John Devine is 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 lonely life suddenly seems full of possibility. He is taken up by mischief and discovery, hiding in the world beyond as Lily's mysterious illness worsens. But Jamey and John's nose for trouble may be their undoing, and soon John will be faced with a terrible moral dilemma.
Suffused with family secrets, uncanny imagery, black humor, and hypnotic prose, John the Revelator joins the ranks of the great novels of friendship and betrayal as it grapples with the tension between the pull of the world and the hold of those we love.
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"Mystical modern Irish adolescent male bildungsroman...a serendipitous companion to Black Swan Green. Bonus points for American folk references and exhaustive knowledge of invertebrates. Best opening lines I've read in a long time; prose transcends without being overwritten or overwrought. " — Rachelfm (4 out of 5 stars)
"Mystical modern Irish adolescent male bildungsroman...a serendipitous companion to Black Swan Green. Bonus points for American folk references and exhaustive knowledge of invertebrates. Best opening lines I've read in a long time; prose transcends without being overwritten or overwrought. "
“Murphy understands the gracelessness of teenage boys and that peculiar delinquent wisdom shared by all the great coming-of-age novelists.”
“This work establishes Murphy as an author of tremendous imaginative and linguistic power who has mastered Flann O’Brien’s supernatural whimsy, Beckett’s grim irony, and McCabe’s unsparing brutality.”
“An absolutely wonderful book…Books like Peter Murphy’s can change things and be so fresh and so contemporary, so original and so disturbing and brave.”
" Great first half, disappointing second half. I read it in about 2 sittings, though. The prose is very agreeable. "
" A coming-of-age story that... I don't even know. It was just so unsatisfying, I can't even say why I finished it. Too much here, not enough there. It's books like these that have me running back to the non-fiction shelves. "
" This was a very hard book for me to get into. I wasn't very taken in by the min character. Also there was so much Irish dialect that I totally didn't understand that it distracted me fro the story. "
" A coming of age novel set in southeastern Ireland with some unusual twists and turns ... and lots of black crow and worm imagery. "
" disjointed, sad, with some beautifully written moments that never really came together for me. maybe it flew over my head? i don't know. "
" Just finished this--not as good as I had hoped. I think there was some deeper meaning, but just didn't get it. "
" A modern Irish adolescent coming of age story. Some _Catcher in the Rye_, add a healthy dose of _A Separate Peace_, flavor with _The Outsiders_, stir with a positive mother-son relationship......not a shabby read at all. "
" I'm most often attracted by a strong and distinctive voice. This has it. And a compelling story to boot, set in Ireland. "
" I gave up less than halfway through. Pretty cover, some pretty prose, but overall a pretty thin broth. "
Peter Murphy is a music journalist based in Dublin. He is contributing editor with Dublin’s Hot Press magazine and has written articles for Rolling Stoneand other publications. He lives in the southeast of Ireland, in County Wexford, where he grew up.
Gerard Doyle, a seasoned audio narrator, he has been awarded dozens of AudioFile Earphones Awards, was named a Best Voice in Young Adult Fiction in 2008, and won the prestigious Audie Award for best narration. He was born of Irish parents and raised and educated in England. In Great Britain he has enjoyed an extensive career in both television and repertory theater and toured nationally and internationally with the English Shakespeare Company. He has appeared in London’s West End in the gritty musical The Hired Man. In America he has appeared on Broadway in The Weir and on television in New York Undercover and Law & Order. He has taught drama at Ross School for the several years.
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