Names are important and tricky in MARTIN MARTEN, as you might guess from the title of this third work of fiction by Brian Doyle. What we call a thing, an animal or each other shapes our viewpoint irrevocably, as does what we call ourselves. The story centers on Dave, an adolescent human, and Martin, an adolescent marten, on the mountain that the narrator chooses to call Wy’east (because that’s what the Native Americans called it,) but that most people know as Mount Hood. A tractor (Kevin) and a horse (Edwin) are named, but Dave’s mom and dad are identified only as Dave’s mom and dad, despite their prominence as wise and quirky characters. In fact, every single character in this novel, sentient or not, is wise in his or her own way, and definitely quirky. 

"I was charmed by this book, and very moved at times... [T]here is much to savor in this extraordinary celebration of a unique place."

There is Maria, Dave’s precocious little sister, who loves maps --- “…topographic maps of the mountain, of course, but also geologic charts, a map of the Zigzag River, a maritime map of Semiahmoo Bay in Washington that Miss Moss sold to Maria for three jokes about frogs, and a map of the interior of Dave’s brain that she had drawn for a school project and which her mom wanted to frame, but Maria said, no, it was only an accurate map on the day I drew it, and maps that are not accurate are only curiosities not utilities.” There is Miss Moss, who owns the only store in Zigzag and is being courted by Mr. Douglas, a trapper. (This courtship turns out to be a thread that binds the novel, if such a thing can be said to exist. Miss Moss is a tough sell: “Every marriage I have ever seen was a sort of gentle or awful jail bound by expectations and assumptions.”) There is Moon, Dave’s best friend who, for all intents and purposes, lives alone in a huge modern house while his parents travel the world for their jobs. There are coaches and teachers you really wish you had had. Here’s Dave’s cross country coach: “Will I be annoyed if you don’t get better? No. Should you be annoyed? Yes. Listen, I want you to have fun, but I want you to push too. I want you to enjoy this but see what else you have inside you. It’ll hurt to find that out sometimes. Deal with it.” 

And these are only the human characters. Martin the marten’s coming of age is drawn with as much care as Dave’s, and we aren’t surprised when the boy and the marten meet and wordlessly recognize their kinship. Edwin the horse is curmudgeonly and brave; Louis, the legendary king elk of the forest, is getting just a little bit weary.

I was charmed by this book, and very moved at times, but in the end it felt like a series of sweet essays. Doyle is an immensely clever writer and has no qualms whatsoever about interrupting the narrative to call attention to it. “Usually a bucolic scene like this one, in a mountain meadow, on a lovely summer afternoon, either turns dark for some reason --- contrast is such an interesting literary device, isn’t it --- or is arranged to house some important character revelation; a meadow is a kind of open stage, when you think about it, a sort of theater in the round, with our cheerful subjects gathered in the center, and we readers, and perhaps a deer, watching from the edges.” Doyle is also a prolific list maker.

Coupled with the numerous digressions, these habits pulled me away from the story, regardless of how much I enjoyed them. Still, there is much to savor in this extraordinary celebration of a unique place.