The Revenant

The Revenant A Novel by J. West Hardin After a lifetime of unsuccessfully seeking redemption a profound spiritual crisis triggers David's dying mind to desperately accelerate a bizarre process of reconciliation. As it is said, "Your life flashes before your eyes when you die", the tortured protagonist relives an idyllic fantasy of an alternative life instead of his own. Archetypical phantasms take on the guise of idealized characters whose David's narcissistic mind conveniently rewrites into his life story. Guardian angels inhabiting an ethereal dimension of David's subconscious create a spiritual focus that serves as his vehicle to overcome and explain away the sad reality of a pathetic life. His resurrected phantasm enables him to re-tell his story through the eyes of a subordinate uni-dimensional child who sets off on a righteous quest where guilt, blame or acceptance of fault for either outcome or consequence is denied. Through the vehicle of fantasy and a betrayal of truth the revenant of David's creation returns after a life of tortuous wandering. With his redemption in hand he is able to reconcile with himself and finds a pathway to inner peace at the end of his life.