Customer Reviews

The Book of Revelation: A Novel

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4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

`The Book of Revelation' is an interesting book if not as good as Thomson's previous work which is still an amazing accomplishment. The first half of the novel, while not as shocking as some have said, concerns the kidnapping of a male classical dancer and his subsequent sexual torture by three masked nude women. The second half of the book details his escape and subsequent soul-searching. The theme of the latter part of `The Book Of Revelation' is very reminiscent (to me) of a lot of Hermann Hesse's work. The only issue (and this is, admittedly, rather petty) I had is that Rupert Thomson's brilliant descriptions that were so prevalent in his fantastic `The Insult' and `Dreams of Leaving' aren't as abundant. I frequently stopped and admired the analogies and descriptions in those two books. If you haven't read either `Dreams Of Leaving' (which you'll have to track down in a used bookstore in the U.S. - or an auction site - since it's not currently being published here) or `The Insult', I'd recommend those first. However, if you have already read and enjoyed those, certainly read `The Book Of Revelation.'

I finished this book in 1 1/2 days. It's very powerful and moving. Thomson has a nice style, and the subject matter is both shocking (the first half) and universal (the second half). Don't be put off by the subject matter...the story is about so much more than "sex".

Rupert Thomson (1955) has written a fascinating and compelling sixth novel, and once you start reading 'The Book of Revelation', it's difficult to put the book down. A nameless 30-year old english dancer/choreographer lives and works in Amsterdam. He has a succesful career and for some years he's been living happily with his nice girlfriend Brigitte, also a dancer. In his life there are no real troubles, until... everything changes forever. He's abducted in Amsterdam by three cloaked and hooded women, who hold him captive and chained naked to the floor of an anonymous white empty room for eighteen days. For no apparent reason. During his captivity the only option there for him is total submission. The young women, presumably of his own age, appear often naked -though always hooded- to him. They have their way and play all kinds of games with him, mostly for their sexual pleasure. When the women's demands become more fierce, total dehumanisation and humiliation follows. The man is defenseless against this depraved performance of power, domination and desire. The ordeal he's subjected to includes rape and even brutal mutilation. For the reader this is a shocking nightmare as well.

The captivity-part of the book reminded me of Pascal Bruckner's bizarre and weird, but brilliant novel 'les voleurs de beauté' (1997), and of two films where a similar sort of events takes place: Pasolini's `Salo: the 120 days of Sodom' (1975) and Michael Haneke's `Funny Games' (1998). What happens there is that you're forced to witness extreme atrocities, while you know there will be no escape from these brutal violations of human dignity. And of course, as a `witness', it makes you sick, you feel horrible. It's the same with Thomson's `Book of revelation', with one big difference, ... a relief. The man regains his freedom. After eighteen days the women all of a sudden decide to release him.

The book is really about what follows then. Of course, after his release he's not really free. He will carry the horrible events he endured in captivity for the rest of his life, probably without ever knowing the identity of his torturers. In a brilliant way Thomson manages to describe the psychological process that accompanies the quest that now lies ahead of this deeply wounded man. His life-after looks like an endless re-evaluation. How to live with yourself, with these scars, how to deal with your sexuality, with the people around you, and how to put your life in some sort of right track again... Facing all these problems the man begins a search for the women who made a ruin of his life. A search that will also bring his innermost self to the fore, in a way he never could have imagined.

The outline and structure of the novel is well balanced, and the shifting of perspective, using the first person (`I'-form) and third person (`he'-form) alternately in different sections of the novel, works fine and efficient. I read all Thomson's novels and one of his best writing skills throughout his work is the use of analogies. In `The Book of Revelation' display of that skill may not be as abundant as in `The five gates of hell' and `The insult' -his most mesmerizing and intoxicating novels- but the outline and the psychological development of the main character is as good as ever. And, what's more, in `The Book of Revelation' Thomson reveals a deep wisdom to everyone of us about the essences of life, concerning relationships, sexuality, human dignity and freedom. A remarkable achievement, and taking into account the difficult subject Thomson is dealing with here, I consider `The Book of Revelation' a succesful `tour de force'. In an oeuvre that's far from complete I hope.

