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billymac1962's review against another edition
2.0
I'm having a really tough time composing a review for this one because since finishing it I've been left with mixed feelings. I guess I'll start off with a brief story outline...
Tom Webster has just lost his wife in a freak accident. He up and quits his schoolteaching job and heads to Jerusalem in search of an old friend. The rest of the story surrounds revelations discovered from the lost Dead Sea scrolls and Tom's struggles with his past. Joyce depicts
Jerusalem vividly and you're constantly aware of the Palestinian/Jewish tensions. As the story carries us along, we travel along Jesus' crucifixion route, visit the Garden of Gethsemane and the Old City. Since I've always wanted to see Jerusalem, here the novel gets highest marks.
Also, the revelations of the Crucifixion and resurrection brought forth from the Dead Sea Scrolls are very unsettling and thought provoking. That is, if you were raised a good Catholic boy,
as I was. For this too, the novel gets high recommendations. The only reason for only 2 stars is after finishing the novel, I wasn't quite satisfied with the ending, yet I'm not sure there really was any other way to end it. I think maybe I was looking forward to something more profound than what I was left with. This novel did leave me with some
troubled thoughts regarding the birth of Christianity, the Church, and the New Testament.
And I'm left wondering what's really contained in those Scrolls.
Tom Webster has just lost his wife in a freak accident. He up and quits his schoolteaching job and heads to Jerusalem in search of an old friend. The rest of the story surrounds revelations discovered from the lost Dead Sea scrolls and Tom's struggles with his past. Joyce depicts
Jerusalem vividly and you're constantly aware of the Palestinian/Jewish tensions. As the story carries us along, we travel along Jesus' crucifixion route, visit the Garden of Gethsemane and the Old City. Since I've always wanted to see Jerusalem, here the novel gets highest marks.
Also, the revelations of the Crucifixion and resurrection brought forth from the Dead Sea Scrolls are very unsettling and thought provoking. That is, if you were raised a good Catholic boy,
as I was. For this too, the novel gets high recommendations. The only reason for only 2 stars is after finishing the novel, I wasn't quite satisfied with the ending, yet I'm not sure there really was any other way to end it. I think maybe I was looking forward to something more profound than what I was left with. This novel did leave me with some
troubled thoughts regarding the birth of Christianity, the Church, and the New Testament.
And I'm left wondering what's really contained in those Scrolls.
mrninjaviking's review against another edition
4.0
Graham Joyce, has become a favorite author of mine. Along with Jeffrey Ford, the more I read of his work, the more I respect his talent. This was the third novel by Joyce I have read. From Publishers Weekly via Amazon.Com, here is a rundown on the plot:
What I liked best about Joyce's work is that the fantastical in his novels is subtle. Not that the reader needs to dig or watch for clues, but that the characters sometimes don't realize what is happening, or they are just thrown headlong into some vat of magic fantasy. With "Requiem" this is especially poignant. It goes to even deeper degrees. It almost explores the inner workings of one's mind to create the fantastical around them.
This book though explores more of the inner workings of the mind. Three of the characters, including the two main characters, you get to see what makes them tick. And they all have issues of guilt they are dealing with from their past. Guilt comes in all kinds of different ways. It even comes from lies that one character tells to them self, and then also tells others. Like one reviewer at Amazon said, the story can be quite tense, yet there is very little action.
One very interesting aspect of the story is a conspiracy within the Christian church. The Dead Sea Scroll fragments that he receives helps Tom's inner demons along. He ends up haunted by Mary Magdalene, and it brings forth a shake-up between Mary Magdalene and Saul/Paul regarding the role of women in the church, and lies supposedly perpetrated by Paul. I don't know much about this, but know some of Paul's views.
As I mentioned, this was quite a tense story. This was the book that introduced me to Graham Joyce. I saw it as a recommendation, read the synopsis and a couple of reviews, and was drawn in. I ended up obtaining a copy, yet it took me over three years and two other of Joyce's novels before finally getting to it. I think it was best to start with those other novels as it turns out.
