Neighbors

A feud between two neighbors over a 24 hour period Momentum shifts throughout For me, this book represents a new discovery of a writer who also wrote Little Big Man, which was made into a well regarded film starring Dustin Hoffman Neighbors was also made into a film a bad one starring John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd Funny, I can t see them in this role I picture Jason Alexander for Keese and Dennis Quaid for Harry.This is a black comedy so you have to prepare yourself properly I didn t The events t [...]

NEIGHBORS made me hyperventilate No other book conjures such a trapped in the funhouse feeling, wherein every page makes you feel like you just turned and slammed your face into yet another glass wall or distorted mirror The book, in and of itself, is NOT unfilmable, but the botched Belushi Aykroyd attempt pretty well iced any chance of a proper version ever existing Berger is one of my favorite authors, and I d recommend NEIGHBORS to anyone but THE FEUD, I d say, is really the best place to sta [...]

This is like no other book I have read Twenty four hours in nearly 300 pages reads almost like real time, which works well in this story of strange neighbours Each individual incident is plausible, but in combination, it creates an acutely observed surreal nightmare of escalating paranoia.Earl and Enid are are in their late 40s but seem older and long time residents of a quiet road Their predicable life is overturned by the arrival of new neighbours Harry and Ramona s unabashed presumptiousness [...]

The key to this relentless nightmare is right there on page one Were Keese to accept the literal witness of his eyes, his life would have been of quite another character, perhaps catastrophic, for outlandish illusions were, if not habitual with him, then at least none too rare for that sort of thing And so as we read on, always from Keese s point of view, you re led to doubt whether depictions of his neighbors Harry and Ramona are accurate that they may be the ramping up of his own peculiar mala [...]

Saw the film years ago It was difficult not too see the actors as I read but still I found a lot to like about it Riding through the story, now directly inside the mind of Earl Keese was enlightening The feeling of contrast was practically tangible between my memories as a boy watching a film which was funny but entirely unrelatable to a reading a novel that felt very familiar and personal as a man who now has a home and family and NEIGHBORS

This is a story about 24 hours of psychological warfare between trite, staid middle class suburbanites, and the free wheeling grifters who move into the house next door Quirky and uncomfortable, but also very well written, funny, and never boring It s a very quick read, too.

Unlike any book I ve ever read, in a way that is hard to explain Banal yet surreal, with really interesting stylistic choices Quick and engaging read, of a long short story than a novel.

I remember the Belushi film as a curiosity of the 1980s, so i decided to check out the novel Berger makes it readable and fascinating even though the characters are extremely annoying, especially the middle aged drone Earl Berger works a brutal satire on how most middle aged Americans choose to live with zero passion or spontaneity The neighbors Harry and Ramona remain ambiguous all the way to the end, are they angels or demons Their anarchic lifestyle is either to be applauded or condemned Berg [...]

Weird and funny and disorienting As someone who is frequently the new family on the street, it was an engaging read The plot centers around a middle aged man and his wife who leads a pretty banal existence in a quiet neighborhood with only one other house on his street Crazy new neighbors move in, zaniness ensues and the pratfalls pranks get progressively aggressive and weird I kept waiting for the punchline but the ending, while good, left me still asking so many questions.

The reviews for this book are all over the place, and I can see why It is a darkly humorous book, extremely well written, but one whose twists and turns are designed to make the reader uncomfortable Personally, I thoroughly enjoyed the twists and turns, as characters repeatedly responded unexpectedly to new situations The characters are all well developed by the end of the book Just say Ramona

Most people know this story through the film with Dan Ackroyd and John Belushi than through the book to be honest, the book read like an overlong Playboy short story than a novel and didn t really take me anywhere except to take the theme of neighbor from hell to another level, without leaving you liking anybody in the end or in the middle or from the start Fortunately, it was short.

This is the fourth book I ve read by Berger, and it s probably my least favorite I have a sneaking suspicion that makes me an idiot.The blurb said it best it s as if Henry James was writing Waiting for Godot Clearly brilliant and deploying a sharp eye on convention and real life, but a bit too out there for little old me.

A masterpiece of suburban angst that comes across like a manic, comic version of Who s Afraid of VIrginia Woolf The film version is one of the most vastly under rated films of all time, brilliantly casting Ackroyd and Belushi in the roles opposite of what one would have presumed.

Very black like a bad dream that keeps getting worse It reminds me of A Confederacy of Dunces because the characters are so irritating.

No idea what I just read Extremely quirky, which I usually love, but not sure the payoff was worth it

This is one of the strangest, weirdest books I have ever read in my entire life And I am not kidding about it By saying this I am probably going against a majority, who seem to love this book When I purchased this book I purely went by reader reviews and said to myself, man I have to read this book The book starts off really well by introducing us to Keese the protoganist if I may say so Keese is seemingly a laid back guy, happy with his house and life on a dead end street with the only daughter [...]

