MARTIN MARTEN
MARTIN MARTEN
by Brian Doyle
Martin Marten contains one of the most unique ideas for a novel that I’ve ever encountered. And Brian Doyle writes it with wit and charm and empathy. I think I have my friend Ellen to thank for this recommendation and I am very appreciative. I absolutely loved every page of the book and will remember it forever.
Martin Marten follows two main characters: a fourteen-year-old boy who lives in a cabin with his family on Mt. Hood in Oregon. In this sparsely populated mountain hamlet, Dave has one good friend, Moon. But mostly he spends his days trekking through the woods on the mountain, appreciating the vast array of flora and fauna in his backyard. The book’s other main character is Martin, an adolescent marten (of the mustelid family, which includes badgers, otters, weasels and wolverines). Doyle beautifully develops each of his characters’ stories as they approach adulthood and leaves it to the reader to draw the parallels. Doyle’s ability to look at the world as composed of many types of beings, not just humans and animals, imbues his novel with a sensual, eye-opening character. The only other book I’ve read that comes close to this approach is Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer—also a fabulous read. But where Kimmerer writes beautifully about all beings having souls, she doesn’t make an animal one of her main characters.
Doyle fills his scenes where Dave and Martin’s paths cross with some of the most stunning writing I can ever remember reading. Actually, Doyle’s descriptions of all of his characters and their decency and kindness are both outstanding and refreshing. If you’re up for a really different kind of book, packed with a beautiful narrative that will leave you uplifted, Martin Marten is for you. (Liz)
