Jerusalem

De: Alan Moore

Narrado por: Simon Vance

Winner, 2017 APA Audie Awards—Best Male Narrator

Fierce in its imagining and stupefying in its scope, Jerusalem is the tale of everything, told from a vanished gutter.

In the epic novel Jerusalem, Alan Moore channels both the ecstatic visions of William Blake and the theoretical physics of Albert Einstein through the hardscrabble streets and alleys of his hometown of Northampton, UK. In the half a square mile of decay and demolition that was England's Saxon capital, eternity is loitering between the firetrap housing projects. Embedded in the grubby amber of the district's narrative, among its saints, kings, prostitutes, and derelicts, a different kind of human time is happening, a soiled simultaneity that does not differentiate between the petrol-colored puddles and the fractured dreams of those who navigate them.

Employing a kaleidoscope of literary forms and styles that range from brutal social realism to extravagant children's fantasy, from modern stage drama to the extremes of science fiction, Jerusalem's dizzyingly rich cast of characters includes the living, the dead, the celestial, and the infernal in an intricately woven tapestry that presents a vision of an absolute and timeless human reality in all of its exquisite, comical, and heartbreaking splendor.

In these minutes lurk demons from the second-century Book of Tobit and angels with golden blood who reduce fate to a snooker tournament. Vagrants, prostitutes, and ghosts rub shoulders with Oliver Cromwell; Samuel Beckett; James Joyce's tragic daughter, Lucia; and Buffalo Bill, among many others. There is a conversation in the thunderstruck dome of St. Paul's Cathedral, childbirth on the cobblestones of Lambeth Walk, an estranged couple sitting all night on the cold steps of a Gothic church front, and an infant choking on a cough drop for 11 chapters. An art exhibition is in preparation, and above the world a naked old man and a beautiful dead baby race along the Attics of the Breath toward the heat death of the universe.

An opulent mythology for those without a pot to piss in, through the labyrinthine streets and minutes of Jerusalem tread ghosts that sing of wealth, poverty, and our threadbare millennium. They discuss English as a visionary language from John Bunyan to James Joyce, hold forth on the illusion of mortality post-Einstein, and insist upon the meanest slum as Blake's eternal holy city.

©2016 Alan Moore (P)2016 Recorded Books

Extraordinary

Made me want to start over at the beginning. A combination of David Mitchell, Gaiman and Pratchett, and other world-in-a-grain-of-sand visionaries

Brilliant Writing that Runs in Circles

Just how many different points of view does Moore need to make the same point? What exactly is the point? And why do we need a pornographic interlude written in the style of Joyce's Ulysses? There comes a point when you feel like Moore is just showing off. "Look at what I can write. Behold my genius." Later you start to wonder if he suffers from the same mental illnesses he ascribes to his characters.

Well worth finishing

Would you consider the audio edition of Jerusalem to be better than the print version?

I found the audio version very enjoyable, but almost quit several times. I started the book in hardcover, but found it more enjoyable to listen. The book could have been improved by a stronger editor, who could have shortened it a bit, especially in the section where the girl who was crazy was speaking in not exactly intelligible words. Overall he is a wonderful wordsmith, with a well presented story that makes you think. A fantastic book, and a definite keeper. (Though it has xrated material, but that is very much a necessary part of the story)

This is poetry as prose.

This could not be a graphic novel. A very daring undertaking but as gen x goes, born in 1970, this is brilliant. The scope and detail will be difficult for up to 60% of readers who may hate it. This is Nine Princes In Amber, or even The Narnia tales. Working Class saints. Quantum physics, non Euclidean geometry, And time hallucinogenic pox hat punch. This is as huge and ominous as Dark Tower or Clive Barkers Quiddity in Great and Secret and Everville. Quiddity is an excellent thing to have faith in. Three times any more any less madness.Anyway this is right up a Hellblazer alley Northampton as a Angle, Devil, Ghost and the Living in membrane theory and a sexual subversion.

Superb narration for a sublime tale

I shamelessly admit I purchased this Audible version solely to aid me “Round The Bend”. Mr. Vance’s narration did just and more than that. I enjoyed his delivery so very much that I found myself carrying on with it for chapters while driving, and even along with me, book in hand. I prefer the act of reading and have only ever listened to a book once or twice prior to this. Deepest admiration to you Mr. Vance. And Mr. Moore, well, I mean really, must I? Can I? Thank you and thank you.