This Martin Marten book review is about the book by Brian Doyle published in 2015. One of the characters is a marten who, of course, doesn’t actually have a name. But the author had to call him something to differentiate him from the other martens, so Martin he is.
What is a marten, you may ask? They are mustelids, forest creatures related to otters, wolverines, badgers, weasels, and so forth. Although they weigh only a handful of pounds, marten are speedy predators who can pursue both on the ground and aloft in trees.
Martin lives on Mount Hood in Oregon, which Doyle chooses to call by its Multnomah name, Wy’east. But Martin is only one of the characters. His primary human counterpart is Dave, a teenager who also lives on the mountain and is just entering high school.
Thus, we have somewhat of a coming of age story, both for Dave and for Martin.
Martin Marten Summary
Dave decides to be a cross country runner. His training route takes him into the woods of Wy’east, where, of course, he meets Martin.
But Martin is not a cuddly, cute forest creature. He’s not destined to become Dave’s pet or friend. Marten are fierce predators, but also somewhat reclusive, at least when it comes to people. Doyle keeps the relationship a distant one as it must be, but Martin always seems to find Dave all the same.
The story follows Dave through a year of high school. He proves to be a good runner, a moody teenager at times, nervous around women, but an overall quality character readers will like. Along the way, the reader meets most of the people of the local community, including Dave’s family, Miss Moss, in whose store Dave works, the trapper Mr. Douglas, Moon, Dave’s best friend and a budding basketball player, and a number of others.
Nature has some characters as well. Martin has a family, too, although he becomes independent of them rather quickly in the story. But Martin interacts with, or at least is near at times, elderly bears, huge elk, cunning foxes, swooping owls, and, of course, other marten. More than once, he comes within a hair’s breadth of death.
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Martin Marten Book Review – Style
Doyle’s storytelling method is somewhat unorthodox. Parts of this I enjoyed considerably. He goes to great lengths to make the animal characters act true to their species—they are not animal versions of people like we find in movies for kids. Yet, they have personalities, like animals do. Doyle tries to get the reader to consider that these animals might have thought patterns and methods of communication of their own that are different from humans yet no less effective and nuanced for lack of a spoken language or way to record their thoughts.
The story’s narrator takes omniscient to new heights at times. We learn stories of what happened on the mountain decades ago, part of what happens in other books about Wy’east that don’t exist, the future lives of some characters, and so forth. I could take or leave this part. I can imagine readers with a mix of reactions to these sections.
Likewise with some stylistic parts of the narrative. Why does Doyle decline to use quote marks for speech? How come we don’t learn the name of Dave’s dad until the last chapter? Why is one woman simply known as the Unabled Lady? (We learn why she’s unabled, but a name would be okay, too.) I don’t know if I’d go so far as to call these techniques annoying, but I don’t see what they added to the book, either.
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Martin Marten Book Review – Reaction
Most of the time, the book is an interesting story that keeps the reader going. Between the variety of townspeople and forest creatures, Doyle has plenty to work with. And, usually, he blends their individual threads together well.
The one serious critique I have is that everyone we meet on Wy’east, the humans at least, turns out to be the decent, thoughtful, unselfish type. We meet no angry, alienated young people taking solace in drugs and alcohol. Likewise, I recall no reclusive adults who live on Wy’east, no hateful types who come to a small town in Oregon to get away from the, shall we say, diversity of the Willamette Valley, or survivalists, or anti-government fanatics. The community seems very cohesive, but the reader never learns what thread connects them, other than some general Most People Are Good philosophy about life.
I do have one other critique—Maria, Dave’s younger sister, was ridiculous. Were her character twice as old, she’d never do and think of the things she does.
That aside, if you’re okay with a book without real villains to cheer against, this one may appeal to you. The characters have nuance, even if the nuances don’t vary far from Most People Are Good. I also found the author’s approach to the animal characters brave, refreshing, and thought-provoking. So, if you enjoy books that feature nature prominently without being true nature writing, this might be for you. Likewise if books full of good people fit your worldview.
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