His entry begins:Right now I’m reading Lauren Groff’s magical-realist novel, The Monsters of Templeton. Told from multiple points of view and across hundreds of years of history incorporating photos as well as text, it reminds me of Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude and also “The Most Beautiful Dead Giant in the World.” Nevertheless, this is a distinctly American book – yes, I know Colombia is also part of America, but you know what I mean – and Groff has a very personal and honest vision. It really is a story of archeology and paleontology; it opens with the discovery of a beautiful but dead sea-monster in Lake Glimmerglass but is chiefly concerned with the protagonist’s struggle to find her place in a small town in which she is simultaneously an outcast and integral part. You’d have to be...[read on]Among the early praise Paradise Dogs:
"A satirical cross between Carl Hiaasen's riotous rants about overdevelopment and the delusional swagger of John Kennedy Toole's Ignatius J. Reilly in A Confederacy of Dunces. Fine writing and slapstick comedy can be a prickly pairing, but Martin makes it look effortless."Visit Man Martin's website and blog.
--Atlanta Magazine"A full-bore slapstick marathon in the tradition of Carl Hiaasen."
--Publishers Weekly
"The pacing is perfect, the tone is the right blend of picaresque and touching. Man Martin is simply brilliant."
--Booklist
“A delicious farce – with a head and a heart. At the center is Adam Newman, the most hilarious character to come along in ages, a wild-man knight errant who’s able to solve anyone’s problems but his own. Plenty of absurd situations and laugh-out-loud writing, but with an underlying sadness and compassion that will take you by surprise.”
--Nancy Zafris, author of The Metal Shredders and Lucky Strike and fiction editor of The Kenyon Review
Read--Coffee with a Canine: Man Martin and Zoe.
Writers Read: Man Martin.
--Marshal Zeringue
Posts
