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 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. Joining the ranks of the great novels of friendship and betrayal — A Separate Peace, A Prayer for Owen Meany, Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha — John the Revelator grapples with the pull of the world and the hold of those we love. Suffused with family secrets, eerie imagery, black humor, and hypnotic prose, John the Revelator is a novel to fall in love with and an astounding debut.
Synopsis
Already fast becoming a classic among coming-of-age tales, John the Revelator has garnered praise from Nick Laird, Colm Tóibín, Roddy Doyle, and John Boyne, and is a critical darling in the U.K.
This is the story of John Devine—stuck in a small town in the otherworldly landscape of southeastern 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 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.
Joining the ranks of the great novels of friendship and betrayal—A Separate Peace, A Prayer for Owen Meany, and Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha—John the Revelator grapples with the pull of the world and the hold of those we love.
Publishers Weekly
In the hallowed pantheon of Irish coming-of-age novels, Murphy's strongly written debut splits the difference between the sensitivity of Portrait of an Artist and the freakishness of Butcher Boy. John Devine lives a marginal life with his single mother in the small Irish town of Kilcody. He has a love for the lore of creepy-crawly things (thanks to his favorite book, Harper's Compendium of Bizarre Nature Facts). His mother, a maid for the rich folks in the area, is versed in Irish myth, which gives him an enchanted, slightly sinister sense of the world. As a teenager, John befriends the posh James Corboy, who fancies himself quite the young Rimbaud. Two events define John's coming into manhood: one involves James, a video camera and a drunken rampage; the other, John's mother, who is dying and whose weakness necessitates the frequent assistance of nosy neighbor Mrs. Nagle. Murphy understands the gracelessness of teenage boys and that peculiar delinquent wisdom shared by all the great coming-of-age novelists. With this novel, he doesn't have to bow to any of them. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Editorials
From Barnes & Noble
Barnes & Noble Discover Great New WritersThe only son of a single mother, John Devine grows up in poverty in southern Ireland, a region steeped in ancient myth and devout Catholicism. John's mother cleans houses for a living, and at night she sits by the fire, recounting tales of John's birth and the magical effect of her singing on his colicky infancy. At school, John learns that bad girls and boys go to Hell, where the devil roasts and eats them.
When John is ten, his mother leaves for the hospital and Mrs. Nagle, a creepy neighbor, moves in to take care of him. His mother returns, but John experiences his first intimations of her mortality as he witnesses her weakened condition and her surgical scar. At 15, much to the chagrin of his mother and Mrs. Nagle, John makes a friend. Jamey is the charismatic son of a posh family, a boy who gets away with everything. He steals liquor from bars, charms adults, and somehow pulls off good grades. Most amazing is that Jamey is a burgeoning writer and an avid fan of Rimbaud. But in a climactic scene, the two boys commit an unforgivable deed, resulting in betrayal and Jamey's exile.
In this luminously written tale of a young boy's hardscrabble coming-of-age, Murphy reveals, with preternatural clarity, universal truths about friendship, love, and loss. (Fall 2009 Selection)
Dallas Morning News
"...this is a noteworthy debut from a writer who sticks with his stormy vision of the world."Seattle Times
"[A] soul-stirring debut novel...Murphy sets linguistic traps to capture the reader's attention in line after line of inspired and, yes, revelatory prose."From the Publisher
A Barnes & Noble "Discover Great New Writers" selection for Fall 2009Advance Praise for John the Revelator
"Full of things I can remember but can't imagine, a stunning debut novel."
–James Dean Bradfield, lead singer of the Manic Street Preachers
"The prose is a bag of fireworks, crackling with idiom and humour. Domestic, mythic, creepy, funny. Brilliant."
—Nick Laird, author of Utterly Monkey
"There's a novel which there's a lot of excitement about by Peter Murphy called John the Revelator. I've read it and it's an absolutely wonderful book, I mean it's a really wonderful book. And people say 'oh, you know, Irish fiction is stale,' well things can change overnight, and books like Peter Murphy's can change things and be so fresh and so contemporary, so original and so disturbing and brave. I don't know what else is coming out of the blue like that, and that's the way it goes."
