One of my first thoughts when I was reading this was - has J. K. Rowling read it! And then my second thought was - has Daniel Radcliffe read this?! Somehow, I think they should! I love the thought of them reading it.
I was intrigued by the main character being called Martin when the last David Foenkinos book I read was called The Martins. I was wondering if there’s anything in that? Martin Hill is the boy who was nearly given the role of Harry Potter. And this fictional imagining conjures a life for Martin that sees him struggling to cope with the failure of not being Harry Potter. It’s a quirky novel and a curious premise also, but if you read the book and think about it more, what happened to Martin happens to all of us time and time again, doesn’t it? We all have to deal with failure. Sometimes when you’re very young and what you fail at is very big it becomes harder to cope with. But the book’s conclusion throws everything on its head and it’s a quite joyous denouement in so many ways. This is a perfect ‘life we wish we’d had’ story overflowing with compassion and understanding.
Martin broke my heart. There were times when I wondered whether he might be somewhere on the spectrum but some of his “idiosyncrasies“ were self-imposed because of his perceived failure. Foenkinos is a master of navigating the tightrope between comedy and tragedy, subtle, nuanced so you can laugh while you’re crying and vice versa. Martin dominates the narrative, while the other characters meander around him, some nurturing him, some inhibiting him. I also found the character of John, his father, very poignant. There’s a great deal of love in this book.
It’s structured in four parts which sees different phases of Martin‘s life. It has a flowing narrative style which is relaxed in spite of the sometimes emotional concepts contained within the writing. Much credit must go to Megan Jones, the translator. I know some of the action takes place in England, but I often completely forgot that it was a book in translation.
There was a period about three quarters of the way through when I thought the story was losing some momentum but in the final stages it picked up again and how!
Foenkinos tells a good story, it’s hard to second-guess where he’s going to go with the plot, so as a reader, you’ve always got the sense that there’s something waiting, just around the corner or just over the page! I loved The Martins and responded right away to the idiosyncratic style of the writing. But more than just being a good storyteller I think Foenkinos is perceptive when it comes to people and what makes them tick.
I look forward to reading more of his work. And I know I’ve got a lot to catch up on!
My thanks to Claire Hanscombe at Gallic books for a gifted proof.
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