John the Revelator

by Peter Murphy

Book Overview

This is the story of John Devine -- stuck in a small town in the eerie landscape of Southeast Ireland, worried over by his single, chain-smoking, bible-quoting mother, Lily, and spied on by the "neighborly" Mrs. Nagle. When Jamey Corboy, a self-styled Rimbaudian boy wonder, arrives in town, John's life suddenly seems full of possibility. His loneliness dissipates. He is taken up by mischief and discovery, hiding in the world beyond as Lily's mysterious...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 054733690X
• ISBN13: 9780547336909
• Release Date: April 2010
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.8" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

A Great Read Set in Ireland

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.

Why I Love Books...Writers Like Peter Murphy

Perhaps I'm old fashioned (or just getting old), but I don't think that 99% of the garbage that's published nowadays is worthy of the resources used to do so. There's an obvious reason for this: There aren't many superb writers. This book, however, reminded me of why nothing can or will ever take the place of a gifted writer. And nothing will ever be as delicious as settling down into someone else's imagination via your own. Others have described what this novel is "about," but I really cannot decide and that's one reason I enjoyed it so much. For me, it's not about the "action" but the "atmosphere." It's funny, freaky, brutally honest, subtle, melancholy, creepy... It's carries you deeper inside yourself and your own memories while taking you to new places as well (It probably doesn't hurt that the "dominant" part of my own family is Irish, and there were many things that struck a note with me from my own past). I'll be keeping this one to re-read and lend out. If I have one small complaint, it's that some of the profanity more than halfway through the book took me by surprise. I wanted to be able to put this book on one of the bookshelves in my office's waiting room, but cannot because of this (Just a small, selfish complaint but this book still gets 10 stars).

Great Irish Fiction...

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!

Evocative, moving and immensely enjoyable

I started to read this as I sat down to my lunch; that was a mistake, the narrator John Devine is fascinated by worms and parasites and provides in the opening pages many a lurid description of the subject of his interest. John Devine lives with his mother in the house she inherited from her parents. He is something of a loner but feels hemmed in by the Irish small town attitudes. When John is in his sixteenth year the hip and articulate Jamie moves into town and makes a friend of John on the spot, instantly confiding in him. John's life is suddenly opened up by this new friendship. But John has his problems to cope with, a bombastic domineering local spinster, Mrs Nagle, intent on moving into and taking over John's and his mother's life; a local and possibly corrupt Guard officer; and some local heavies with criminal tendencies. He has to cope also with his own inner turmoil, troubled by dreams dominated by a large black bird, an old crow; what does it mean? But his biggest worry is his chain smoking mother's failing health, and as he tries to care for her needs he gradually learns of her past, and his origins. The story covers John's life from his very early years to his mid teens; it is eloquently told and beautifully conjures the troubles of youth. Into the fabric of the main story Murphy ingeniously interweaves other short or very short stories. John quickly engenders one's empathy, and as the story entwines and unfolds towards its mournful yet ultimately positive conclusion one's heart will ache for our young hero. I did not much enjoy my lunch, but I did immensely enjoy John the Revelator; its humour, its re-creation of small town Ireland, its portrayal of friendship, but above all its evocation of the turmoil of youth.

Peculiar Picaresque

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.