revival

Irene brought me this as a present from her trip to the US. I received it with glee; National Bookstore sells it in hardcover at around Php1,300. And while I have already read the e-book back in December, there really is a distinct pleasure in turning the page of a real book. I love my Amazon Kindle, but I am still a sucker for holding a dog-eared copy of a book you've had for 10 years, with old bus tickets as bookmarks, while you sit on the toilet. Try that with Pet Sematary at one in the morning. I assure you it's a real thrill.

Jamie meets Charles Jacobs, a well-loved small-town minister who also dabbles on experiments with electricity. The minister's wife and son die in a gruesome accident, and he denounces God. Later in life he became a faith healer. Jamie in turn grows up, develops a drug problem, and gets 'cured' by Charles. Charles then lures Jamie to help him with his final experiment by promising to cure Astrid, Jamie's childhood sweetheart, who had terminal cancer. Jamie agreed, and Astrid was cured.

The final experiment had Jacobs using electricity (and whatever forces he gathered) to bring to life a dead woman. He wanted to know what was beyond the door, or maybe where his wife and son went. And what they do see is not a view of heaven and the cherubs, nor the seven rings of hell.

The horror lies not only in the conclusion, not in what they are given a glimpse of. The horror, to me, lies in the every day sweet things that death turns ugly. Your sweet little boy, turned into a bloody mess on the road (reminiscent of Gage Creed's death in Pet Sematary). Seeing your childhood sweetheart dying painfully of cancer. The loss of hope, the loss of love.

Death, to me, is a void. A blank. You become nothing. Some people believe you go to a place where you relive your happiest moments over and over. I am surrounded by death and loss these days: I have a friend whose mother is given just a few months to live. I have a neighbor who has terminal cancer and has come home to die. At lunch time today, we went to the wake of Milette's husband, who also died of cancer. And you can believe what you want, but you never really know what is beyond.

Revival is not a good read when you're thinking of death most days, but we read on, don't we? We stay glued to the pages, even if you knew what was coming next. And though you end up gloomy, your hands itch to get the next book this perfectly horrifying author comes up with next.