—Colm Toibin, The International Herald Tribune
"Everything about John the Revelator excited me—I couldn't wait to turn the page and keep on going. It was like reading for the first time, almost as if I'd never read a novel before."
—Roddy Doyle, author of Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha
"Peter Murphy gives a great read, both wild and grounded. John the Revelator is the bastard of son of J.D. Salinger and Ted Hughes—ballsy, humorous, and brutally honest."
—Sabina Murray, author of The Caprices
"I also read a debut novel by an Irish writer, Peter Murphy, John the Revelator. An atmospheric tale of a young boy growing up in a small village whose life is altered by his friendship with a very free-spirited boy who he meets. It’s an interesting debut, filled with humour and energy, and a certain sense of mystery. Best of all is the old crone, Mrs Nagle, who takes up residence in John’s house whenever she sees an opportunity. Their face-offs are very funny and original."
—John Boyne, author of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and Mutiny on the Bounty
Praise from the UK
Murphy's impressive debut novel traces the childhood and young adolescence of John Devine. It is impressionistic rather than narrative-driven. It is part a traditional rite of passage novel and part hallucinogenic graphic nightmare horror. John the Revelator is the shout and answer refrain of the traditional blues song. . .It is also subtly comic. . .the author is to be admired for taking a well-used theme and giving it a great new twist . . . yet underneath the gothic, there is a gentle, tender novel. Peter Murphy's prose is extraordinarily good and each page is sheer pleasure to read."
—Neil Donnely, Irish Independent News
"John The Revelator is as assured a debut as I've read in years, and Murphy has created a cast of characters that will live long in the memory . . . This is a startling first novel, a remarkable statement of intent."
—John Meagher, the Irish Independent
"There is little to find fault with in this remarkably assured first attempt. Murphy, a music journalist from Wexford, has tapped something special with this insight into teenage psyche in a pocket of rural Ireland . . . This is a strikingly beautiful portrayal of mother and son . . . From the outset, Murphy shows a natural flair for narrative . . . Despite such confidetnly written prose, there is no evidence of arrogance . . . The style and attention to detail tally so well that it's easy to consume John the Revelator in one sitting . . . it is a hugely enjoyable work of fiction that announces Murphy as an Irish writer of substance."
—-Sunday Times Ireland
"Directly from the opening paragraph, Peter Murphy’s exuberantly candid first novel draws the reader. . .Murphy succeeds in making his lively, evocative story that bit different, thanks to an assured narrative voice and an ability to detect the bizarre ever lurking within the commonplace. . .Murphy convincingly evokes a child’s response to life. . .This novel continually surprises as Murphy never becomes too clever. . .This may be a story of relatively recent contemporary Irish life, but Murphy also conveys a sense of the Ireland that went into making John’s world, a place in which the Bible and folklore walked hand in hand."
—The Irish Times
"An Irish music writer, Peter Murphy casts his debut novel like a blues noir, steeped in the music that has clearly inspired him. From the title, Blind Willie Johnson's 1930 gospel call and response, he follows the path of Nick Cave's 1985 Delta descent The Firstborn is Dead, with its shades of William Faulkner, Flannery O'Connor and Harry Crews. But this spook-filled Irish landscape, rendered with gouts of blood-red humour, is entirely his own."
—Cathi Unsworth, The Guardian
"Murphy's writing is resolutely unsentimental, but so moving and powerful that the end had me weeping buckets."
—Kate Saunders, The Times (London)
"Beautifully written, darkly humorous and totally engrossing. An exciting and impressive new talent."
