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jimsreadingandstuff 's review for:
Revival
by Stephen King
Stephen King has written over 50 novels, of which maybe I’ve read half, he is a consummate storyteller. This story builds slowly, starting as a contemporary drama type book that creates complex characters, looks at themes of religion and family, and builds up an interesting three-dimensional portrait of a small community. But as the novel moves along, it becomes darker and creepier, you know you can trust King to ratchet up the tension. The story is set over a long timespan. It begins in the early sixties when the protagonist, Jamie is a boy and meets a young new pastor in his district the Reverend Charles Jacobs. Jacobs shows Jamie a model of Jesus seemingly magically walking on the water. As he gets older Jamie realises the model is just running on hidden rails and is not so miraculous after all. Jacobs is obsessed with electricity.“Kids … Electricity is one of God’s doorways to the infinite.” The minister’s wife and son are killed in a horrifying motor accident. Jacobs leaves town after a particularly terrible sermon. Many years later Jamie is a rhythm guitarist in his mid thirties addicted to heroin, he runs into Jacobs at a county fair with a sideshow making “Portraits in Lightning”. Jacobs cures Jamie of his addiction using what he terms his “secret electricity”. Jacobs goes on to become a popular evangelist curing many people with his secret electricity. But the cures can have worrying side effects. Jacobs is continually experimenting; his ultimate goal is to pull back the curtain and get a glimpse of what the afterlife looks like. King’s vision of this afterlife is darkly unsettling.
King is also looking at the fear of aging, he himself is long past the double nickel of dread.
The book’s electrical undercurrent reminds me of Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” and Stephen King’s earlier novel “The Tommyknockers”. Strangely, I picture in my mind the character of Rev Jacobs as the Doctor Who persona played by Matt Smith.
King is also looking at the fear of aging, he himself is long past the double nickel of dread.
“The three great ages of the Great American Male -youth, middle age and you look fuckin’ terrific.”
“I think for most people, life’s deceptive deliriums begin to fall away after fifty. The days speed up, the aches multiply and your gait slows down…”
The book’s electrical undercurrent reminds me of Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” and Stephen King’s earlier novel “The Tommyknockers”. Strangely, I picture in my mind the character of Rev Jacobs as the Doctor Who persona played by Matt Smith.