The Prison House by John King

The Prison House

John King

A novel that was impossible to put down but which left me with as many questions as answers. Perhaps an allegory of the human condition, but a very readable one as the author slides from Jimmy's boyhood in England to his (or his father's?) travels in the USA and India to his final destination in the prison house which is sited who knows where. The stream of consciousness is not made easier by the narrator's change of voice, but I would recommend the book as worth all the effort.

Extract
There is a man in the background and he wonders if it is his father, but no, he doesn't care about his old man. The executioner blesses me and says it will soon be over, son, nobody knows you've done wrong, only you. You've let your ma down. And Jimmy goes to say something but the words won't come, a lever pulled and the electricity roaring through his body.
Parallels
  • Journeys in the Dead Season by Spencer Jordan
  • The Trial by Franz Kafka
  • Purely Belter by Jonathan Tulloch
Buy this book Borrow this book
Violence
Explicit sexual content