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    The Book of Revelation: A Novel
    Unavailable
    The Book of Revelation: A Novel
    Unavailable
    The Book of Revelation: A Novel
    Ebook316 pages4 hours

    The Book of Revelation: A Novel

    By Rupert Thomson

    4.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    In an edgy psychological thriller that is as mesmerizing as it is profound, Rupert Thomson fearlessly delves into the darkest realm of the human spirit to reveal the sinister connection between sexuality and power.

    Stepping out of his Amsterdam studio one April afternoon to buy cigarettes for his girlfriend, a dashing 29-year old Englishman reflects on their wonderful seven-year relationship, and his stellar career as an internationally acclaimed dancer and choreographer. But the nameless protagonist's destiny takes an unthinkably horrifying turn when a trio of mysterious cloaked and hooded women kidnap him, chain him to the floor of a stark white room to keep as their sexual prisoner, and subjected him to eighteen days of humiliation, mutilation, and rape. Then, after a bizarrely public performance, he is released, only to be held captive in the purgatory of his own guilt and torment: The realization that no one will believe his strange story. Coolly revelatory, meticulously crafted, The Book of Revelation is Rupert Thomson at his imaginative best.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRandom House Publishing Group
    Release dateJul 3, 2001
    ISBN9780375727795
    Unavailable
    The Book of Revelation: A Novel
    Author

    Rupert Thomson

    RUPERT THOMSON is the author of eight highly acclaimed novels, of which Air and Fire and The Insult were shortlisted for the Writer's Guild Fiction Prize and the Guardian Fiction Prize respectively. His most recent novel, Death of a Murderer, was shortlisted for the 2008 Costa Novel Award. His memoir This Party's Got to Stop was published in 2009.

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    Reviews for The Book of Revelation

    4.5/5

    9 ratings7 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Weird title. Nothing to do with religion and no discernible revelations in the story. Incidentally makes it very difficult to find inpor a search engine. A better book than it promises at first. the kidnap and sexual torture which is at the core of the book is luridly fascinating flirting with the edges of distaste and even pornography. But it's spectacular well-written and the consequences are gripping and feel very real. A page-turner with insight into pain, confusion, loss of meaning, and even into the nature of ballet.
    • 5/5
      I loved this book. The start: the first third of the book was enough to keep you hooked to the end. It is not a spoiler to say the main character - ex-ballet dancer and choreographer is kidnapped and sexually exploited by three unknown women. It reads like a thriller and the kidnap is an allegory for female rape and abuse (by men). It does run out of steam a little bit and would have been better if it was shorter. It is also frustrating, if I tell you why it would be a spoiler. If you want a great beach read, don't take a mainstream Thriller, take this instead, you will not only enjoy it more, you will learn a lot more as well. I cannot think of a book that both me and my partner have both read that has generated so much debate. There is also a clever device when the main character is kidnapped, when the POV shifts from the first person to the third, you will see why that is clever if you read it. A thumpingly good read. Be fantastic for a book group.
    • 5/5
      I can't even remember how I came accross this book, but I had heard of the movie before I knew it was a book. I thought the gender reversal was quite intriguing. The idea of women abducting a man, and dance the women and Daniel do, between rapists and victim, was very fascinating. We are often confronted with the effects rape has on a woman, but the idea a man could be raped is often socially mocked and disbelieved. In fact, it is often a male fantasy. Many people believe if a man is physically responsive, then he is giving his permission.This book delves into a familiar concept, abduction and rape, and does so from an unfamiliar angle. In doing so, the reader is off-balance and more sympathetic to the victim. The mental journey of a survivor is understood, and the reality that perpetrators are often survivors of abuse themselves is mentioned.I understood myself better after reading this book. I reccommend this book to anyone who has experienced, or known someone who has experienced, abuse. Be aware, though, it is graphic.
    • 4/5
      I picked up this book only because its setting was Amsterdam. As a former resident of that city, the rare books and films that are set there are inherently interesting to me. I love being able to precisely envision settings, placing myself in the city's streets, smelling and feeling the crush of the markets, hearing the trams and tasting the air of the city as I read. But this book fascinated me on many levels, including even the author's choice to set it in Amsterdam, a city which in some ways has morals so permissive as to make it ultimately depersonalized. The Dutch pride themselves on their "live and let live" culture - but in some ways this permissiveness mimics an attachment disorder. If no one cares about anything, who is left to care about what happens to you? How do you learn to care about other beings?The story is about a ballet dancer who, on his way to buy cigarettes for his girlfriend, is abducted by a trio of cloaked, masked women, and held for a length of time. Abused both sexually and mentally, his release is as traumatic for him as his capture was.The first half of the book deals with his capture, torture and release several weeks later, while the second half deals with next decade of his life, as he tries to reconcile his earlier understanding of the world with what has happened to him. The utter narcissism of his girlfriend, combined with the unique nature of the crime (a sex crime against a man being somehow less believable or empathetic than one against a woman) facilitates the disintegration of that relationship almost immediately, and the protagonist's inability to attach to anyone or anything leads him around the world on a quest for peace, or vengeance, or escape. The book can only end when he begins to face the enormity of what has happened, and deal with the consequences openly.The author, whose other works I haven't read, switches from first to third person without rhyme or reason, and his spare use of language echoes for me what it must be like to think with a man's mind.I recommend this book, if only for its ability to make me place myself in someone else's skin, and have sympathy for a character who, if I didn't know his history, I might despise.
    • 3/5
      Maybe I have to read this again to understand why all the blurbs from critics on this edition rave about it because though I enjoyed it, I certainly didn't come away thinking it was anything earth shattering and realistically the narrators behaviour after the crime against him was verging on completely unrealistic.
    • 5/5
      I really, really enjoyed this book. It plays with gender roles and power, and reads quite realistically despite the outlandish premise of a group of female friends holding a male dancer as a sexual hostage.
    • 4/5
      Take a popular theme in sex fiction - woman kidnapped into sexual slavery - and give it a twist. The male narrator is a professional dancer who is kidnapped and used as a sex toy by a group of women. Chained up, his body responds against his will. A most interesting well written believable and disturbing novel