Customer Reviews

John the Revelator

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2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I've put off reviewing this book for a couple of weeks, because I'm having a hard time putting my finger on what it is that I loved so much about this book.

Then I decided maybe it's the same thing that so many of us loved about the Seinfeld TV series: even though it's not really about anything, we enjoyed the way we felt while we watched it.

Peter Murphy's writing really impressed me. Anyone who is literate can string a few words together and call himself a writer. Murphy's writing really dazzled me though. He has a gift for describing scenes and events without making you feel like you've just been assaulted with a thesaurus. I particularly liked the setting in the local church where he likened Christ's physique on the cross to that of a "supermodel". Blasphemous as that may be, I have to agree with him: I've always pictured our savior to be a tougher guy than that.

The other thing I loved was the tricky way he sneaked short stories into the book through various dream sequences. Short stories are truly an art form, but most of us really don't want to read them. Murphy concealed them in this book like veggies in my wife's cooking.

Other things I loved:

* The descriptions of the Irish locale.

* Unpredictable/random sequences of events that are almost forbidden in American A-then-B-then-C mass produced novels.

I hope Peter Murphy is rewarded for this book and I anxiously await more in the future.

John Belushi once said, "Those Irishman love their mothers! Boy do they love their mothers!" This novel proves it, in a drawn-out, affecting way. The main character narrates his misspent youth, his attraction to a dissolute friend, his dalliances with drugs and the local hoods, but the towering central character of this novel is his mother, a promethean force who dominates him even as she withers away, leaving a howling vacuum in his life. There are descriptive passages of prose signifying that this is a serious novel, interspersed with the everyday debauchery and tedium of a young man's life in modern Enniscorthy, at least according to this former writer for Rolling Stone Magazine. There is no Father Murphy here, just a confused young nihilist without a cause.

I leave it for history to judge the relative ranking of this work in the literary firmament. I found it readable, as one would expect of a professional writer, but depressing and tedious at times. Even though I did not enjoy the novel, I recognize this Murphy's achievement, a work that rises above the common din of modern publishing, a new and fresh voice for your consideration.

Irish first time novelist Peter Murphy dazzles and amazes in his debut "John The Revelator." Brilliantly written with well drawn, engaging characters and the barest bones of a plot, Mr. Murphy has crafted a work with some of the most original descriptions and metaphors I've come across in my recent reading.

Forget the back cover hype, this novel is not "joining the ranks of the great novels of friendship and betrayal." Sure there is friendship and there is betrayal but neither is of overriding importance to the main character, John Devine, a teenager who lives a generally uneventful life with his religious "ex-hippie" mother in the kind of small town that fictional characters usually can't wait to escape.

And that is what is most enjoyable about "John The Revelator." It is both a coming of age novel and a picaresque in which the main character accumulates a variety of life changing information and experience while never straying very far from home. I found that totally refreshing.

The catalyst for John's transformation is meeting Jamey Conboy, a slightly older teen chronologically but light years ahead of John in human insight, general intelligence and experience of the everyday, sexual and criminal varieties. Jamey IS the kind of kid that you know will not stick around that small town and is a fascinating counterpoint to the dutiful John. In addition, short stories and letters written by Jamey provide a more cosmopolitan voice than John's rural one which is, in Peter Murphy's hands, pitch perfect.

Admittedly I know next to nothing about the theological "John The Revelator" other than what the novel tells me. Consequently John Devine's visions and the repeated imagery of black crows did nothing for me. Perhaps a more detailed explication of the importance of the man that gave John his name and that of the Seventh Seal and the Book Of Revelation would have made these passages, though beautifully written, more resonant to this reader.

All in all this is an exceptional debut work of literature. Beautifully wrought language and compelling characters all adding filigree to a wonderful tapestry of words. I look forward to Mr. Murphy's next, and hopefully equally original, work.

John the Revelator by Peter Murphy is a novel about character and place.

You want the cold, hot rush of panic, the fear of sudden murderous intents, or the thrill of heated passion? If so, you will not enjoy John the Revelator. Except for a few visceral passages, the novel is about who and what people are, more than it is about how and what people do. Some similarities with the story of boyhood relationship in Hosseini's Kite Runner suggests that those who enjoyed that book may also like Murphy's first novel.

