The Resurrectionist: A Novel

by Jack O'Connell Narrated by Holter Graham

Overview

Part classic noir thriller, part mind-bending fantasy, The Resurrectionist is a wild ride into a territory where nothing is as it appears. It is the story of Sweeney, a druggist by trade, and his son, Danny, the victim of an accident that has left him in a persistent coma.

Gritty noir fiction, mind-bending fantasy, and medical thriller combine in a new novel by an author dubbed the "cyberpunk Dashiell Hammett."

Sweeney is a druggist by trade; Danny, his son, is in a persistent coma, the victim of an accident. Hoping for a miracle, they have come to the Peck Clinic, a fortress-like haven in a post-industrial city overrun by gangs. Doctors there claim to have resurrected two patients who were similarly lost in the void.

Gradually, Sweeney realizes that the cure for his son's condition may lie in “Limbo,” a fantasy comic-book world into which Danny had been drawn at the time of his accident. Plunged into the intrigue that surrounds the clinic, Sweeney searches for answers and instead finds sinister back alleys, brutal dead ends, and terrifying rabbit holes of mystery.

Full of puzzles and surprises, Resurrectionist is a surreal, gothic meditation on identity, the nature of consciousness, the power of stories, love, mad scientists, circus freaks, and ultimately forgiveness-both giving and receiving.

Editorial Reviews

Marilyn Stasio

…Sweeney buys time to spend at Danny's bedside, reading aloud from the boy's beloved Limbo comics. The band of heroes in this sadomasochistic series, the Goldfaden Freaks, have been abandoned by their carnival owner, cast adrift in a hostile world. As Sweeney recounts the bizarre adventures of Chick the chicken boy, Jeta the skeleton, Antoinette the pinhead and the rest of their forlorn troupe, O'Connell introduces us to the "real" freaks in Quinsigamond—notably the Abominations, renegade bikers trafficking in human tissue, and Dr. Peck, who needs this contraband for resurrecting the brain-dead patients he calls "sleepers." Before long, the two sets of characters are interacting, and their respective genres are melding into a meta-narrative with common themes: love and loss, death and redemption, and the eternal devotion of fathers for their sons. Despite the fabulist flair of his surreal style, O'Connell is just retelling the old story every boy wants to hear.
—The New York Times

Publishers Weekly

Holter Graham deftly brings to life the myriad characters that populate O'Connell's novel. Sweeney, a pharmacist, brings his comatose son, Danny, to the mysterious Peck Clinic in the hope that the doctors can restore his boy to consciousness. While trying to settle into his new surroundings, Sweeney encounters the peculiar staff of the hospital and a bizarre motorcycle gang who all have dark designs on his son. Though Graham sounds a bit young in his narration, his character voices are dead on, whether portraying the philosophical/psychotic head biker, a stoic strong man from a comic book series Danny loved, or the central, single-minded earnestness of Sweeney, each character is imbued with a richness of layers that is a tribute to O'Connell's writing and Graham's performance. Simultaneous release with the Algonquin hardcover (Reviews, Feb. 4). (Apr.)

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Library Journal

Noir mixed with elements of dark fantasy may seem like an odd combination, but novelist O'Connell (Word Made Flesh; The Skin Palace) pulls it off in a strange and extremely original work. Sweeney has brought his comatose son, Danny, to the renowned Peck Clinic for treatment. But he soon discovers that despite its stellar reputation, the clinic and the surrounding town aren't what they appear to be. Soon Sweeney is not only involved with clinic staff but also a group of bikers who believe they have the answers Sweeney needs. The fantasy element enters in the form of Limbo, Danny's favorite comic, chapters of which are interspersed with happenings at the clinic. Although difficult to explain succinctly, the tale of Limboand Danny's own story are related. In the end, this unusual novel may disappoint fans of straightforward mystery, but those open to something different should be pleasantly surprised. Recommended for adventurous fiction collections.
—Craig Shufelt

Kirkus Reviews

A father struggles to reclaim his son from a long-standing coma in O'Connell's dark, wildly inventive fantasy. The years Danny Sweeney has spent at St. Joseph's Hospital in Cleveland have done nothing to awaken him from his persistent vegetative state. Now his pharmacist father has brought him to the Peck Clinic in Quinsigamond, Mass., where Sweeney Senior is to take charge of the clinic's drug room. The move is disruptive and the job means a pay cut, but the stakes are high: Dr. Micah Peck claims to have brought back two equally hopeless patients with experimental treatments. As Sweeney settles into his new routine, he becomes intent on collecting back issues of Limbo Comics, a series that had fascinated Danny before his accident. The comics relate the adventures of the Goldfaden Freaks, a sideshow troupe including a protective strongman, a fat lady, a dwarf, a skeleton, a bearded lady, a pinhead, a human torso, a lobster girl, a hermaphrodite, a pair of conjoined twins and a chicken boy who serves as their "conscience and spirit." When Chick incurs the wrath of the murderous Shoshone McGee, the freaks are forced into a perilous odyssey. Although their comic-book travails apparently couldn't be more removed from the antiseptic orbit of the Peck Clinic, the two worlds soon begin to bleed into one another, especially once Sweeney takes up with Nadia Rey, Danny's nurse, and the Abominations, a gang of bikers who seem to straddle the frontier between Chick and Dr. Peck. Can Danny somehow be recalled to his father's world, or can Sweeney join his son in Danny's twilight world? The question won't be answered until Sweeney is taught by Limbo Comics to see himself and his son in ways that demanda monstrous leap of faith. The shadow world of comic books provides O'Connell (Word Made Flesh, 1999, etc.) with material for a nightmarish story that's hallucinatory, tightly structured and ultimately redemptive.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940171677633
Publisher:	HighBridge Company
Publication date:	04/08/2008
Edition description:	Unabridged

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