People Who Knock on the Door

Rating:
Summary: A teenager's worst nightmare.
Review: How would you feel if you are a teenager living a perfect an normal teenager life in the mid-west of the U.S.A and suddenly your father turns a little weird? Well, all teenagers think that their parents are a little weird, but in Arthur's case he has a good reason to be scared. Little by little his father is turning into a religious fanatic. This Patricia Highsmith novel was first published in 1983 and follows the line that she began with Edith's Diary were all the suspense lies in the cotidianity of the characters trapped in a world of madness and desesperation. What and when did it go wrong? Why couldn't I prevent it? When will it be normal again? To Patricia Highsmith, hell really exists, at least in this life.

Rating:
Summary: An Interesting Plot with Anachronistic Teen Characters
Review: I am only on page 50 of this novel, and consider myself a Highsmith fan. What I find most annoying about this novel is that, having been the same age as the protagonist in 1983 when the book was written, I can safely say that no teenagers spoke in the language that her protogonist and his friends speak in. It's as though they were transported from a 1941 and are forced to use words like "mightn't," "stocking feet," "Why are you so down-in-the-dumps" that only a woman of Highsmith's age would use. This is especially troubling because I love the plot and the religious conflict she creates (so far), but the teenagers' personalities seem false and contrived for 1983. Even the party scenes seem less MTV/Friday Night Videos and more like leftovers from the 40s MGM musical "Good News." The teens even hang out in what seems to be the equivalent of a malt shoppe. I can't recommend this book. She should have researched the lives she attempts to capture.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointment!
Review: I consider myself a Highsmith fan (about halfway through all of her published books), and even I was profoundly disappointed in this one.

The plot trods along at a maddingly slow shuffle which does little except build the world of the protagonist, Arthur, a teenager who graduates from high school, finds a girlfriend, and starts college during the book's progression.

Over the course of 340 pages, though, we find out little about the father (who converts to Born-Again Christianity without any explanation), younger brother Robbie who commits the crime of the book (why was he driven to do it?), a group of older men who take Robbie in (why did they do this? who are they?), the mother (why did she stand on the sidelines as the plot unfolds? how does she feel about things?), or the grandmother who seems so unlike the rest of Arthur's family. Development and positioning in the storyline are haphazard and lack direction/purpose.

And, ultimately, we learn and understand little of Arthur, even after the methodical and careful building of his character and world. Perhaps more attention and time to the book's other characters would've addressed this lack.

My impression of this book is that Highsmith went through the motions of writing, and it seems almost as if someone else wrote the book using a template of sorts in an attempt to write a Highsmith-esque work. Unfortunately, the book and Highsmith's effort both disappoint and there is no reason to read the book, regardless of your Highsmith fan status.

Rating:
Summary: Today, on "Surburbian Hell with Highsmith"
Review: Patricia Highsmith pulls a one-two punch on readers with her disturbing "People Who Knock on the Door." The first punch aims at modern Christianity. The second aims at every reader who thought the first punch was aimed at modern Christianity.

The story is centered around Arthur, a recent high-school graduate, and the problems he has concerning his family. His father has recently become a Christian - a Bible-thumping, "Amen"-shouting believer. Because his children have not been raised in a Christian home, the father's conversion tears the family apart, and traditional Highsmith violence ensues.

Is Highsmith praising or satirizing modern Christianity? Her opinion is seemingly obvious, because the book is almost completely one-sided...or is it? It, in fact, is not one-sided at all. Patricia Highsmith brilliantly pokes fun at herself - and at everyone ready to criticize her - by ultimately making the novel a farce. A very dark farce, mind you, but a farce nonetheless. The "villain" character is extremely one-sided, as is the protagonist. And because of how the book ends, the reader tends to view Highsmith as one-sided, also.

In the end, neither side wins: If you're the Christian, Highsmith has pulled the wool over your eyes by getting you to read the book in the first place - you should be reading the Bible, you hypocrite. If you "agree" with her supposed views toward Western Religion, she pulled the wool over your eyes, too - you have become the cynical Arthur...it's easy to point fingers when you're the protagonist, huh?

I have come to expect sharp thrillers from Patricia Highsmith. "People Who Knock on the Door" is more than a thriller...it is a razor-sharp dark comedy that succeeds on every level.

