The Book of Revelation : A Novel (Vintage International)

Rating:
Summary: ordinary after all
Review: An interesting read with an intriguing premise. A male dancer is kidnapped and held prisoner by three unidentified women who keep him chained up and sexually abuse him. Once released, the emotionally and physically scarred protagonist must deal with the changes in himself and seek out the abusers. (There are some improbable moments: the character fails at one point to take the opportunity to free himself when he has the chance, and his sex life in one part of the book is more like that of James Bond.) However, it is precisely because the writing is so good and the circumstances described are so compellingly bizarre, that it is disappointing when the book ends up saying something that is rather obvious.

Rating:
Summary: ordinary after all
Review: being that I stayed up till all hours last night laboring through this trite novel in hopes of some revelation that the title suggests; I'm cranky and tired but I'll try to keep my
opinion professional. It rather disturbs me that this book had been recommended to me by several women. Has this become some kind of feminist manifesto? I hope not.
The novel is told in a draggy first person narrative. Every other paragraph begins with grade school sentences like "As I looked at the trees in the park, I couldn't help but feel like..." or "I couldn't help but feel, as I looked at..."
Quite honestly I found the main character self-centered and
self obsessed, but somehow we are led to believe his vanity is
warranted due to the fact that he is a dancer. Regardless of his
profession, he is a bore, and unfortunately, their is no escape
from this characters every self reference & petty meanderings from pg 1 t the unfullfilling end. I beg you, please do nothing to add to the hype of this novel.

Rating:
Summary: a tour de force
Review: Rupert Thomson (1955) has written a fascinating and compelling sixth novel, and once you start reading 'The Book of Revelation', it's difficult to put the book down. A nameless 30-year old english dancer/choreographer lives and works in Amsterdam. He has a succesful career and for some years he's been living happily with his nice girlfriend Brigitte, also a dancer. In his life there are no real troubles, until... everything changes forever. He's abducted in Amsterdam by three cloaked and hooded women, who hold him captive and chained naked to the floor of an anonymous white empty room for eighteen days. For no apparent reason. During his captivity the only option there for him is total submission. The young women, presumably of his own age, appear often naked -though always hooded- to him. They have their way and play all kinds of games with him, mostly for their sexual pleasure. When the women's demands become more fierce, total dehumanisation and humiliation follows. The man is defenseless against this depraved performance of power, domination and desire. The ordeal he's subjected to includes rape and even brutal mutilation. For the reader this is a shocking nightmare as well.

The captivity-part of the book reminded me of Pascal Bruckner's bizarre and weird, but brilliant novel 'les voleurs de beauté' (1997), and of two films where a similar sort of events takes place: Pasolini's 'Salo: the 120 days of Sodom' (1975) and Michael Haneke's 'Funny Games' (1998). What happens there is that you're forced to witness extreme atrocities, while you know there will be no escape from these brutal violations of human dignity. And of course, as a 'witness', it makes you sick, you feel horrible. It's the same with Thomson's 'Book of revelation', with one big difference, ... a relief. The man regains his freedom. After eighteen days the women all of a sudden decide to release him.

The book is really about what follows then. Of course, after his release he's not really free. He will carry the horrible events he endured in captivity for the rest of his life, probably without ever knowing the identity of his torturers. In a brilliant way Thomson manages to describe the psychological process that accompanies the quest that now lies ahead of this deeply wounded man. His life-after looks like an endless re-evaluation. How to live with yourself, with these scars, how to deal with sexuality, with the people around you, and how to put your life in some sort of right track again... Facing all these problems the man begins a search for the women who made a ruin of his life. A search that will also bring his innermost self to the fore, in a way he never could have imagined.

The outline and structure of the novel is well balanced, and the shifting of perspective, using the first person ('I'-form) and third person ('he'-form) alternately in different sections of the novel, works fine and efficient. I read all Thomson's novels and one of his best writing skills throughout his work is the use of analogies. In 'The Book of Revelation' display of that skill may not be as abundant as in 'The five gates of hell' and 'The insult' -his most mesmerizing and intoxicating novels- but the outline and the psychological development of the main character is as good as ever. And, what's more, in 'The Book of Revelation' Thomson reveals a deep wisdom to everyone of us about essentials of life, concerning relationships, sexuality, human dignity and freedom. A remarkable achievement, and taking into account the difficult subject Thomson is dealing with here, I consider 'The Book of Revelation' a succesful 'tour de force'. In an oeuvre that's far from complete I hope. [9-1-2001]

Rating:
Summary: One Less Fantasy To Dream About
Review: Some men (not me of course) fantasize that they are held captive by a clutch of beautiful women who do interesting things to them. The hero of this novel, a choreographer, is kidnapped by three women who want to use him to satisfy their physical desires. This they do, but our friend really doesn't get into the spirit of it all, and yearns to escape. I don't think I can describe much of this for fear of getting censored by the word police. Let's just say that all the women get pretty satisfied, and then, suddenly, after a few weeks they release him.