Fleeing his (only semi-explained) guilt after the senseless, accidental death of his wife, Tom Webster quits teaching and visits his longtime friend and ex-lover, Sharon, in Jerusalem. Soon, he is haunted by hallucinations, or perhaps they're apparitions, or djinnis, and is entrusted with some Dead Sea scroll fragments. Joyce's Jerusalem is suffused with squalor and splendor, religious meaning and political struggle, as Tom tries to figure out what a host of emissaries from both the natural and the supernatural realms are trying to tell him about the world and about himself.
What I liked best about Joyce's work is that the fantastical in his novels is subtle. Not that the reader needs to dig or watch for clues, but that the characters sometimes don't realize what is happening, or they are just thrown headlong into some vat of magic fantasy. With "Requiem" this is especially poignant. It goes to even deeper degrees. It almost explores the inner workings of one's mind to create the fantastical around them.
This book though explores more of the inner workings of the mind. Three of the characters, including the two main characters, you get to see what makes them tick. And they all have issues of guilt they are dealing with from their past. Guilt comes in all kinds of different ways. It even comes from lies that one character tells to them self, and then also tells others. Like one reviewer at Amazon said, the story can be quite tense, yet there is very little action.
One very interesting aspect of the story is a conspiracy within the Christian church. The Dead Sea Scroll fragments that he receives helps Tom's inner demons along. He ends up haunted by Mary Magdalene, and it brings forth a shake-up between Mary Magdalene and Saul/Paul regarding the role of women in the church, and lies supposedly perpetrated by Paul. I don't know much about this, but know some of Paul's views.
As I mentioned, this was quite a tense story. This was the book that introduced me to Graham Joyce. I saw it as a recommendation, read the synopsis and a couple of reviews, and was drawn in. I ended up obtaining a copy, yet it took me over three years and two other of Joyce's novels before finally getting to it. I think it was best to start with those other novels as it turns out.
m4marya's review against another edition
4.0
Another great book by Joyce. This time around the characters are so messed up, so disfunctional that you cannot help but root for them to make it through, to find the secrets out, to win. Set in a city that I have little knowledge of, Joyce led us on a wonderful mystery filled with religion, love, the supernatural and the stupid things that we do when we are in love. Once again he has me looking at the world in a very different way.
cher_n_books's review against another edition
3.0
2.5 stars - It was alright, an average book.
This had a fascinating underlying story that swirled around biblical lore, conpiracies and mythical creatures (jinns). Sadly, this underlying story kept getting interrupted and overshadowed by the boring plot of the main character.
The MC was weak, unlikeable, and dreadfully dull. I had absolutely zero interest in hearing his pathetic drivel as he stumbled through his pitiful life which was governed by base desires rather than intellect, (oh the irony of him being a "teacher"), particularly when there were other far more interesting characters in the periphery.
With a different MC this could have been great but the inadequate one that was present instead brought the enjoyability factor way down. This story from Ahmed's POV could have been amazing and Tobie would have been a more captivating MC as well.
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Favorite Quote: All human beings have a tremendous capacity for lying and deceiving and their first victim is invariably themselves.
First Sentence: They were helping a party get out of hand, an end-of-term hooley thrown by a teaching colleague during Tom's probationary year.
This had a fascinating underlying story that swirled around biblical lore, conpiracies and mythical creatures (jinns). Sadly, this underlying story kept getting interrupted and overshadowed by the boring plot of the main character.
The MC was weak, unlikeable, and dreadfully dull. I had absolutely zero interest in hearing his pathetic drivel as he stumbled through his pitiful life which was governed by base desires rather than intellect, (oh the irony of him being a "teacher"), particularly when there were other far more interesting characters in the periphery.
With a different MC this could have been great but the inadequate one that was present instead brought the enjoyability factor way down. This story from Ahmed's POV could have been amazing and Tobie would have been a more captivating MC as well.
-------------------------------------------
Favorite Quote: All human beings have a tremendous capacity for lying and deceiving and their first victim is invariably themselves.
First Sentence: They were helping a party get out of hand, an end-of-term hooley thrown by a teaching colleague during Tom's probationary year.
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