If character and relationships are what you enjoy, read John the Revelator. Murphy's characters are like a piece of Kandinsky art; the longer you look at them the more intricate they become. The author hints early at his intent to create diversity and detail in individuals. Just check out their names. Mrs. Nagel, a concerned neighbor and friend to John's mother (Surely the use of `Nag' was intentional.) is a busy body, and a privacy seeker. She's a moocher and a giver. Jamey Corboy (what does Corboy mean?) seems to have both strong loyalties and no boundaries. Then of course, there's John Devine, (yes, Devine) himself. Murphy certainly lets us know right up front, that the characters are the center of his novel, not the plot.

Yes, it's another coming of age in Ireland narrative. However, Murphy turns phrases that make you think twice. Make you look again to see how much was said, how many colors are there, like a Kandinsky double-take.

I hope Murphy publishes more, this was a great start.

I have to be honest. It took a bit for me to get into this story. I couldn't "feel" the time, place or characters. It was as if the author was holding himself back, afraid or reluctant to engage. But, again in all honesty, it could have been my own mood, because eventually I found I was absolutely hooked and didn't want to put the book down.

The last quarter of this story is haunting and memorable. The relationships between the characters finally connected for me and I was swept up in the angsty, quirky world. There are some tragedies and some triumphs and it's not an easy read in some spots. But very satisfying.

I find myself thinking about several moments in the story days later, and I have to repeat, I really didn't expect that while reading the first third of the book. Would I have kept going if I hadn't planned to review? Probably. I can't really say the moment I was hooked, just that I was. :D

Being of Irish ancestry I have a natural attraction for Irish literature. I am especially fond of contemporary Irish fiction and the masterful, haunting prose of Peter Murphy's JOHN THE REVELATOR is among the best I've read in a long time.

At first and much to my dismay, given its cover of a young boy and then the book's large print, I thought as I read the first chapter I had picked up a piece of juvenile fiction. Even though I wasn't really interested in reading a boy's story I found myself pulled in anyway. JOHN THE REVELATOR quickly became a stunning surprise. Yes, it is a coming of age story but it is one cleverly crafted to get the reader inside the head, the very character of John Divine. The reader literally comes of age along with John, experiencing everything that he does, seen and felt as he does from his perspective, from his lonely and isolated childhood through a mischievous and troubled adolescence to the tenuous brink of adulthood.

John Divine's story is full of imagery, dark humor, mystery. It reminded me somewhat of a gothic novel with much about its characters left unsaid and up to the imagination of the reader. The characterizations and their sub-plots are therefore all the more intriguing. John's chain-smoking single mother with her family secrets and lingering illness is an engaging presence who lends a sense of mystery to the story. Early in the story and without reason, she warns John as a friendless teenager to stay away from Jamey Corboy, a newcomer to their small Irish town and like John, a loner. Jamey quickly becomes John's only friend. Jamey is strange, a brainy "Rimbaudian" and prolific writer of true-to-life short stories who ultimately leads John boldly into the world beyond the limiting one he has known with his mother. As the boys' relationship develops, trouble and moral perplexity quickly ensue as do issues of friendship, loyalty, betrayal, forgiveness.

The narrative is often blunt and gritty, so much so that I as a female reader was quite uncomfortable with some of it. That is not to say that I did not appreciate the author's use of language ~ it was that honest, that intimate and therefore for me all the more effective. Peter Murphy's use of imagery is brilliant and his prose remarkable. This original and exciting novel flows poetically and can be read quickly, lending itself to be read again and again. I most certainly will.

I came to this novel expecting another Irish-gritty coming-of-age story, semi-autobiographical, perhaps. What I found instead was a surreal, mystic narrative in a stark Irish countryside that is more Gothic than Celtic, more J.D. Salinger than Frank McCourt, and even that does not find a convenient niche to describe it.

The narrator is a youth who is in a greater state of disaffection and alienation than you'd expect, with an obsession with worms and dark dreams laden with crows. His meeting with Jamey Carboy creates even more conflict with the locals and with the law, and his mother's illnesses create more hostility - and a dependence on the crone of a neighbor, Mrs. Nagle.

The book is not for all tastes, and it certainly will defy expectations. The prose is, however, masterly, beautiful in places. The story, if you can accept a story that wanders through a dreamlike, distorted trance, through clouded and stark landscapes, can give the reader a sense of immersion, of falling into the book, and that marks it as something remarkable.

Worthwhile for those who like innovative and unusual fiction.

