Synopsis:
In a small New England town, over half a century ago, a shadow falls over a small boy playing with his toy soldiers. Jamie Morton looks up to see a striking man, the new minister. Charles Jacobs, along with his beautiful wife, will transform the local church. The men and boys are all a bit in love with Mrs. Jacobs; the women and girls feel the same about Reverend Jacobs—including Jamie’s mother and beloved sister, Claire. With Jamie, the Reverend shares a deeper bond based on a secret obsession. When tragedy strikes the Jacobs family, this charismatic preacher curses God, mocks all religious belief, and is banished from the shocked town.
Jamie has demons of his own. Wed to his guitar from the age of thirteen, he plays in bands across the country, living the nomadic lifestyle of bar-band rock and roll while fleeing from his family’s horrific loss. In his mid-thirties—addicted to heroin, stranded, desperate—Jamie meets Charles Jacobs again, with profound consequences for both men. Their bond becomes a pact beyond even the Devil’s devising, and Jamie discovers that revival has many meanings.
Review:
King’s “Revival,” is an electrifying, sort of coming-of-age story, that transcends the typical boundaries of horror. A deep dive into the complex interplay of life and death, and the power that both yield, if you appreciated the pure nostalgia King imbued “Joyland,” with, as well as the eerie ambience of his short story “Jerusalem’s Lot,” this novel is an absolute necessity. Every horrifying revelation, of which there are many, seems to crackle and pulse hidden knowledge, and Pastor Jacob’s “secret electricity.”
We follow Jamie Morton’s recount of the past five decades or so, with a particular focus on the 3 comings and goings of preacher Charles Jacobs. He first meets his “fifth business,” in the 1960s at the age of six. Whilst playing with an army set outside his childhood home in Maine, a shadow looms over him, a young, charismatic preacher. Things are great, the church hasn’t seen such full pews in decades, his sermons are entertaining and engaging, and the kids at Sunday school love Charles nearly as much as they love his beautiful wife Patsy. Following a terrible tragedy and the even more terrible “terrible sermon,” however, what seemed to be a good thing comes to an end, and Jacobs walks out of Jamie’s life for the first time.
Years pass, and Jamie’s life has its highs and lows. He loves rhythm guitar, he has his first gig, his first kiss… his first no-show, his first bump. By the time Charles Jacobs enters his life a second time, he has spiralled so far into his heroin addiction, he should be beyond recovery. Having lost God, harnessing his interest instead on “secret electricity,” Charles promises Jamie that he can rid him of his addiction, should he allow him to. And when, rather miraculously, he does, Jamie’s life takes a turn for the better, before descending into something far worse.
Within this high-voltage odyssey, King constantly refers back to electricity and lightning- a natural phenomenon that so happens to coincide with a few of the novel’s key themes. On one level, perhaps it is representative of volatility. A different King (Martin-Luther) once said “Lightning makes no sound until it strikes,” and neither do the tragedies and epiphanies that shape the lives of both Charles Jacobs and Jamie Morton. Like lightning, these random occurrences can be beautiful (I’m somewhat of a ceraunophile) but equally, very dangerous.Perhaps King’s commentary on the fragility of life, and how, again, lightning makes no sound until it strikes, is a response to his accident in 1999, in which he was struck by a van after the driver lost control.
As for Charles’ obsession with “secret electricity?” Perhaps his end-goal could symbolise the exclusively human need for forbidden knowledge, for understanding and control of something far bigger than ourselves, referring both to electricity, as well as pertaining to a deeper, existential yearning to make sense of death and the unknown, echoing the novel’s meditation on morality and timeless cautionary tales of hubris.
Stephen King’s “Revival,” is a novel that shocks, terrifies and resonates. With tragic descents into madness and tumultuous journeys through addiction, toward redemption, King reminds us that the most electrifying stories are those that confront raw and unfiltered truths, as well as our deepest fears. It will leave you buzzing. It’s dark. It’s existential. Most importantly, it’s mother-fucking rock n roll.
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