it to be quite a page-turner, irresistible and frustrating at the same time. I still haven't figured out, or at least come to terms with, the ending. Maybe I'm looking for answers that aren't there, or maybe I just can't solve the puzzle--and that bugs me.

I didn't read any reviews before I read this book, which is my general policy in order to avoid spoilers, but after I finished I read several of them, hoping to either find out what I want to know or find that others have the same unanswered/unanswerable questions. In vain. Drat!

I'm still puzzling over the characters Francine and Lenore, and their role in the Sloane family story.

[Lois Matthews · Rating 5 out of 5]

so I can’t believe I’ve come across martin sloane in a car boot for 50p, not knowing that my entire perspective on writing would change with that 50p.

martin sloane, a book about a woman in love with an artist through his works finally understands what constant, consistent love feels like. but then all of a sudden one day, her one true love disappears, and with it her whole sense of self, understanding, reasoning and also her best friend, molly, who cuts all contact

years later her and molly reconnect and make a desperate attempt to find martin, to understand his life, the story of martin sloane told with intertwining stories from his past, her present, their past and the lack of their future.

on first glance you’d think this book was about unrequited love, but you’d come to find that it’s really about the absence of love and of so many kinds of it. jolene loses martins love, mollys love, but throughout the story you also learn of martins absence of love from his family, his friends, himself, jolenes loss of love from her mother, and mollys absence of love from others her entire life. it’s about being lost, trying to piece it all back together, and not trying to force it, just trying to be

the book reads like your favourite song, it’s so easy, so heartbreaking, and it’s literally the perfect book. 100%⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[Gossymotto · Rating 2 out of 5]

I got this book from the local library and I don't know if they just dumps some early Galleys of the manuscript on the Library or what, but most of the dialogue in the edition I read was void of quotation marks. I can get a little tricky reading without those things.

Outside of the misprint issue, I found the book was mostly narrative with long drawn out paragraphs and overly long chapters. I don't mind these things, but it gets a bit tedious when the entire novel is written that way.

I guess what bothered me most is that my expectations were high for a Giller Prize runner up, and they weren't close to be met. The story does have a level of suspense to it, which builds throughout the novel. Basically, you keep reading because you want to know why Martin Sloane disappeared, but alas you never do find out. Needless to say, was a let down.

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A hauntingly-beautifully-written book. Redhill is indeed an exceptional author to have written a story with so many layers and not leave the reader confused. I read this book in 2 days. I could not put it down.

[Martha · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yet another book that has lived in my "to read" pile, now I know why half the chapters put me to sleep.

[Bandit · Rating 3 out of 5]

This may seem like a love story, but it’s more about the disappearance of love. In this case literal and metaphorical. One day Martin Sloane, beloved of Jolene Iolas, walks out of her life without so much as a word…an event that absolutely devastates her and shapes the person she matures into for years to come. The cover of the book conveys that disappearance perfectly, but also the enigmatic nature of the eponymous character, at times nearly too vague to pin down. Eventually we learn that he became the commitment phobic distant adult due to some childhood abandonments, but, frankly, none of it justifies his inconsiderate and emotionally destructive behavior. But for most of the book we follow Jolene as she goes from an impressionable naïve college kid who so desperately loves an older artist to a mature person in her 30s who has finally moved on with her life. So much so that when an old friend contacts her out of the blue with a possible lead on Martin Sloane’s whereabouts, she’s willing and able to do some detective work in an attempt at a possible closure. This can technically pass for a mystery novel, but anyone reading it as such would be disappointed. It’s more of a character study and a very good one at that. Although I can’t say I really cared for any of the characters. I know, I know that shouldn’t get in a way of a good read, but it does, it just does. Vagaries of love being what they are, people seldom come out unscathed, but Martin Sloane absolutely devastates Jolene. And here it stands to mention their age difference, 35 years, May/ December romance to the extreme, the sort of age difference only certain movie stars and members of The Rolling Stones can get away with. And whatever his maturity level may have been in his mid 50s, it is still miles away from a college age kid. There seems to be a genuine affection there, but he maintains Jolene at arm’s length, so that their entire relationship is conducted long distance. And then he vanishes, leaving her bereft, confused, severely traumatized. Nothing in his past makes this ok, so he’s difficult to care about. And Jolene…I’m not sure, it isn’t as easy to explain her. She doesn’t have Sloane’s charm or talent, she doesn’t have his distance, but she doesn’t exactly brim with warmth either. She’s fairly plain, in fact, some shades of grey without her first love’s tragedy to color her. The writing was a thing of beauty, absolutely lovely. The author is also a poet, so it’s that kind of loveliness. Gorgeous meditations, lovingly rendered descriptions. Language lovers’ literary delight. Plot wise, though, I kind of wanted something more, or maybe the lack of personal engagement with the characters got to be too much after a while. For all the narrative’s beauty, there was a certain distance to it, the author Martin Sloaned it that way, it seems. I mean, it was a genuinely enjoyable read. But then again I’m also genuinely glad it was under 300 pages, I don’t think the language alone would have sustained me for longer. I suppose I wanted something slightly more exciting, something along the lines of the dioramas Martin Sloane’s famous for. In fact, this book had me at dioramas, I love those perfectly precise miniature worlds. They hint at stories unravelling well beyond their walls. Much like this book does, hints and hints, but in the end you have to use your imagination. Then again, much like art, different people will take different things away from it. It’s certainly interesting enough to give it a try.

