- Paperback: 240 pages
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Ltd; Reprint edition (15 Aug 2005)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0743257960
- ISBN-13: 978-0743257961
- Product Dimensions: 21.5 x 14.1 x 1.9 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,102,098 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Neighbors
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Product Description
Review
"A wonderfully funny and mysterious book."
-- "The New York Times Book Review"
Product Description
NEIGHBORS is a black comedy about Earl Keese, a regular suburbanite whose world is overturned when Harry and Ramona move into the house next door. Harry and Ramona instantly unsettle the staid Earl with their abrupt mannerisms, their disturbing wolfhound and their dangerous schemes. Earl's suspicions about the couple's lack of stability and normalcy are ignored by his wife, Enid, and his daughter, Elaine, even while he is concerned that they are all being negatively affected by their relationships with the neighbours. Ramona is by turns seductive and manipulative with Earl while Harry is threatening and confrontational, upending Earl's carefully constructed world of social values and neighbourliness. The novel culminates in a night of recriminations, explanations, and discussions that leads to Earl abandoning his family and his old life and taking to the road with Harry and Ramona. Or so he thinks. Thomas Berger creates a creepy suburban nightmare but does so with humour and light touch intact. He explores the complex relationship between, as he puts it, 'the kicker and the kickee'.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
Not for all tastes, this is a dark classic of suburban angst turned-out by Thomas Berger (a long way from LITTLE BIG MAN this time). Earl Keese is tormented by two new neighbors to the point where he has no one to turn to- but the two new neighbors. There's a sense of anarchic absurdity that's practically joyous to follow here. Highly recommended- read it before you watch the underrated 1981 film.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I kept reading this even though I thought it ridiculous right from the first few pages. The story is simple enough: Earl, a middle-aged regular guy, and his wife Enid, invite their new neighbours, an outgoing, rather crude but attractive younger couple, round for dinner. Over the course of the next twenty-four hours there are various crazy misunderstandings involving wrecked cars, accusations of rape, locking them in the basement etc, all extremely improbable. There's a kind of fascination with seeing just how absurd things can get, and they do get very absurd indeed, right up to the equally crazy ending.
Berger's florid writing style is sometimes too much for my taste, though he writes well enough. The real problem is that the whole thing is just plain silly, too silly even to be amusing, never mind funny, which I can only presume it's meant to be.
Berger's florid writing style is sometimes too much for my taste, though he writes well enough. The real problem is that the whole thing is just plain silly, too silly even to be amusing, never mind funny, which I can only presume it's meant to be.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
12 reviews
37 of 37 people found the following review helpful
There Goes the Neighborhood
5 Sep 2000
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
It was with great pleasure that I read that Zoland Books was reissuing Berger's classic dark comedy. I had been looking for this book for many years and it has sadly been out of print. The book still stands as one of the funniest books of the last twenty-five years. Earl Keese is the classic surburban gentleman: well rounded, established, slightly boring. He is living the perfect conventional life until his entire world is shattered by the moving in of Harry and Ramona. These are at first glance the neighbors from hell. Younger, less sophisticated, crass and alluring they are everything Keese is not. The first hundred and fifty pages of this novel ranks as one of the funniest set pieces in modern literature. One has to remember that this is a novel of all out guerilla warfare between two adult neighbors. If the idea seems childish at first one has to remember that these are adults acting as children. The odd thing is Keese grows to like these new people at the expense of his own family whom he begins to see as they really are. Wife Enid is a boozy bore, while daughter Elaine is a petty thief. Nothing is to Keese as it has seemed. By the end of the novel Keese is doubting his own way of life and wants to be more like the neighbors that he started out hating. The book is extemely funny biut sort of sad also and well worth the read.
29 of 31 people found the following review helpful
Who is this guy!?
