Book Review – The Resurrectionist

Author: Jack O’Connell
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Binding: Hardcover
Publication Date: April 2008

The Resurrectionist 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. Hoping for a miracle, they have come to the fortress like Peck Clinic, whose doctors claim to have “resurrected” two patients who were lost in the void. What Sweeney comes to realize, though, is that the real cure to his son’s condition may lie in Limbo, a fantasy comic book world into which his son had been drawn at the time of his accident. Plunged into the intrigue that envelops the clinic, Sweeney’s search for answers leads to sinister back alleys, brutal dead ends, and terrifying rabbit holes of darkness and mystery.

Did the same breeding ground that produced the New Weird writers also produce a crime fiction writer? If so then that writer is Jack O’Connell. In my review of Already Dead by Charlie Huston I wrote of one type of cross genre fiction, that needs to accurately represent each genre used in order to be successful. The Resurrectionist sits at the other end of the spectrum. This is a novel that so throughly blurs and blends the lines between genres that it cant be contained by any one. Its a crime novel, a fantasy novel, a weird novel. It marries language, ideas and storytelling with the surreal interior landscape of Gehenna ,in Limbo, and in the end becomes its own genre. The other parts of the novel take place in Quinsigamond (“a land of bad dreams and rubble”), where all of O’Connell’s novels take place. Its a dying, rust belt type urban area that constantly shifts from book to book, refusing to be defined, but proves to be a sustainable world for O’Connell’s imagination. If there is a city that resides on the borders of all the genres, where all are welcome and none leave the same, then Quinsigamond is it.

On the surface these are characters tropes that we have seen before: biker gangs, mad scientists, distraught fathers and sexy nurses. Not only do they lose their sheen of familiarity as they traverse this landscape but they are developed into complex, sympathetic and fully realized human beings. They are used in such a different way, and new facets are given to them that they become wholly fresh and original. They still maintain their recognizability but they are fresh and unexpected.

As the world of Limbo is introduced O’Connell understands that subtle hints of connectedness between the worlds are far more jarring then a large collision. These subtle minnows of connection linger in our minds and, like the perceived glimpse of something strange out of the corner of your eye refusing to get caught, darts in and out of the narrative. The similarities between the worlds gives off a pervading sense of unease.

The book ends with Sweeney making a choice. I do have to wonder if the ending is as clear cut as the book suggests or is it open to interpretation? As readers we are used to being spoon fed, to the story being played straight and whats presented to us is what happened. But there are books that challenge us as readers to question what we read and I think The Resurrectionist is one of those books. Can we be sure that Sweeney did in fact make the right decision? There is a valid case to be made for either yes or no, but this too just adds to the layers.

The Resurrectionist is a rich, complex and layered novel and to reduce it to any one genre would be unfair. But if you were to categorize it as crime fiction then this is certainly a crime novel that has its eye towards the future rather then the past. This is high wire fiction written without a net. Its challenging and O’Connell doesn’t hold your hand and give you any pat answers. What you bring to the reading experience is almost as important as what is written. And the symbiosis of the two will present a different novel, in some ways, for all who read it.

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