NB: also recommended: Pascal Bruckner - les voleurs de beauté (Grasset et Fasquelle, 1997) I read this brilliant French novel -overlapping Thomson's 'Book of Revelation' in theme and mood- in dutch translation, titled 'De dieven van de schoonheid' (De Bezige Bij, 1998)

I was quite prepared not to like this book, drawn to it to see what the 'cult' status of Rupert Thomson was all about. The premise of a man being kidnaped by 3 bosom young women seemed the maudlin stuff of my adolescent fantasies. The tone here, however, is one of psychological suspense rather than prurience. The kidnap sequence lasts only a few chapters. What follows is an exploration of the trauma of sexual exploitation. Not only are the roles reversed here, but the attitude of the victim is decidedly against the grain of accepted convention. He seems strangely detached from his ordeal, which certainly involved sensual pleasures, but also deeply offensive and invasive circumstances. In the aftermath, he abandons his previous lifestyle, girlfriend and seems to be semiconsciously trying to recreate the situations of his incarceration. He does not report the incident, fearing the humiliating publicity, as most men would. He wanders in a disassociated state, wildly but unsatisfyingly promiscuous. Thomson's book is a haunting meditation of eros and abuse. It is a tale of subjection, submission, seduction, dependence and obsession. It plumbs the ambiguous nature of sexual relationships, the indistinct borders of consent, societal predispositions as to what constitutes rape. The book has a nightmarish alter ego to its blithe and breezy narration, as a festering wound entangles the protagonist with denial, guilt and anger in an explosive combination. This is juxtaposed against a city that continues undistracted, unaware of an event so devastating that the main character has ceased to function as a contributing member. The author relates the outward effects, leaving the reader to fathom the inward distress. The climax comes when the need to reenter society and life, is confronted forthright with the need to come to terms with his the scars of his experience, in ruinous circumstances. Thompson uses an interesting combination of first and third person tenses to transmit his subject's mental state. It is a book with an understanding of the condition of suspended outrage, jammed by social mores which are far more hypocritical about the equality of the sexes than understanding of the universal response to victimization.

Some men (not me of course) fantasize that they are held captive by a clutch of beautiful women who do interesting things to them. The hero of this novel, a choreographer, is kidnapped by three women who want to use him to satisfy their physical desires. This they do, but our friend really doesn't get into the spirit of it all, and yearns to escape. I don't think I can describe much of this for fear of getting censored by the word police. Let's just say that all the women get pretty satisfied, and then, suddenly, after a few weeks they release him.

Does he run to the police and report his kidnapping? He thinks about it, but who would believe him? He's been violated, but can't tell anybody about it. He takes three years off and tours the world to get it out of his system, but when he returns to England he becomes obsessed with finding these women. His search is extensive, but naturally I can't report the outcome. I'll just say that if Camus were alive I would bet anything that he had been hired to write the ending.

The theme of this novel is quite original. We can easily accept that women who are abused by men undergo considerable psychological trauma. In this story RT shows us that a man could also suffer damage from such an experience, especially when he feels unable to seek help.

Well worth reading.

The blurb on the back cover of "The Book of Revelation" suggests that the novel "fearlessly exposes our darkest fears to reveal the sinister connections between sex and power and how we are shaped by our experiences." It is a bold claim for Rupert Thomson's work, and one that, ultimately, cannot be sustained.

"The Book of Revelation" tells the story of a talented, successful young dancer and choreographer living in Amsterdam with his girlfriend of seven years, Brigitte. One day he goes out to buy cigarettes for her and is drugged and kidnapped by three black-hooded women. They keep him chained and captive in a stark white room for eighteen days, where he is emotionally and sexually abused, made to masturbate and perform, and, ultimately, mutilated, before being released. This occurs in the first half of the book and is narrated in the third-person. The man is never identified by name and the third-person narrative voice has the desired effect of distancing the reader from the victim's experience, making the reader feel the stark, dehumanizing experience of the dancer. This first part of the book is psychologically disturbing and erotically charged, in a dark sort of way; it is, in other words, a powerful piece of writing.