Rating:
Summary: Today, on "Surburbian Hell with Highsmith"
Review: Patricia Highsmith pulls a one-two punch on readers with her disturbing "People Who Knock on the Door." The first punch aims at modern Christianity. The second aims at every reader who thought the first punch was aimed at modern Christianity.

The story is centered around Arthur, a recent high-school graduate, and the problems he has concerning his family. His father has recently become a Christian - a Bible-thumping, "Amen"-shouting believer. Because his children have not been raised in a Christian home, the father's conversion tears the family apart, and traditional Highsmith violence ensues.

Is Highsmith praising or satirizing modern Christianity? Her opinion is seemingly obvious, because the book is almost completely one-sided...or is it? It, in fact, is not one-sided at all. Patricia Highsmith brilliantly pokes fun at herself - and at everyone ready to criticize her - by ultimately making the novel a farce. A very dark farce, mind you, but a farce nonetheless. The "villain" character is extremely one-sided, as is the protagonist. And because of how the book ends, the reader tends to view Highsmith as one-sided, also.

In the end, neither side wins: If you're the Christian, Highsmith has pulled the wool over your eyes by getting you to read the book in the first place - you should be reading the Bible, you hypocrite. If you "agree" with her supposed views toward Western Religion, she pulled the wool over your eyes, too - you have become the cynical Arthur...it's easy to point fingers when you're the protagonist, huh?

I have come to expect sharp thrillers from Patricia Highsmith. "People Who Knock on the Door" is more than a thriller...it is a razor-sharp dark comedy that succeeds on every level.

Rating:
Summary: Third-person Highsmith
Review: This is an interesting work, if you're familiar with other Patricia Highsmith novels - and by "interesting," it is that it's not technically a crime novel (i.e., it's not the major theme of the novel), it's another display of the range of her capabilities, rather; also, that when the crime is committed, it's not from the person from whom we're watching the events through - it's sort of a third-person crime, in this way. And not for the usual reason. (I'll leave it there so that, even though another reviewer has told you who the killer is, the novel hasn't been completely blown for you.)

"People Who Knock on the Door" is still a very readable novel, since the differences don't really detract from the reading - it has the same storytelling style of other Highsmith novels, and is not a labor to read for it.

If you're looking for a "Deep Water"/"This Sweet Sickness"-esque suburban psychopath tale, you may find it slow and ultimately disappointing.

But if you aren't, read on!

Rating:
Summary: Third-person Highsmith
Review: This is an interesting work, if you're familiar with other Patricia Highsmith novels - and by "interesting," it is that it's not technically a crime novel (i.e., it's not the major theme of the novel), it's another display of the range of her capabilities, rather; also, that when the crime is committed, it's not from the person from whom we're watching the events through - it's sort of a third-person crime, in this way. And not for the usual reason. (I'll leave it there so that, even though another reviewer has told you who the killer is, the novel hasn't been completely blown for you.)

"People Who Knock on the Door" is still a very readable novel, since the differences don't really detract from the reading - it has the same storytelling style of other Highsmith novels, and is not a labor to read for it.

If you're looking for a "Deep Water"/"This Sweet Sickness"-esque suburban psychopath tale, you may find it slow and ultimately disappointing.

But if you aren't, read on!

Rating:
Summary: Highsmith takes on Christian fundamentalists..
Review: With People Who Knock on the Door Patricia Highsmith deviates from her proven formula of closely examining the phobias of disturbed individuals, especially those who commit crimes or are the victims of crime. Instead Ms. Highsmith tells the story of a middle American family whose lives are turned upside-down when one of the members becomes a 'born again' Christian. Ms. Highsmith devotes considerable effort in exposing the hypocracy of such folks, and seems to humiliating 'them' (ie, those people who 'knock on the door' and tell others how miserable they are because they are not Christians).

While an enjoyable read, this book actually feels like the script of some made-for-TV film. I didn't get the sense of apprehension found in Patricia Highsmith's earlier works. And to be fair, her brutal views on Christian fundamentalists are a bit obvious. Too many cheap shots are thrown; the book is anything but a balanced view.

So I consider People Who Knock on the Door to worthwhile only for devout Highsmith fans. All others would be better off reading any of her earlier works (pre-1980).