An "Irish gothic" novel with dark, religious overtones, JOHN THE REVELATOR is set in rural southeast Ireland, where the author himself grew up. The "revelator" of the title, "someone who reveals divine will," is a boy named John Devine, for the "beloved disciple," the only one of the apostles who escaped martyrdom, and the patron saint of writing. Born to an exceptionally religious single mother, a house cleaner, John's childhood seems relatively normal, despite his poverty, though he is pre-occupied with worms. He has nightmares in which he combines his daily life and his worries into horrific tales involving crows. By the age of fifteen, however, John is "content with his own company," and not terribly rebellious.

It is not until he meets Jamey Corboy, a sixteen-year-old, that he develops a real friendship. Jamey, far more adventurous, introduces John to heavy drinking, smoking, and a willingness to flout convention. Hanging out with bikers and toughs, Jamey has participated in a robbery, but he is also an intellectual and a fine creative writer who shares his full-length stories with John and the reader. Often scatological in tone, they reflect the spirit of Rimbaud, Jamie's favorite author, who produced his best-known work while still a teenager. Jamey plans to make a film called "Merde a Dieu."

At this point, halfway through the book, John resembles teenagers around the world, though perhaps a bit more introspective. The novel, until now, is well organized and exceptionally well written, with unique characters and a setting which allows the author to plumb the myths, folklore, and beliefs of rural Ireland. Every detail counts and relates to every other detail, and the author obviously has a big picture in mind for his themes. The turning point, however, suddenly introduces dramatic new elements which many readers will not be prepared for--changing what might have been an unusual coming-of-age novel with a provocative setting into a fast-paced horror novel, filled with violent details which many readers will find revolting.

The novel suffers significantly, in my opinion, from this shift in tone. Though the author does try to keep his themes (especially the spiritual vs. the profane) intact as his teenage characters and their families suffer through crises, the book ultimately lacks coherence. It divides into two seemingly separate genres with little correlation between them except for the superficial identities of the characters, the setting, and the author's motifs. Significantly, one of the characters does not remember anything that happens during the turning point, in which he participates, perhaps a "way out" for the author, who would have had a difficult time justifying this unexpected shift in character development, point of view, and tone. Parts of the book are unforgettable, and author Peter Murphy has aimed high, with important themes, vibrant imagery, unique characters, and local color galore. I just wish that the second half of the book had been as tight and well integrated as the first half and that the author had developed his characters more fully before he included a crisis point that seemed to come almost from out of the blue. n Mary Whipple

I adore Irish Fiction! So, maybe I am a little biased here but I adored this book. I've read some other reviews that call John the Revelator "weird" and I totally agree. The main character is definitely odd, (and his mother as well), but that's what I enjoyed about it! I'm tired of reading the same old Irish tales! This one had spunk! The word that comes to mind when describing it is "quirky". I admit that the plot got a little confusing with some narrative shifts, but I don't think that ruined the story at all. I enjoyed every sentence of this book! I just may read it again!

John Devine's stultifying rural Irish boyhood turns topsy-turvy when he meets quirky Jamey Corboy. Both are bookish, too smart for their horizons, but Jamey lives faster than the speed of light and pushes John through adventures into recklessness. But the bolder John becomes, the more his mother descends into a mysterious illness. John has to decide where his loyalties lie, but to do that, he has to decide who he is.

Peter Murphy makes his fiction debut with a picaresque reminiscent of Roddy Doyle or Martin McDonagh. John Devine's story unfolds in a frenetic style that suggests there's more than a hint of autobiography here. Torn between his mother, who quotes the Bible and Irish myth, and Jamey, who reads Rimbaud and writes avant-garde stories, John is caught between the past and the future, much like Ireland in the early 21st Century.

John tells his story with a grim sardonic air, knowing how bizarre some of his situations are. The dry wit with which he narrates events like being dragged in by the law for one drunken night, or losing his virginity to his English teacher in a motorway layby, underscores the fact that the events of our own lives often hide layers of surreality. He's a nuanced character and an engaging narrator.

Murphy packs his novel with punchy, emotional events that make the story pop along with vast energy. John confronts the law, the community, and his mother, and one question remains all along: will he have the strength to be who he needs to be, or will he let the world break him down? As John sometimes succeeds, sometimes fails at this goal, we are pulled along by the relentlessness of his story.

This book is unconventional. Murphy sometimes stops John's narrative to recount Jamey's insights, packed into his stories. Later chapters make us realize that early chapters lied to us, forcing us to wonder what constitutes truth. This book isn't like most that roll off mainstream presses these days. But readers who have the gumption to try something new will find rewards aplenty in this peculiar gem.