Martin John

Reviews / Votes

'This 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 humanity's 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 'You might hold your breath while reading this novel. The story transgresses the body with or without our permission, and illuminates important ideas we often look away from. And yet, it is now, more than ever, that we need to reread the body.' -- Lidia Yuknavitch 'The novel all your favourite novelists will be reading.' * Globe and Mail * 'As an avant-garde Canadian novelist, Schofield is in a class unto herself. [Martin John] is a novel that deserves to be discussed.' -- David B. Hobbs * Globe and Mail * 'Possessed of a biting, acerbic voice, influenced by Beckett, Joyce, and O'Casey, Schofield offers a sardonic, funny, and stylistically innovative breath of fresh air to a literature that too often feels starved of oxygen.' * Quill and Quire * 'Simply brilliant. With its discomfiting portraiture, dazzling brain-puzzle of a storytelling technique, and utter assurance, Martin John easily matches the tremendous promise of Malarky, Schofield's debut.' -- Brett Josef Grubisic * Macleans * 'Schofield's first achievement is to burrow into Martin John's rackety mind. Her second crucial achievement is to turn this unsettling apprehension into a necessary, extraordinary act of empathy.' -- Alison Gillmor * Winnipeg Review * 'Schofield writes without judgment, making her new novel an exceptional, albeit uncomfortable, reading into the mind of a paranoid, compulsive sex offender . . . Schofield shows her skill through precise, singular and forceful prose. Five stars.' * Sunday Telegraph * 'Be warned: regardless of one's views on sexual deviants who prey on women . . . Martin John will make you ill with laughing but also guilty for smiling at a human tragedy . . . Many writers have brazenly wandered into the minefield of mental illness, but few with Schofield's peculiar decency and candour.' -- Eileen Battersby * Irish Times * 'Schofield tells the story from inside [Martin John's] anxious mind, in a voice jagged, funny and unsettling . . . Irresistible and humorous.' -- Jeffrey Burke * Mail on Sunday * 'A grown-up tale of how blighted lives carry on . . . fizz[ing] with surface humour . . . this is a book about social breakdown as well as mental breakdown, with a portrait - almost in passing - of a no-questions-asked migrant labour market in which Martin John can be tolerated but not helped.' -- Anthony Cummins * The Spectator * 'A necessary and urgent visit to one of society's great evils' * Sunday Business Post * '[Schofield's] incantatory prose does not miss a step . . . a brave, discomforting book.' * New Internationalist * 'As easy to devour as it is difficult to stomach.' * The Skinny * 'Profane, strange, hilarious, and necessary, Martin John is a beguiling triumph.' -- Patrick deWitt 'Innovative in form, and challenging in subject, Martin John is singular in contemporary literature as 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 ... Martin John is moving, profoundly human and insightful, and, perhaps most importantly, darkly humorous.' -- Thalia Field 'A fearless look at a broken soul. . . Do pick [Martin John] up 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.' -- Candace Fertile * Vancouver Sun * 'Anakana Schofield has eloquently captured the inner life of a hapless pervert - of whom there are many in our society, but who we little understand. Read Martin John and experience the ineluctable pull of one such guilt-ridden deviant and his overbearing mam.' -- Patricia Dawn Robertson * Toronto Star * '[Martin John] is an exhilarating follow-up to her Amazon.ca First Novel Award-winning Malarky . . . Martin John's fractured narrative perspective is positively adrenal. . . Schofield's ability to get us jacked up from exquisitely written and deeply troubling jokes . . . makes the Irish Canadian novelist one of the highest-flying and funniest working today.' -- Emily Keeler * National Post * 'Schofield eschews an excess of detail to terrific effect. The novel's harsh, sometimes broken language, paired with a minimum of punctuation, crafts a deliberate and effective sense of confusion, as if entering a mind or minds in the midst of great turmoil . . . This is an important and brilliantly