Customer Reviews

Requiem

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Graham Joyce came highly recommended by Jonathan Carroll, and that's enough recommendation for me to read a phone book. Requiem, Joyce's fourth novel and the first to be published in the U.S., is a quirky book, written in a weirdly flowing style that I associate with several of today's British authors (Mary Gentle is the author that comes to mind immediately, although shades of Geoff Ryman and Greg Egan are also present). This style is achieved partly through the use of dialogue as a method for moving plot, wherein elements to the story are told by the characters, but almost as a short story told by the narrator to the other characters. The other major element to this style is the use of blind switchbacks (or red herrings) in the plot, and a willingness to "leave out" information, that the reader must fill in by putting together narrator comments, dialogue, and a good guess. In Gentle's case, I can't take this style--she does it to such an extent or I am such a fast reader that I miss the subtle implications and quickly get lost as to what is actually happening. Joyce only does it somewhat, reserving it for the secrets that surround his narrator.

Requiem is about guilt. The trick is to determine exactly what guilt. Tom's wife Katie dies in a freak traffic accident--her car is smashed by a fallen tree--so Tom quits his job as a teacher and travels to Jerusalem. Although it's been six months, he still has strange feelings about his wife's death, much more than just the natural ones of mourning and loss. There's also something not quite right at the school, helping him make the decision to leave for awhile. In Jerusalem, he connects with an old college friend, Sharon, who is working for a women's counseling center. Along the way he befriends an old man who runs a hostel. While exploring the old city, something he had always wanted to do, and feels guilty about doing it without Katie, especially after her death, he finds himself adrift, confronted by Arab vagabonds, and this strange old woman who scratches out a message in the sandstone walls with her fingernail.

The similarities with Carroll are many. Not only do scenes have that slightly unreal feeling, while remaining so detailed and close to home, the characters are vivid and intriguing, the narrator is questionable in his sanity, and then there's the ancient manuscript that might be a part of the Dead Sea Scrolls find that could change our concept of the gospel as it is now known. In both large and small items, the concept of truth and honesty is ambiguous.

I liked Requiem, and almost wanted to read it again as soon as I finished it, to see if there were things that I missed as I sped through the book, caught up in the world and the fine writing. I'm searching for Joyce's other novels, delighted to find another writer who appeals to that same sense of mystery and wonder that has caught me up in the works of Davies, Carroll, and Banks.

Requiem is a stronger novel than Dreamside (which I previously read), which shows the author's writing skills are improving as he continues to write. This novel was a tense one, despite very little action. It is a heady novel, one that explores the inner landscape of the mind and emotions. The book often forces the reader to ask what is real and what is not...and if there is truly a difference. I enjoyed this book particularly for this exploration. It aptly shows the results of a life unexamined. The protagonist Tom has only recently come to grips with his life following the accidental death of his wife. As he is confronted with many unresolved feelings he begins to question his sanity--for he is plagued with strange visions of Mary Magdalene and recurring flashbacks of past events. Guilt and anger are only the most obvious emotions that fuels the drive of this book. The book asks, what would happen if all those unresolved things in our lives took form and haunted us.

There is little to critique about this novel. The story was engaging, the characters very real and fully dimensional. I think it was because of the the realist portrayl of the characters that makes this book so powerful. Because the people feel real, it is easier to believe the events occurring in the novel may be real. Who knows perhaps there is something to the Magdalene theory...I already believe we are all haunted by our own personal djinn! As a previous reviewer had mentioned, Joyce's style is very similar to Johnathan Carroll's. If you enjoy Carroll you may very well enjoy Joyce's writing. If you haven't read anything by Carroll, do it! Try From the the Teeth of Angels...or the Panic Hand.

"Requiem" is a book that successfully weaves strands of the supernatural into the mundane, everyday world. In my opinion, this is what makes it so different...and so special.

The story begins when Kate Webster is killed as she returns home from church. He husband, Tom, is stricken with both intense grief and, though blameless, intense guilt. Although he attempts to carry on with his teaching, he finds each day harder and harder; he eventually quits and, instead, plans an overdue trip to Jeruselem where he visits his long time friend and confidante, Sharon.

At first, Tom is entranced with Jeruselem. Everything there seems to hold some spiritual significance, and, for Tom, at least, Jerusalem is a city of myth as well as religion. But Tom came to Jerusalem to escape the torment of Kate's death and, instead of escape, he finds that the hauntings he experienced in England have only intensified in Jerusalem. Tom can't decide if he is becoming the victim of an apparition or the victim of insanity. But there is one thing he knows for sure: the apparitions that torment him in the Holy City are always of the female gender.

When a chance meeting places fragments of a Dead Sea Scroll in Tom's hands he is, of course, intrigued. An exact translation is an impossibility, of course, but Tom does locate a demon-plagued scholar who attributes the scroll to none other than Mary Magdalene and informs Tom that it contains an alternate story of Christ's crucifixtion.