—Anne Sexton, Hot Press
"Murphy has a very obvious affection for language, and for the crackle, spark and music of words. Even when describing decay and sourness, he manages to imbue things with an arresting beauty. He leads the reader down some atmospheric and moody byways, and avoids the dramatically obvious in favour of a gentle unravelling of John's friendship with Jamey, and John's attempts to deal with his mother's illness. The book moves with the organic grace of a coming-of-age movie, where everything of importance happens beneath the surface . . . Murphy is particularly good at describing the feverish angst of adolescence, the sweaty crawling-under-your-skin feeling of not knowing where you're going, and in John Devine he avoids the obvious and trite and creates an obliquely fascinating character."
—Padraig Kenny, Sunday Tribune
"Murphy writes spare arresting prose with the brio of Ireland's current literary star Anne Enright and he has the ear for dialogue of Roddy Doyle."
—Daily Express
"Murphy's eerily atmospheric debut . . . with its dark humour and hypnotic prose, brilliantly captures the uncertainties of growing up."
—Daily Mail
"A moving and affecting first novel."
—Sunday Herald
"[A] jaw-dropping debut...Murphy works literary alchemy on every page, filtering the daily tedium of small-town life through John’s bizarre worldview and enriching the story with a caustic humor that still leaves room for genuine moments of friendship and familial tenderness...A terrific, disquieting addition to the long tradition of Irish storytelling."
— Kirkus Review
"In the hallowed pantheon of Irish coming-of-age novels, Murphy's strongly written debut splits the difference between the sensitivity of Portrait of an Artist and the freakishness of Butcher Boy...Murphy understands the gracelessness of teenage boys and that peculiar delinquent wisdom shared by all the great coming-of-age novelists. With this novel, he doesn't have to bow to any of them.
— Publishers Weekly
"Beautifully humane and sometimes nightmarish, this incredible debut novel...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. Essential reading."
— Library Journal
"...this is a noteworthy debut from a writer who sticks with his stormy vision of the world."
— Dallas Morning News
"[A] soul-stirring debut novel...Murphy sets linguistic traps to capture the reader's attention in line after line of inspired and, yes, revelatory prose."
— Seattle Times
Dallas Morning News
"...this is a noteworthy debut from a writer who sticks with his stormy vision of the world."Publishers Weekly
In the hallowed pantheon of Irish coming-of-age novels, Murphy's strongly written debut splits the difference between the sensitivity of Portrait of an Artist and the freakishness of Butcher Boy. John Devine lives a marginal life with his single mother in the small Irish town of Kilcody. He has a love for the lore of creepy-crawly things (thanks to his favorite book, Harper's Compendium of Bizarre Nature Facts). His mother, a maid for the rich folks in the area, is versed in Irish myth, which gives him an enchanted, slightly sinister sense of the world. As a teenager, John befriends the posh James Corboy, who fancies himself quite the young Rimbaud. Two events define John's coming into manhood: one involves James, a video camera and a drunken rampage; the other, John's mother, who is dying and whose weakness necessitates the frequent assistance of nosy neighbor Mrs. Nagle. Murphy understands the gracelessness of teenage boys and that peculiar delinquent wisdom shared by all the great coming-of-age novelists. With this novel, he doesn't have to bow to any of them. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Library Journal
Beautifully humane and sometimes nightmarish, this incredible debut novel by a noted music and culture editor, journalist, and critic recounts the life and times of John Devine, a 15-year-old boy who lives in Kilcody, a village in southeastern Ireland, with his Bible-quoting, nicotine-addicted mother. He whiles away his days obsessing about worms, crows, and sin until he meets Jamey Corboy, a "posh boy" who reads the French decadents, swills booze, and indulges in petty graft with local thugs. After a heinous bender during which the boys vandalize a church, John sells out Jamey to save his own skin, only to struggle with the guilt borne of his betrayal even as he tends to his terminally ill mother. Repeated run-ins with an insidious neighbor, Mrs. Nagle, and the vicious pub-rat Gunter Prunty complicate John's caretaking. VERDICT 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. Essential reading.—J. Greg Matthews, Washington State Univ. Libs., Pullman
—J. Greg Matthews