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Summary
John Barrett, handsome news anchor for NewsSix, has a fairly average life—until he begins to hear the voices. First he hears wailing and groaning in his neighborhood that no one else can hear. He hears a waitress weeping over a lost friend, even though it’s not audible to anyone but himself. He hears one of his co-workers shrieking in agony, but no one else sees the pain in her face, and she hotly denies her anguish. His co-workers worry: Is this because of his father’s recent and mysterious death?
John Barrett, Junior, wants nothing to do with the "religious kook" image of his father. He just wants to grieve his father’s death and get on with life as before.
But those voices won’t let him.
As John tries to reconnect with his son Carl, the mystery deepens and questions begin to rise to the surface. Are the voices actually manifestations of a terrifying dimension of reality—a spiritual reality? What do they have to do with the mysterious and sudden death of a black teenage girl? Was old Mr. Barrett’s death really an accident—or did he know something that someone did not want him to reveal? Why is Governor Slater so unnerved by old Mr. Barrett’s warnings? John Barrett, Junior, finds himself in a web of lies and manipulations, struggling to distinguish between reality and unreality, and wondering who he really is.
My Thoughts
Once I started PROPHET, I honestly could not put it down and I finished it in a little over a day, despite the fact that it is a hefty volume of over 400 pages in small type. Since Peretti worked with a great many details and sub-plots, there are several dozen things I could pick out to discuss about the book, but two main details stand out to me.
First, Peretti does an excellent job of conveying the world of television news reporting. He describes the sets, the camera angles, the tricks of the trade, the logistics, the time crunches, the office discussions, and other aspects of the job with such vivid detail that I could easily imagine every scene. One of the most intriguing aspects was his portrayal of how the media manipulated information. By picking which images would or would not be shown, by choosing which information would or would not be presented, by juxtaposing certain elements of information and separating other elements, by increasing or decreasing coverage time, by manipulating the placement of a story within the news hour, by carefully scripting all responses to information, NewsSix is able to control the information and thereby influence the viewer’s opinion. John, like the reader, is startled and then outraged as certain sensational events are gleefully covered and re-covered, but other important, newsworthy events are buried or ignored because their implications do not match the political ideals of the station or of the station’s paying advertisers. Shocking as it is, I don’t believe Peretti has portrayed great anomalies when describing the media world.
Secondly, Peretti also pulls off the stunt for which he is known in the writing world—the collision of physical reality with spiritual reality, until the two are nearly indistinguishable. When I read of the weeping voices that only John can hear, I remembered oddly similar moments in my own life. Not, perhaps, moments in which voices were audible to me, but moments in which the truth of someone’s secret inner life was impressed upon me as plainly as if I could see it written across her face. One of the best and most powerful scenes in the story involves John in a mall, where he glimpses not simply the secrets of individual people, but the destiny of the entire culture. I won’t spoil the scene for you, but it left me with goosebumps and chills, not simply because it was terrifying but because I knew it was a clear picture of actual reality.
My father and I both read PROPHET. We both enjoyed it and could not put it down, but we both felt that Peretti falters at a few places.
Sometimes his style and pacing seems extremely strong and at other times he seems to run out of steam. While I understand their Biblical significance, the scenes in which John sees a lamb seem a little awkward and forced to me, particularly the scenes toward the end of the book. The book also includes a great deal of repetition. In some instances, it strengthens the sense of futility or of being caught in a giant machine, as if life is a treadmill where the scenery never changes even as our existence screams along at a break-neck pace. In other instances, the repetition is simply irritating. The pacing, particularly at the beginning, can be very slow. In a way, I appreciate this; it reminds me that many battles in life aren’t a quick succession of climactic events, but rather a protracted effort against the steady grind of cultural lies. In another sense, I wished for a more rapid pacing.
PROPHET is probably more political than many of Peretti’s other books and, yes, it does have a conservative agenda. Some of his assertions about women’s health clinics may be hard to believe, but I have heard confirmation of similar stories from other sources. If nothing else, PROPHET is challenging and thought-provoking. Overall, I heartily recommend this book for adult readers.
