Martin's Scribbles: Sort of a Memoir

Martin’s Scribbles takes the reader on a playful romp through the latter twentieth-century to the present, as seen through the eyes of award-winning architect Martin Holub. Not exactly a memoir, these anecdotes from childhood in Czechoslovakia, to adjusting to life in New York City, to galivanting around the world designing buildings sheds a playful light on the past century. Whether the pronouncements about life of a naive school boy, the observations of a resident alien in the Big Apple, or irreverent musings on politics and culture, we are caught up on this most un-memoir-ish memoir, as only Martin Holub can tell it.

What do Prague, London, New York and Tehran have in common? Award-winning architect Martin Holub has lived, designed buildings and enriched lives in all these places. Martin’s Scribbles is a travel memoir, meets architect biography, meets lifetime reflection. Readers are taken on a playful romp through the latter twentieth-century to the present, as seen through the eyes of Holub – from a schoolboy in Czechoslovakia with an imprisoned mother, to an expat and lively architect living, working and socializing in New York City. A collection of autobiographical short stories, Martin’s Scribbles is an entertaining account of Holub’s experiences in his 80 years of travel, architecture, love and expat life; at times hilarious and others heartbreaking. This most unlikely memoir provides a very personal and intimate witness of the world’s recent history through the anecdotes and reflections of a well-traveled man, husband and architect. Holub’s creative visualization of memorable moments and influential meetings evoke a feeling of nostalgia for one’s own past experiences, and are told as only Holub himself could tell them.