This review was originally written on my blog back in 2006If you can avoid this book, I definitely would not read it again Maybe the cover should ve been a clue to me The entire time I was reading this book, I kept thinking that the ending would redeem it for meke it worth my time.Unfortunately, this was not the case.The story is about a family who lives on a dead end street New neighbors move into the only other house on the street, and all sorts of trouble ensues The husband and wife want to h [...]

Thomas Berger s strange bit of absurd comedy is about a man at war with his neighbors and his wife and his daughter, and his other neighbors, and most definitely himself Gerald Keese invites in his neighbors Harry and Ramona, and over the course of the next twenty four hours, he alternately fends them off, fights with Harry, spurns Ramona s sexual advances, is accused of harassment, invites them back in, tries to hurt them, tries to help them, etc.At some points the reader wonders whether there [...]

I picked this up out of curiosity because I have fond memories of a Ackroyd Belushi movie called neighbors It was marketed as a comedy, and it was, but it was a dark comedy, like one of the funnier episodes of the twilight zone The actors were cast against type Ackroyd was in a Belushi type role, and vice versa.So anyway, the book It was often jarring I read theories on the internet after were people sought to explain why this was the case Guy has a wife and daughter, and obnoxious neighbors mov [...]

This book became the 1981 comedy, Neighors, starring John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, which I saw in the theater as a teen Of the book, Kirkus Reviews notes After playing quite nimbly with a couple of spoofable genres detective stories in Who Is Teddy Villanova , courtly epic in Arthur Rex , Berger now returns to middle class America with a comic nightmare book that has the audacious relentlessness and the naked, joyful aggression found only in those old slapstick vaudeville routines you know, the [...]

This novel starts out with very entertaining explorations of social conventions, in particular how the protagonist Earl Keese responds to the various social transgressions inflicted upon him by his new neighbors Harry and Ramona However, this theme is rather a thin frame upon which to hang an entire novel In fact, Berger s plot drags for nearly 100 pages in the last half of the novel, as if the author himself is searching for a way to bring the novel s plot to the end He eventually succeeds, unc [...]

I had read this book when I was in high school all those many, many, many well, not that many years ago but decided to read it a second time Neighbors is still just as weird as I remembered it, not in a bad way, however The dialog is pretty flamboyant, not the way people really speak, but I love how peculiar the new neighbors are and how Keese, the main character, reacts to them and how he comes to love them even though they have accused him of attempted rape, damaged his vehicle and even attemp [...]

At first it made me deeply uncomfortable I would crawl through a couple of pages and have to stop, distraught at the completely uncouth behaviour of these new neighbours of Earl Keese Then I hit a place where continuing to read became a compulsion, and finally a joy There s a freedom that these grifters bring to Earl s life in the very short time that he knows them, and a revelation that they bring for him about himself and his family that he might not otherwise have seen Darkly hilarious and ab [...]

Neighbors by Thomas Berger is a satire about living in the suburbs It s supposedly hilarious but I guess I don t really get satire, because I just thought it was weird Every time I found it to be completely ridiculous and totally unbelievable, I just reminded myself that it was a satire but that still didn t make it funny to me I found out after I d read it that it was the basis for the movie by the same name starring John Belushi and Dan Akroyd, so maybe if you ve seen that you get an understan [...]

Liked it, but didn t really get the point Berger s a great writer Little Big Man is one of my all time favorite novels But this was a strange one The characters are fully sketched, the plot whizzes along, the dialogue rings true for the most part But what the hell is going on What on earth are these sociopathic neighbors up to I couldn t figure it out, so I just went along for the wild ride.

Found this book to be tedious I know it is supposed to be satire about life in suburbia, but really it was just boring None of the annoying characters really gripped me and nothing they said or did was earth shattering Kept reading just to see if it would get interesting Everytime it seemed like it would, the tension simmered down Geez, if only Keese would have killed Harry or Ramona or Enid or Elaine Now that would have made it interesting.

I saw the movie a long time ago and even though it wasn t great, I liked it When I found out it was a book, I gobbled it up Big mistake I couldn t stand it I also found out that Mr Berger also wrote Little Big Man which is one of my all time favorite movies I don t think I m going to read the book and be disappointed like I was with Neighbors.

I saw the movie before I read the book years ago I just now got to re reading this I use to like the film better Now I m not sure The book goes deeper into Earls one night of insanity The ending of the book hits you fast Gives you no time to think It s one of the better conclusions I ve read.

Funny, outrageous, but in the end, a bit tedious Makes one think though, of some of those aggressive so called friends we all have that make themselves at home become pests And most importantly, our reactions and ineffectualness.

Another reviewer described it as a kind of farcical, suburban version of Who s Afraid of Virginia Woolf and I think that s fairly accurate Berger is pithy as all hell, and while the suburban hell of Neighbors is a bit dated, it s still a rollicking tale of alienation and redemption