unconventional work.' * Publisher's Weekly (starred review) * 'An intelligent, deeply thought-provoking - and brave - novel.' * Reading Matters * 'Martin John is one of the most original and compelling contemporary novels I've read. The writing is an astringent and unforgettable experience.' -- Krys Lee 'Eerie and elliptical . . . Ms. Schofield renders Martin John's consciousness through a kind of staccato anti-poetry.' -- Sam Sacks * Wall Street Journal * 'This is a very moving and terrific book.' -- Daniel Handler (alias Lemony Snicket) 'An extraordinary, startling piece of writing . . . Schofield brings warmth and humanity to her characters, and the formal experiments she attempts within the text are always in service of their inner realities rather than ostentatious stylistic flourishes.' -- Kirstin Innes * The Herald Books of the Year 2015 * 'Deploying some serious literary gumption, Schofield's frequently hilarious, and distinctly modernist, linguistic games are always gainfully employed in the uneasy, indelicate task of placing her reader nose to nose with the humanity of a sex offender . . . addictively reflexive, and potentially lethal.' -- Eimear McBride * New York Times * 'Frenetic, risk-taking . . . deliberately cryptic and bleakly funny, Martin John puts you inside the mind of a person you'd strive to avoid in real life, but also points to the fundamental elusiveness of character.' * New Yorker * 'A profound, innovative, and poignant meditation on identity.' * Large-hearted Boy, Favourite Novels of 2015 * 'The funniest, and possibly darkest novel of the year.' * National Post Books of 2015 (no. 3) * 'a novel that mirrors its protagonist's obsessive and deviant behaviour in its elastic prose' * The Toronto Star, Top 5 of 2015 * 'Martin John is not so much a character as a caricature of masculinity, a figure that, though, granted a privileged position in meaning's labyrinth, is, nevertheless, caught in his own circuit, fumbling with his zipper.' * Full Stop * 'Everything about this book is unique . . . The subject may be difficult for some. But it is so well written that it is a must read and it is very deserving of its nomination this awards season.' * Good Books and a Cup of Tea * 'Ambiguous; funny; distressing and complicated . . . this novel challenges our reactions to what Martin John does, to what men do.' John Self, The Guardian
'Schofield writes without judgment, making her new novel an exceptional, albeit uncomfortable, reading into the mind of a paranoid, compulsive sex offender . . . Schofield shows her skill through precise, singular and forceful prose. Five stars.' Cassie Davies, Sunday Telegraph
'Be warned: regardless of one's views on sexual deviants who prey on women . . . Martin John will make you ill with laughing but also guilty for smiling at a human tragedy . . . Many writers have brazenly wandered into the minefield of mental illness, but few with Schofield's peculiar decency and candour.' Eileen Battersby, Irish Times
'Schofield tells the story from inside [Martin John's] anxious mind, in a voice jagged, funny and unsettling . . . Irresistible and humorous.' Jeffrey Burke, Mail on Sunday
'A grown-up tale of how blighted lives carry on . . . fizz[ing] with surface humour . . . this is a book about social breakdown as well as mental breakdown, with a portrait - almost in passing - of a no-questions-asked migrant labour market in which Martin John can be tolerated but not helped.' Anthony Cummins, The Spectator
'Deploying some serious literary gumption, Schofield's frequently hilarious, and distinctly modernist, linguistic games are always gainfully employed in the uneasy, indelicate task of placing her reader nose to nose with the humanity of a sex offender . . . addictively reflexive, and potentially lethal.' Eimear McBride, New York Times
'Frenetic, risk-taking . . . deliberately cryptic and bleakly funny, Martin John puts you inside the mind of a person you'd strive to avoid in real life, but also points to the fundamental elusiveness of character.' New Yorker
'Eerie and elliptical . . . Ms. Schofield renders Martin John's consciousness through a kind of staccato anti-poetry.' Sam Sacks, Wall Street Journal
'A necessary and urgent visit to one of society's great evils' Sunday Business Post