Does he run to the police and report his kidnapping? He thinks about it, but who would believe him? He's been violated, but can't tell anybody about it. He takes three years off and tours the world to get it out of his system, but when he returns to England he becomes obsessed with finding these women. His search is extensive, but naturally I can't report the outcome. I'll just say that if Camus were alive I would bet anything that he had been hired to write the ending.

The theme of this novel is quite original. We can easily accept that women who are abused by men undergo considerable psychological trauma. In this story RT shows us that a man could also suffer damage from such an experience, especially when he feels unable to seek help.

Well worth reading.

Rating:
Summary: Sexual Captivity and Revelation
Review: The blurb on the back cover of "The Book of Revelation" suggests that the novel "fearlessly exposes our darkest fears to reveal the sinister connections between sex and power and how we are shaped by our experiences." It is a bold claim for Rupert Thomson's work, and one that, ultimately, cannot be sustained.

"The Book of Revelation" tells the story of a talented, successful young dancer and choreographer living in Amsterdam with his girlfriend of seven years, Brigitte. One day he goes out to buy cigarettes for her and is drugged and kidnapped by three black-hooded women. They keep him chained and captive in a stark white room for eighteen days, where he is emotionally and sexually abused, made to masturbate and perform, and, ultimately, mutilated, before being released. This occurs in the first half of the book and is narrated in the third-person. The man is never identified by name and the third-person narrative voice has the desired effect of distancing the reader from the victim's experience, making the reader feel the stark, dehumanizing experience of the dancer. This first part of the book is psychologically disturbing and erotically charged, in a dark sort of way; it is, in other words, a powerful piece of writing.

The second half of "The Book of Revelation" is written in the first person and relates what happens after the dancer is released by his captors. The victim remains unidentified by name, but the first-person narrative voice now brings the reader intimately into the mind of the dancer. Unfortunately, this part of the book requires the reader to suspend belief, the dancer's behavior seemingly at odds with what the claims of realism demand. Thus, upon his release, he makes his way back to his apartment, where he sees his girlfriend Brigitte. He does not tell her what has happened to him, nor does he tell anyone else. All he can say, at this point, is "how difficult it is, sometimes, to find the right words, or any words at all." In some ways, his inability to communicate with his girlfriend (and others) is adumbrated at the beginning of the story, when he gets into an argument with Brigitte about her smoking, an argument that seems curiously devoid of any real interpersonal relationship. The effect of all this is to make the reader (or at least this reader) feel that the dancer's problems are as much a result of his own disfunctionality as they are of his bizarre kidnapping and captivity.

From this point forward, the story is propelled by the dancer's unmitigated attempt to find the three women who held him captive. His only touchstones are the identifying marks he had observed on the naked bodies of those women. He is thus compelled to embark on a misogynistic crusade to sleep with every woman he meets in the hope that he can identify one of them by the revelation of her nakedness. This is one of the possible meanings of the book's title, a meaning suggested by the book's epigraph: "Will there ever be anything other than the exterior and speculation in store for us? The skin, the surface--it is man's deepest secret."

In the end, the dancer becomes a victim of his own obsession and his own inability to communicate, his inability to verbalize his experience and intimately share that experience with others. His redemption, if it will come at all, can only occur if he can overcome these inabilities, if he can "reveal" his kidnapping, his humiliation, his disturbed motivations; if he can tell his story, a book of revelation.

"The Book of Revelation" is an interesting book which keeps you turning the pages, wanting to know what happens in the end, whether the dancer will ever find his captors. Rupert Thomson is also a writer with great imaginative and writing ability. It is certainly a book worth spending time with, but not quite deserving of some of the critical acclaim it has received.

Rating:
Summary: The literary equivalent of Cinemax after hours
Review: Think early Bret Easton Ellis channeling Shannon Tweed. Then move on.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing and Ultimately Pointless
Review: This book starts off with an interesting premise that never comes close to its potential.
Maybe it's the stereotypical English reserve, but I never got the impression that the protagonist was all that traumatized by his capitivity or the aftermath. When his girfriend of six years leaves him immediately after his return, he just shrugs it off like it was meant to happen and that was that.
Later, even five years after the event his inability to tell anyone about what happened makes no sense either since he didn't seem too traumatized to begin with. He just uses the experience to drop out of life and become a drifter without trying to deal with the experience and move on with his life. This is inexplicable since again, the experience didn't seem to bother him too much to begin with.
Another small issue, having been to Amsterdam once, it didn't appear that the author had ever been there. The few details he gives about Amsterdam and Holland could have been lifted from any tourists guide. He also appeared to know little about the Dutch language.
This was the first book I have read by Rupert Thomson and it doesn't give me the desire to read another. I'm glad I picked it up at a second hand bookstore.