A Much-Married Man

Matt Hartman is a freelance editor and cataloguer, running Hartman Cataloguing, Editing and Indexing Services.

Robert Sward is a B.C. poet whose last novel, The Jurassic Shales,
appeared in 1975.

Noah Newmark is five times married and still going strong. Despite his
marital track record, he remains dedicated to all his wives.
“Subtleties,” he says. “It’s made up of two words. Subtle ties.
After a breakup, it is precisely those subtle ties one’s heart longs
to have restored.”

Wife number five, Holly, accompanies Noah to the Mt. Chakra commune in
the Santa Cruz mountains of Northern California. He has been sent by Our
Times Magazine to interview a 101-year-old guru named Rama. Rama
hasn’t spoken for decades, so Noah spends his interview time talking
about his life and his marriages, while Rama writes comments on a little
chalkboard. Later, when Holly comments that “it’s hard to do ...
[to] keep a marriage going,” the much-married Noah replies, “I’m
not giving up.”

This novel is trenchant and funny and full of sly pokes at
counterculture values. Recommended for public libraries.