[Levon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Martin Sloane, a Mysterious Guy who could also just be Any Art Dude. What you can learn from this book? That love and life are ever changing and though people come, people will go, and that “it was possible to have something inside you at the same time that it was gone forever.” Also maybe don’t date artist guys twice your age.

[Vania Pagniello · Rating 3 out of 5]

Michael Redhill
Anchor Canada

Martin Sloane by Michael Redhill is a sad allusive, mystery novel that addresses truths central to the human condition. The novel takes place over a decade and tells the story of Jolene Iolas, an English student who falls in love with Martin Sloane, a middle-aged artist who creates detailed box constructs. Suddenly after years of dating, Martin vanishes from Jolene’s life without a trace. The narrative follows Jolene on her psychological odyssey as she tries to make sense of how a person who loved her could leave so suddenly.

I enjoyed Redhill’s writing for the majority of the novel. The middle of the novel was a bit slow-paced but overall it was an exquisite read. Redhill is a playwright and poet - this is shown as his writing is beautifully filled with poetic devices. Redhill was born in Maryland but raised in Toronto; he studied at Indiana university for a year then returned to Toronto which is a similar fate to his protagonist Jolene. Just like his character Martin’s artwork, Redhill is very intricate in his writing.

Contradictory, separation and interconnection are common topics that simultaneously exist within the text. These topics are supported through the narration and punctuation. The novel follows two narrators who come together to tell one story. There is a first person narrator, Jolene, and a third person narrator; both speak in past tense. A large bulk of the novel is told by Jolene. She leads us through the aftermath of Martin's disappearance which takes place in the present. The second narrator, the third person, tells the tale of Martin’s childhood. Age is the distinguishing factors between the two narrators.

Through dramatic irony, we see Martin’s childhood indirectly affecting Jolene’s present. Redhill places emphasis the division between childhood and adulthood through this narration but also through his use of punctuation. In Jolene and Martin’s memories, there are no quotations during the dialogue. Interestingly, Redhill visibly uses punctuation and narration to separate the past and present. This separation mirrors a central motif that enforces the theme reality of loss. “But this childhood narration doesn’t rhyme with anything. Not even with itself, for what could a dusty carpet have to do with gardening gloves, or a piano with gravestones? So many times in thirty-five years, I’ve known the feeling of that little girl being erased. The girl followed by the young woman who was given the hook for another, later woman. I feel a rough kinship with them, like they are conspirators in what has become of me. A lifetime of versions.” (Redhill. 11). This is one of many of Jolene’s comments on how she is unable to piece her childhood together. She at mercy at the inevitable loss of her old selves. I feel an intimate connection with this passage because I think it is something that every human feels and helplessly must come to terms with.

This novel was very enigmatic in the storyline itself, but also in the overall message. While reading this I continuously felt as if there was an intense amount of hidden messages going over my head. In my own interpretation, I do not think this novel is about love. The character Martin is a tool used by Redhill to address how we are all subliminally interconnected. However we paradoxically all separate ourselves from conscious connection because of the how this intertwinement uniquely affects each person. This novel is extremely insightful to emotions of the human condition and I would definitely read it again to get a better grasp of its true message.

[Karen Bahal · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read Mr. Redhill's Consolation and was in love with the novel. Martin Sloane is another of my favourites. The novel embarks you on a journey into love, relationships, trust, pain, sadness and confusion. The story is told my two characters Jolene and Martin. Martin comes into her life like a sweet warm breeze and exits it like an Artic deep freeze. He feels and concept of love is uncertain as he lives for the moment and has no faith in the future whereas Jolene loves for the past, present and future. It is a complex story how the ones you love contribute to the way you live and think and how that influences your everyday life. Excellent novel.

[Sherry Hinman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Martin Sloane was a hugely satisfying read. I now know (after having also read Bellevue Square) that Redhill feels no obligation to tie everything up neatly by the end of his books. But those details he does choose to explain are woven together in clever and intensely meaningful ways. The rest is left to the reader. His prose is evocative and poetic, more so in this book than in the more recent, Giller Prize-winning Bellevue Square.

[daniel smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

A tuna salad sandwhich on dry rye. One of those books that jumps all over the place before telling you what's going on. Not really in a suspenceful way since nothing really drastic ever happens. The cover does a good job in describing the book. It supplies a mood, not an answer. Not a very pleasant mood, but it's effective in what it does.

[Karen Thomson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I suspect I am not smart enough for this book, perhaps because the word "enigmatic" was used so often in the descriptions. I wanted a solution to the mystery, I wanted the friends to actually talk, I wanted more to happen, I wanted to like the characters more. I did love the art and will look up the inspiration artist.

[Siobhan Harrop-McDiarmid · Rating 3 out of 5]

Before reading Redhill's latest Scotiabank Giller prize winner Bellevue Square, I decided to re-read his earlier novel. Martin Sloane is fascinating but frustrating because I was looking for a bit more of the mystery to be revealed.

