Irish Gothic
From Amazon
I happened upon this book by accident, and it caught my eye for two reasons, both of them having to do with modern music: I recognized the name Peter Murphy, though the Murphy I knew was the front man for the eighties gothic band Bauhaus (and currently a solo artist), and the title John the Revelator is a traditional Gospel song covered by Frank Black and by Depeche Mode (with altered lyrics).
It was a happy accident. This novel reads like an introspective Irish biography, told from the perspective of a young boy dealing with his eccentric and rather morbid mother. Think a more gothic form of Angela's Ashes (yet less depressing, thank God).
Take advantage of the access to the first chapter and get hooked.
Nice try...
From Amazon
There is some splendid writing in this book, and some very powerful scenes, but I found that the book didn't hold together for me, since there's no real narrative arc in this Irish coming of age novel. A number of storylines get set up, but few of them ever resolve or pay off. This is the kind of book whose language sets it up as being better than it truly is, and hoping that the verbal conjuring trick will work, so that the reader will think, ah, fine prose makes a fine story. But there's not much of a story here, and the writing, while fine in spots, becomes terribly self-conscious after a while, and the prose occasionally moves from purple to mauve. The separate episodes with the symbolic crow aren't well integrated into the rest of the story, and thematically the book is a bit of a mess. That said, the dialogue rings true, and I liked the relationships between the characters, but the plot is so episodic that the story doesn't work organically. Still, it'll be interesting to see what Murphy tries next. He's got great potential and shows much promise.
The Wierd and Wonderful Drew Me In
From Amazon
...and the dark humor and captivating prose kept me enthralled. With John the Revelator, I was confronted with a coming of age novel (a genre I still enjoy in my early middle years) unlike any I'd ever read. I say confronted because, at times, reading of John Devine's travails was was almost like an assault on my senses. Murphy has a love of the written word that shines through, even when he's using them to slap the reader upside the face.
John's boyhood was so very different from my experience, but I found myself relating to all of the steps along his journey. John's mother is the pillar of his life and her declining health effects him more than any other outside stimuli could. Other events batter poor John and push him further and further into himself as well. His interplay with the busybody Mrs. Nagel. The unsettling relationship with his friend Jamey. This is a book of relationships rather than of plot, and that is where Murphy shines.
Some may find the prose flat, but after an initial "break in" period, I was hooked. John the Revelator was not always easy to follow and at times I was tempted to skip ahead, but in the end it was a rewarding read. Murphy has a voice that will hopefully continue to evolve in future novels.
What's Revealed?
From Amazon
Well for starters, in Murphy's John the Revelator, coming of age is not a matter of experience with sex, drugs, or even Rock and Roll. It isn't propelled by betrayal, madness, or corruption.
That's not to say that the protagonist, John Devine, doesn't experience all of those things-- he does in some spectacular and horrifyingly human ways. However, they don't transform him so much as push him further and further into himself.
For John, a world caught between the crows that fly to high to help, and the worms that start eating us while we're still alive, initiation comes only with death's attendant grief. It spurs him to pick-up his cross-bow and take a stand against petty evil's encroach.
Meandering
From Amazon
20 pages from the end, I couldn't describe what this book was about. I'm still not sure I know now that I'm finished, but I do know that the back cover text has virtually nothing to do with it - it's stuff that does take place in the story, but it's not what the story is about.
The book is a bit hard to get into, at least for an American, as the first few pages throw around a whole lot of Irish slang without a lot of context. That quickly falls off, though, in favor of the story. I would have to say that this book is simply cutscenes from the life of a small-town Irish boy growing up with a single, working mother. He has a friend or two, some misadventures along the way, some seemingly prophetic dreams, and typical mom-relation issues, but in the end it's about him growing up and his relationship with his mother. No mini story inside the narrative is ever told in full; the most you get is hints, but it's enough to build the impression of some full characters with lives and stories of their own (and some not).
In the end, I can't say that I'm _glad_ to have read it, and I probably won't seek out more by the author, but it was a pleasant enough way to pass the time.