30 Oct 2000
Format:Paperback
I just finished reading "Neighbors" by Thomas Berger and am convinced that I should never go back to my favorite coffee house again. Every time I went there to read this book I embarrassed myself with spontaneous guffaws, chuckles, whistles, hoots, hollers, snorts, hee-haws, "pfts!" and knee slaps. I drew a tremendous number of piercing looks and some sad glances of well-wishers encouraged to see a man afflicted with such a debilitating case of turrets emboldened enough to step out in public and try to normalize. This is one of the funniest novels I've ever read. Berger has the wit and darkly comedic outlook of Vonnegut and the surrealism and sheer command of the English language that Beckett displays in his best prose. I hate to say that the end of the novel failed to live up to the rather high expectations I had for it but really, who cares? I'm thrilled to have discovered a new favorite author and can't wait to read some more of his work. Probably "Little Big Man" will be next on my list. I highly recommend this novel especially for authors if for nothing else but to study the work of a master craftsman.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Somewhat different stylistically from movie
15 Oct 2004
Format:Paperback
If you're like me you were introduced to the world of Thomas Berger through the movie adaptation of "Neighbors" which featured John Belushi and Dan Ackroyd in one of the most ingenious casting decisions of all time. Perhaps it's because I have such fond memories of the film (believe me, I had a long history with it before ever coming to the book) that I was somewhat alarmed at the book's tone.
Both versions have Earl and Enid living peacably in outer suburbia when Harry and Ramona move suddenly into the only other house occupying their street. What ensues is a comedy of manners in which Harry and Ramona make life hell for Earl (Enid emerges strangely unscathed) all the while playing dumb and rebounding the blame back in Earl's court.
You see, in the movie the ridiculous humor is played more or less strictly for laughs, and in my opinion it's one of the finer black comedies of all time (but then, I have a soft spot for compressed little films that have a wealth of material all occurring during one eventful night - ie. American Graffiti, After Hours, Dazed & Confused, etc). Berger's source novel, on the other hand, plays it a little bit more straight, and in fact hints not too subtly that a great deal of the mischief may be entirely a figment of Earl's imagination. This is all fine and well but Berger seems to take it a bit over the top at times. In particular, Enid and (later) their daughter Elaine seem to be picking on Earl and choosing sides against him more or less at random. Similarly, the ending goes for a Kafkaesque (circa "The Trial") bit of nihilistic mayhem that is unconvincing, insofar as similar incidents had been played out throughout the novel without the extreme response scripted in here. This is all the more disappointing considering the more or less realistic repartee between Earl and the Harry/Ramona tangent. Ultimately Harry has not had to prove his manhood for many a year (if ever) and it's this fatal flaw that makes his failures all the more tragically heroic. I still feel the movie managed to smooth out a few of the more incongruous plot points, but the novel is still an engaging read even after all these years.
Both versions have Earl and Enid living peacably in outer suburbia when Harry and Ramona move suddenly into the only other house occupying their street. What ensues is a comedy of manners in which Harry and Ramona make life hell for Earl (Enid emerges strangely unscathed) all the while playing dumb and rebounding the blame back in Earl's court.
You see, in the movie the ridiculous humor is played more or less strictly for laughs, and in my opinion it's one of the finer black comedies of all time (but then, I have a soft spot for compressed little films that have a wealth of material all occurring during one eventful night - ie. American Graffiti, After Hours, Dazed & Confused, etc). Berger's source novel, on the other hand, plays it a little bit more straight, and in fact hints not too subtly that a great deal of the mischief may be entirely a figment of Earl's imagination. This is all fine and well but Berger seems to take it a bit over the top at times. In particular, Enid and (later) their daughter Elaine seem to be picking on Earl and choosing sides against him more or less at random. Similarly, the ending goes for a Kafkaesque (circa "The Trial") bit of nihilistic mayhem that is unconvincing, insofar as similar incidents had been played out throughout the novel without the extreme response scripted in here. This is all the more disappointing considering the more or less realistic repartee between Earl and the Harry/Ramona tangent. Ultimately Harry has not had to prove his manhood for many a year (if ever) and it's this fatal flaw that makes his failures all the more tragically heroic. I still feel the movie managed to smooth out a few of the more incongruous plot points, but the novel is still an engaging read even after all these years.
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