The second half of "The Book of Revelation" is written in the first person and relates what happens after the dancer is released by his captors. The victim remains unidentified by name, but the first-person narrative voice now brings the reader intimately into the mind of the dancer. Unfortunately, this part of the book requires the reader to suspend belief, the dancer's behavior seemingly at odds with what the claims of realism demand. Thus, upon his release, he makes his way back to his apartment, where he sees his girlfriend Brigitte. He does not tell her what has happened to him, nor does he tell anyone else. All he can say, at this point, is "how difficult it is, sometimes, to find the right words, or any words at all." In some ways, his inability to communicate with his girlfriend (and others) is adumbrated at the beginning of the story, when he gets into an argument with Brigitte about her smoking, an argument that seems curiously devoid of any real interpersonal relationship. The effect of all this is to make the reader (or at least this reader) feel that the dancer's problems are as much a result of his own disfunctionality as they are of his bizarre kidnapping and captivity.

From this point forward, the story is propelled by the dancer's unmitigated attempt to find the three women who held him captive. His only touchstones are the identifying marks he had observed on the naked bodies of those women. He is thus compelled to embark on a misogynistic crusade to sleep with every woman he meets in the hope that he can identify one of them by the revelation of her nakedness. This is one of the possible meanings of the book's title, a meaning suggested by the book's epigraph: "Will there ever be anything other than the exterior and speculation in store for us? The skin, the surface--it is man's deepest secret."

In the end, the dancer becomes a victim of his own obsession and his own inability to communicate, his inability to verbalize his experience and intimately share that experience with others. His redemption, if it will come at all, can only occur if he can overcome these inabilities, if he can "reveal" his kidnapping, his humiliation, his disturbed motivations; if he can tell his story, a book of revelation.

"The Book of Revelation" is an interesting book which keeps you turning the pages, wanting to know what happens in the end, whether the dancer will ever find his captors. Rupert Thomson is also a writer with great imaginative and writing ability. It is certainly a book worth spending time with, but not quite deserving of some of the critical acclaim it has received.

The "Book of Revelation" is an appropriate title for this haunting, strange, disturbing, darkly funny novel. What is revealed here? In a way, not much, including details about most of the characters, or, even, an answer to the identity or motives of the kidnappers. In another way, however, a lot is revealed, or at least explored, in this novel, including issues of sexuality, power, memory, and even, in an Existential philosophy sense, the search for meaning in an absurd, chaotic world. Hints of Kafka (the Trial), Camus (the Stranger), Bowles (The Sheltering Sky) and even Anne Rice (her vampire books, for instance, explore many of the same themes). A fascinating, engrossing book, and one you will not soon forget.

I read this book in one sitting because I couldn't wait to find out if he ever found his captors or not. But I was drawn in for another reason: to see how the male mind would react to his body being objectified, used, and ultimately, thrown out.

This book is fascinating for those reasons. The writing is, for the most part, well done, and the characters will stay in your head for a long time. I only give it four stars because the plot is a little weak in places and some parts didn't seem totally thought through. But this is a gripping, entertaining book, and very, very unsettling.

Thomson has always had a flair for telling a story - what in his works seem incidental and ocasional at first, always develop into longer, almost eerily mechanical constructions, like all the pieces of a clock working together to perform just one simple 'tick'. 'Book Of Revelations' contains many - Thomson quickly introduces the physical qualities of the central character, leaving himself (as always) room to develop a personality of such depth that a reader will find themselves wondering why superficial beauty still exists. At the center we have the lead character, a dancer, in a world that, to him, seems ideal. One day he is abducted. The irony that Thomson constructs, in regards to the inevitable trappings of any choice in life, is superb. At first it is quite possible to see the character trapped, held in a prison by three nameless, faceless women. However, almost as soon as he has been taken prisoner, he is set free, only to realise that he was never truly free in the first place, and that all the women did was simply offer him a true glimpse at every persons prison. He becomes free to know that he is trapped. Thomson has always constructed a seemingly dualistic world, in which mind and body exist in seperate continents, one ocasionally drifting by the other to allow a little viewing pleasure. 'Book Of Revelations' is a fantastically written exploration of the mind as a prison, and the body as the phone call every new inmate is allowed.

This is a wonderful book - the best book I have read in a long time. I almost didn't check it out, because I thought the abduction section would creep me out too much. It isn't at all too creepy, though. It's a fascinating and beautifully written book. I couldn't put it down. I sympathized with the protagonist throughout and found the book entirely satisfying. I think Thomson's exploration of the effects of trauma is sensitive and intelligent.