The title of King’s novel refers not only to Charles Jacobs’s evangelical approach and to the goal of his final experiment but also to the patterns of reinvention that both Jacobs and Jamie Morton undergo throughout their lives. Jamie and Jacobs “revive” themselves by moving away from the tragedies that defined their pasts. The novel’s long timeframe, however, gives King narrative space to ask whether one can truly escape the past and successfully begin again.

The first time Jamie meets Jacobs as an adult, the former minister has restyled himself as Dan Jacobs, a purveyor of lightning portraits and inventor of other electrical devices. Jacobs seems to have moved on from the tragedy of losing his wife and child; his decision to help Jamie through his heroin addiction signals the emotional progress he’s made since the day of the Terrible Sermon. Still devastated by the untimely loss of his only sister, Claire, Jamie starts working for Jacobs partly because he looks up to him as an example of someone who has moved on from his grief so fully. As they spend more time together, however, Jamie realizes this is not actually the case.