John Barrett, handsome news anchor for NewsSix, has a fairly average life—until he begins to hear the voices. First he hears wailing and groaning in his neighborhood that no one else can hear. He hears a waitress weeping over a lost friend, even though it’s not audible to anyone but himself. He hears one of his co-workers shrieking in agony, but no one else sees the pain in her face, and she hotly denies her anguish. His co-workers worry: Is this because of his father’s recent and mysterious death?
John Barrett, Junior, wants nothing to do with the "religious kook" image of his father. He just wants to grieve his father’s death and get on with life as before.
But those voices won’t let him.
As John tries to reconnect with his son Carl, the mystery deepens and questions begin to rise to the surface. Are the voices actually manifestations of a terrifying dimension of reality—a spiritual reality? What do they have to do with the mysterious and sudden death of a black teenage girl? Was old Mr. Barrett’s death really an accident—or did he know something that someone did not want him to reveal? Why is Governor Slater so unnerved by old Mr. Barrett’s warnings? John Barrett, Junior, finds himself in a web of lies and manipulations, struggling to distinguish between reality and unreality, and wondering who he really is.
My Thoughts
Once I started PROPHET, I honestly could not put it down and I finished it in a little over a day, despite the fact that it is a hefty volume of over 400 pages in small type. Since Peretti worked with a great many details and sub-plots, there are several dozen things I could pick out to discuss about the book, but two main details stand out to me.
First, Peretti does an excellent job of conveying the world of television news reporting. He describes the sets, the camera angles, the tricks of the trade, the logistics, the time crunches, the office discussions, and other aspects of the job with such vivid detail that I could easily imagine every scene. One of the most intriguing aspects was his portrayal of how the media manipulated information. By picking which images would or would not be shown, by choosing which information would or would not be presented, by juxtaposing certain elements of information and separating other elements, by increasing or decreasing coverage time, by manipulating the placement of a story within the news hour, by carefully scripting all responses to information, NewsSix is able to control the information and thereby influence the viewer’s opinion. John, like the reader, is startled and then outraged as certain sensational events are gleefully covered and re-covered, but other important, newsworthy events are buried or ignored because their implications do not match the political ideals of the station or of the station’s paying advertisers. Shocking as it is, I don’t believe Peretti has portrayed great anomalies when describing the media world.
Secondly, Peretti also pulls off the stunt for which he is known in the writing world—the collision of physical reality with spiritual reality, until the two are nearly indistinguishable. When I read of the weeping voices that only John can hear, I remembered oddly similar moments in my own life. Not, perhaps, moments in which voices were audible to me, but moments in which the truth of someone’s secret inner life was impressed upon me as plainly as if I could see it written across her face. One of the best and most powerful scenes in the story involves John in a mall, where he glimpses not simply the secrets of individual people, but the destiny of the entire culture. I won’t spoil the scene for you, but it left me with goosebumps and chills, not simply because it was terrifying but because I knew it was a clear picture of actual reality.
My father and I both read PROPHET. We both enjoyed it and could not put it down, but we both felt that Peretti falters at a few places.
Sometimes his style and pacing seems extremely strong and at other times he seems to run out of steam. While I understand their Biblical significance, the scenes in which John sees a lamb seem a little awkward and forced to me, particularly the scenes toward the end of the book. The book also includes a great deal of repetition. In some instances, it strengthens the sense of futility or of being caught in a giant machine, as if life is a treadmill where the scenery never changes even as our existence screams along at a break-neck pace. In other instances, the repetition is simply irritating. The pacing, particularly at the beginning, can be very slow. In a way, I appreciate this; it reminds me that many battles in life aren’t a quick succession of climactic events, but rather a protracted effort against the steady grind of cultural lies. In another sense, I wished for a more rapid pacing.
PROPHET is probably more political than many of Peretti’s other books and, yes, it does have a conservative agenda. Some of his assertions about women’s health clinics may be hard to believe, but I have heard confirmation of similar stories from other sources. If nothing else, PROPHET is challenging and thought-provoking. Overall, I heartily recommend this book for adult readers.