Despite the above, "Requiem" is definitely not a mystery. It is, rather, a study of the effects of guilt on the human psyche, for Tom Webster is a man riddled with guilt...both deserved and undeserved. I think readers who felt dissatisfaction with the Dead Sea Scroll subplot are missing the fact that it is simply an externalization of Tom's guilt processes and his repressed anger and ambivalence towards women and the power they can hold over men. It is a thread that ties the book into one seamless whole. I'm not even sure that "guilt" and "anger" are precise enough words to use when describing this book. Surely guilt and anger play a part in Tom Webster's agony, but so do many other, more subtle, emotions, for Tom Webster is a man who sees the world in many shades of grey, rather than in black and white.

"Requiem" is an richly intense book, peopled with intense characters. I think it is to the author's credit that much of what Tom experiences is never spelled out, but is left to the reader's own individual interpretation instead.

If you're looking for something different, "Requiem" might fill the bill. If you're looking for something intense, it would be a good choice as well. Despite it's dark intensity, "Requiem" is not a long or involved book and it reads quite quickly. While I wouldn't want to read this kind of book on a daily basis, I enjoyed it as a change of pace. Joyce definitely deserves a wider audience than he has so far enjoyed. "Requiem" should help him find it.

"Requiem" is an intruiging psychologically based fantasy about a former teacher whose wife has died, so he quits his job and goes to visit a female "friend" in Jerusalem. There, he comes to terms about his loss and his past. It's all tangled up with his relationship with his wife and his feelings for her when she died. The Mary Magdelene mythology also plays an important role as well as the dijin (demon) mythology. It's a novel about loss, understanding, dreams, love, religion, and acceptance. (Just a side note: "Requiem" reads a LOT like the author Jonathan Carroll, and the subject matter is VERY similar as well. "Requiem" is a MUST read for ANY Jonathan Carroll fan.)

A very unusual story line that flits back and forth between UK and Jerusalem. The story line is a bit on the edge but thanks to Mr. Joyce's incredible talents is believable and as a result both deliciously eerie and fascinating. Good solid character development and well crafted prose. I absolutely loved this book. Highly recommended.

The main effect of this book on me was to make me search for alternative historical interpretations of the Gospels. Joyce's seems plausible, and I'd like to know if historians have delved into it.

As for the plot--it is an intense book. The main character, Tom, may be experiencing either religious visions or schizophrenia--or both. So may other characters with similar experiences. The setting, Jerusalem, is always simmering on the edge of violence. Tom's feelings for his deceased wife and his friend Sharon are intense but mixed, and not entirely understandable to him.

It is a strength of the book that the author never "explains" whether the religious visions are "real." It is a weakness that the author never resolves Tom's feelings about the rest of his life, or what he plans to do with it.

Unfortunately, the rating system limits me to five, or I would get really extravagant... An excellent novel with well-drawn, multi-dimensional characters, and a fascinating historical take juxtaposed with a very modern moral dilemma. I love the revisionist view of Christianity. After reading this book, I went on a mission to find everything Joyce has ever written, including his work for children, and I was not disappointed. (Sadly, I haven't been able to find "Stormwatcher" in the US.) An excellent read -- I hope Joyce finds the wide audience he deserves.

I just finished readng this book, and while I was not entirely satisfied, it was largely due to my expectations, not the author's writing. I'm surprised that this is a Tor book, and that it was filed under sci-fi/fantasy at the book store. I find it no more "fantasy" than The DaVinci Code, another book with religious questions about the relationhip between Mary Magdalene, Jesus, and the church. The story reveals itself slowly, and even in the end you really aren't sure whether most of this was in people's minds or was actually occurring. This book can be disturbing in challenging how we view ourselves and our "sins", how our mind handles guilt and sexual repression, and of course it gives the established Christian church a kick in the pants. Perhaps the author felt publishing it as fantasy would protect him from backlash? You'll have to read it for yourself to decide.

As you get older, it becomes a rare thing indeed to stumble across an author who reignites the passion for reading that you had as a youth. Graham Joyce in general, and "Requiem" in particular has done so for me. What can I say, he has blended complex characters, in a fascinating setting, and twisted it all subtly with a strong dose of fantasy to create one of the most profoundly engaging and thought provoking novels I have ever read. The incredibly powerful images and ideas of this novel have haunted my dreams. I, as a reader, will pay Mr. Joyce the highest compliment I know how to bestow upon an author...I am profoundly grateful, and please, please write more.

Requiem is a quick book--filled with all sorts of psycho-religious science fiction--that is written in a very provocative, graphic way. Graham Joyce wraps Christian and Islamic mythology into western paranoia and presents a story that stays with you. He uses the Mary Magdalene character as a thread to draw you through the story--posing her as the demon and angel that keeps the reader questioning every turn in the plot. Its fun.