[Arah-Lynda · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars actually

[Loralee Gillis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Michael Redhill is clearly a talented writer and I find his books so frustrating. There is no resolution- the story just remains floating in the air. ARG.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

What did I think? I think that Michael Redhill is an amazing author. I read Consolation and really enjoyed it. Martin Sloane I've picked up and put down and finally picked it up again and loved it all up until Dublin. However I still couldn't put it down. I couldn't put it down because I love his style of writing.
Jolene was a young University student who fell in love with Martin when he was in his mid 50's. A huge age descrepency. She lived in NY and he lived in Toronto. At one point she said that Toronto was only 5 hours north of her, but she never had a sense of it or Canada. 'The country above us always struck me as storage space, like an attic' Then when she was in Dublin "The lonely people in a city are all joined together at night" Those are simple yet profound sentiments.

The story all in all left me scratching my head. Why did Martin disappear? Why did Molly call Jolene? Why after so many years did Jolene hop on a plane to go to Dublin? The whole scene with Mrs. Bryce and Lenore just seemed to me to be so out of place. I was ready to throw in the towel then - I felt angry and didn't understand how they fit or why they fit. I loved the telling of Martin's childhood in Ireland and how his art boxes or dioramas developed from his experiences. The ending was irritating and unsatisfying. Where's Martin?????

[Monica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Martin Sloane was fifty-four when I started writing to him, fifty-six when we became lovers, now that's the thing that seems shocking, the raw fact of that.

Martin Sloane is a remarkable story about the distances the soul is willing to travel for answers it's not destined to receive. Beautiful, and yet written with haunting finesse. The pages are saturated by an unsettling reality that we don't always know the intentions of those we love. In the wake of such loss, the memories become the very thing that keeps splintered hopes intact. As I reflect on what've read, I am reminded of the Martin Sloane in my life. If Jolene's search portrayed the depth of her love, then I haven't yet understood the true meaning of loving another person.

Thank you for writing this timeless novel, MR.
I look forward to collecting and reading your other books.

[Judith · Rating 3 out of 5]

As much a story about the narrator here, Jolene Iolas, as about Martin Sloane. Martin Sloane is an artist who uses found objects to create little stories in boxes. His work is intricate, carefully made, and fascinating to some, including Jolene. Jolene, many years younger than Martin, is attracted to him and in time he appears to respond. The two become a couple who live in separate homes.

What does Martin's work say about his life? How does Jolene's background lead her to a life of searching? Other reviewers have said the novel is about love, about how one loves another. There are several kinds of love in the book, so perhaps this is as good a way to describe it as any.

Redhill says he was inspired by the work of an actual artist, Joseph Cornell, when he created Martin Sloane. I found it helpful to look at Cornell's work after reading the novel.

[Mark Lisac · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some nice writing here, and an enticing although not absorbing story, but on many pages I asked, "Do people really talk and act this way?" The answer was usually no. Atmospherics rather than human characters — possibly the result of an author who tries really hard to be a literary writer. Can see why many readers would give it four or five stars, but felt taken in, not for the first time, by the strong reviews and prize-winner status that persuaded me to read it. Sagged a bit in the middle with a long flashback that made sense only at the end. Possibly best taken as an allegory of love and memory among real people rather than as a story directly about real people.

[Diane B · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of my favourite things about the book were the diorama - so intricately fashioned and vivd in description.

Definitely beautifully written and told.

So sad, though. People separating themselves from those they love. To save them, to punish them, to choose another, to choose self. Mysterious disappearances later rationalized but never fully comprehended. The desire to unite and be with another soul a constant pull, until it becomes possible and people turn away.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a beautifully written book - i enjoyed reading the first book of an author whose other books I’ve read. It was poetic and introspective, but also a mystery. There were parts of Molly and Jolene’s relationship that did not ring true to me while I was reading, but after a few hours of thinking about it, I feel like they made more sense. I feel like I’ll still be mulling over this book for a few weeks. Definitely worth the read - thanks Annie!

[Sharon Corina · Rating 1 out of 5]

I did not even finish this book, it's about a young student in her 20's who falls in love with an Irish artist twice her age. He suddenly leaves her early one morning, with no explanation, after they have been going out for a few years. The day before her old girlfriend and roomate from college comes to visit them, something may have happened between them, afterwards, Martin leaves, and her friend refuses to speak to her again. Very slow moving, I was not compelled to finish it.

[Morgen Salas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing

Always searching for a good book, but settling more often than not. This is one of the good ones. The writing is thrilling, spare and beautiful. The story is heartbreaking but I would never have missed it for the world

[Danielle · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5/5 I am not sure how to rate this book. The synopsis fooled me, but after reading the book, the synopsis is accurate. I may have misinterpreted it. Anyhow, I read it, I finished it. I must have been entertained.

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A moving, beautifully written book. About family, relationships, art and life.

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Michael Redhill is simply brilliant.

[Andrea · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sadly, the story goes nowhere. I kept reading this book hoping there would be a point to the characters and the story lines introduced in the first chapters, but there was none.