It
has been about three years since I actually read a Stephen King novel. I
listened to a few of his short stories and novels and audiobooks, some I had
read before and some I had not, but I did not read them. And I think I made the
right choice in reading his 2014 novel Revival, because while I don’t think it
is his best work and it falls prey to some of his classic missteps, but it is
surely his most original book since 11/22/63 and surely his darkest since Pet
Semetary. I was told by one of my friends that this book was very Lovecraftian
in nature, but I don’t really see that in execution. Tone for sure, but like
all of his books it has a beating heart that was surely lacking from the cold
and distant stories of H. P. Lovecraft. The book follows the life of Jamie
Morton, born in 1955 or 1956, and his fateful connection with Reverend Charles
Jacobs, a young and attractive pastor in Jamie’s small town. A few events
entwine these two. The first is when he cures Jamie’s brother Conrad of his
muteness using electricity. Soon after, Jacobs’ wife and son are killed in a
freak car accident, and after a blasphemous sermon, he is banished from the
town. The next time these two meet, Jamie is a travelling musician with a bad
heroin habit. He finds the pastor on the carnival circuit. Jamie is cured of
his addiction, but the black outs he is having force him to look into whatever
door Jacobs has opened, and what dark path he is being drawn toward. What I
found grating here was the more scientific stuff, which King never gets the
hang of, at least for me, and when it takes the place of his more interesting
human narrative, it acts as a rather impolite interruption. But this is still
good stuff worth seeking out, with an ending a million times better than you’d
expect.
Rating:
4/5
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