Martin and John

Name: Martin and John
Brand: Brilliance Audio
Availability: InStock
Author: Dale Peck
ISBN: 9781721353538

Author: Dale Peck

Narrator: Andrew Eiden

Unabridged: 6 hr 24 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Brilliance Audio

Published: 06/11/2019

Categories: Fiction, Lgbtq+, Literary Fiction

Synopsis

Dale Peck’s debut is a tour de force in which Martin and John find each other again and again: in a trailer park, a high-end jewelry store, a Kansas barn, and later, in New York City, living under the shadow of the AIDS epidemic. Though their names remain the same, their identities are constantly shifting, creating a fractured view of loss and desire in the early years of the AIDS crisis. Vaulting through self and history, Martin and John is one of the most remarkable novels to emerge from an America ravaged by disease, and one of the finest and most complex love stories of the ’90s.Martin and John is the first volume of Gospel Harmonies, a series of seven stand-alone books which follow the character of John as he attempts to navigate the uneasy relationship between the self and the postmodern world.

About Dale Peck

Dale Peck is the author of twelve books in a variety of genres, including Martin and John, Hatchet Jobs, and Sprout. His fiction and criticism have earned him two O. Henry Awards, a Pushcart Prize, a Lambda Literary Award, and a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship. He lives in New York City, where he teaches in the New School’s Graduate Writing Program.

Reviews

Goodreads review by James

This novel amazed me when I read it in 1995. My response was visceral. When I read it again last week, I appreciated the innovative structure more than I did the first time, better understanding how the repetition of the names emphasizes the characters' disconnection. It's not a gimmick to force a t......more

Goodreads review by Chris

Edmund White summarizes this quasi-novel best in his first-edition dustjacket blurb: "These are elegant, nightmarish variations on two compressed, mordant themes: love in the time of AIDS and the eternally fragile politics of domestic desire." I quote White here because with this novel, twenty-five......more

Goodreads review by Matthew

There are many startling and amazing qualities to this book; it's structurally complicated and engaging without being 'difficult,' the language is lyrical even when Peck describes acts of horrible violence and suffering, and it's a book that will haunt you for a long time after you've finished. It's......more