'Schofield eschews an excess of detail to terrific effect. The novel's harsh, sometimes broken language, paired with a minimum of punctuation, crafts a deliberate and effective sense of confusion, as if entering a mind or minds in the midst of great turmoil . . . This is an important and brilliantly unconventional work.' Publishers Weekly, starred review
'An extraordinary, startling piece of writing . . . Schofield brings warmth and humanity to her characters, and the formal experiments she attempts within the text are always in service of their inner realities rather than ostentatious stylistic flourishes.' Kirstin Innes, The Herald, Books of the Year 2015
'Profane, strange, hilarious, and necessary, Martin John is a beguiling triumph.' Patrick deWitt, author of Undermajordomo Minor and The Sisters Brothers
'This is a very moving and terrific book.' - Daniel Handler (alias Lemony Snicket)
'This 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 humanity's 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 of The Thing About December and The Spinning Heart 'You 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 of The Chronology of Water
'Martin John is one of the most original and compelling contemporary novels I've read. The writing is an astringent and unforgettable experience.' Krys Lee, author of Drifting House
'[Schofield's] incantatory prose does not miss a step . . . a brave, discomforting book.' New Internationalist
'As easy to devour as it is difficult to stomach.' Gary Kaill, The Skinny
'As an avant-garde Canadian novelist, Schofield is in a class unto herself. [Martin John] is a novel that deserves to be discussed.' David B. Hobbs, Globe and Mail
'The novel all your favourite novelists will be reading.' Globe and Mail
'Anakana Schofield has eloquently captured the inner life of a hapless pervert - of whom there are many in our society, but who we little understand. Read Martin John and experience the ineluctable pull of one such guilt-ridden deviant and his overbearing mam.' Patricia Dawn Robertson, Toronto Star
'A novel that mirrors its protagonist's obsessive and deviant behaviour in its elastic prose' The Toronto Star, Top 5 of 2015
'A fearless look at a broken soul. . . Do pick [Martin John] up 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.' Candace Fertile, Vancouver Sun
'Schofield's first achievement is to burrow into Martin John's rackety mind. Her second crucial achievement is to turn this unsettling apprehension into a necessary, extraordinary act of empathy.' Alison Gillmor, Winnipeg Review
'[Martin John] is an exhilarating follow-up to her Amazon.ca First Novel Award-winning Malarky . . . Martin John's fractured narrative perspective is positively adrenal. . . Schofield's ability to get us jacked up from exquisitely written and deeply troubling jokes . . . makes the Irish Canadian novelist one of the highest-flying and funniest working today.' Emily Keeler, National Post
'The funniest, and possibly darkest novel of the year.' National Post, Books of 2015 (no.3)
'Simply brilliant. With its discomfiting portraiture, dazzling brain-puzzle of a storytelling technique, and utter assurance, Martin John easily matches the tremendous promise of Malarky, Schofield's debut.' Brett Josef Grubisic, Macleans
'Martin John is not so much a character as a caricature of masculinity, a figure that, though, granted a privileged position in meaning's labyrinth, is, nevertheless, caught in his own circuit, fumbling with his zipper.' Full-Stop
'Possessed of a biting, acerbic voice influenced by Beckett, Joyce, and O'Casey, Schofield offers a sardonic, funny, and stylistically innovative breath of fresh air to a literature that too often feels starved of oxygen.' Quill and Quire
'An intelligent, deeply thought-provoking - and brave - novel.' Reading Matters
'A profound, innovative, and poignant meditation on identity.' Large-hearted Boy, Favourite Novels of 2015
'Everything about this book is unique . . . The subject may be difficult for some. But it is so well written that it is a must read and it is very deserving of its nomination this awards season.' Good Books and a Cup of Tea 'Ambiguous; funny; distressing and complicated . . . this novel challenges our reactions to what Martin John does, to what men do.' -- John Self * The Guardian *