Customer Reviews

The Intruder

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

The title to this book is interesting and serves as a decent introduction to the story. Ostensibly, the Intruder in the story is the homeless man who fixates on Jake Schiff and determines, through his crack-induced haze, that Jake Schiff has somehow stolen his family and his home. But, as you read you notice that there are actually lots of intruders. Jake Schiff is a Jewish lawyer from a rough Brooklyn neighborhood who doesn't quite fit in with his WASP law firm and their snooty ways. His wife is a social worker who is an intruder in her work world because she cares more about the clients than the bureaucracy. There's a mobster named Phillip who is an intruder in his world because he's hiding his homosexual feelings in the very, very macho world of the mafia. He's also an intruder in Jake's world as he forces Jake to deal violently with the homeless madman who has laid siege to his life.

But, then again, maybe I'm reading symbolism in to places where it doesn't belong. What the heck, it's fun. This book is a good read and has enough plot twists to satisfy all but the most jaded of readers.

The best things about this book are how, despite its simplicity of circumstance, its main characters are richly three-dimensional and movingly shaded: John G., the raving homeless man who sets the plot in motion through his therapeutic obsession with Jakes' wife Dana is an extremely empathetic recovering heroin addict whose own family has been torn apart by violence - there has not been an urban homeless character more engaging since the titular fellow of 1993's Free by Todd Komarnicki (Doubleday); Phil is a Brooklyn tough who poorly harbors a guilt-inducing secret; and the book's greatest character, New York City itself, is drawn with a deft versimilitude, full of subtly etched class, race and sex distinctions.

The latter is no surprise coming from Blauner, whose finely textured and harrowing 1992 debut, Slow Motion Riot won that year's Edgar Allen Poe Award for Best First Novel. Blauner's books are as much about sociological observation as about thrills-and-chills. His keen journalist's eye and psychological insight make for terrifically pungent prose. Tricks of social perception amongst the characters make there be not one titular intruder in this book, but at least three as Jake, Phillip and John join in a dance that finds them accidentally and purposely stepping on each others' turf and toes.

In this rather downer of a novel, Peter Blauner etches realistic and scathing portraits of a diverse cast: Jake Schiff, a power house lawyer who finds his life turned upside down by the invasion of a "street Person" with severe emotional problems; his wife, Dana, a psychiatric social worker whose involvement with this same person catapults her family into a vortex of danger; John Gates, the street person whose tragic past and dependence on drugs, spirals him into a maze of terror; Philip, a sly mafia man who insinuates himself into Jake's life and through a murder sets a path of irretrievable terror.
Blauner has a deft touch in creating seemingly hopeless situations, and though he redeems himself with characters finally doing something right, it ends on a rather dim vision of the future of our characters.
Well done but disheartening.

The Intruder by Peter Blauner is the absolute best book I've EVER read. Even though it sounds like a typical storyline, Blauner twists and turns it so there is nothing typical about it. The story brought many thoughts into my head: what if that homeless guy was once happy, but lost his family? What if he was an everyday normal guy? What if that fancy lawyer was involved in a murder? What if.....they just kept coming with no end. It helped me try to think past the appearance and what's inside. It helped to think about morality. It has defiantely changed my outlook on everyone, maybe even myself. This ones a definite reader and keeper.

I devoured this book's 449 pages in three days, unable to stop reading --- on the train, in the elevator, over dinner, and long past bedtime. Peter Blauner has contructed a realistic, shocking story that explores how far a man will go to protect those he loves, and, should he fail, how far he can fall. The characters are complex and believable, the situations plausible and the action non-stop. If you love stories that send a shiver up your spine, you must read this book.

This was the first book I've read by Peter Blauner and it will not be the last.
At one time, John Gates felt that he had it all, a family and job of his own. But after his daughter was killed in an accident right before his eyes he experiences severe depression. Soon, he finds himself unemployed and on the streets. He meets Dana Schiff, a psychiatric social worker and he's convinced that Dana is really his exwife. Soon John G. begins to stalk her family. Jake, her husband and also a lawyer, decides to take matters into his own hands to protect his family. Unfortunately, the decision he makes, could cost him his life.

I have read only two of the author's other books, but by now it's obvious that this is not another standard mass market thriller writer. Mr. Blauner's books have real character and individual texture. It's true that The Intruder is the most straight-forward and exciting of the novels of his that I've read, but the people in it are far more shaded, nuanced, and real than they are in most genre fiction. Readers who think they are cliches just aren't reading carefully enough or better yet should stick to Grisham novels. I read this book two years ago and still it haunts me.

Peter Blauner is clearly one of the most talented writers to come of age in the 90's. If it is important for you to become immersed in the characters, their lives and their personas, then don't miss the first (and best) of the Blauner writings.

I expected the book to be about a wealthy family tormented by the crack-addicted bum from hell, with the cliched deadly confrontation. What I got was something totally unexpected and much more satisfying. The characters were real, the plot was unpredictable, and the tension was suffocating. This is a fluidly written book that stays with you long after you put it down.

This book was just too damned good. Brilliant writing style, and the character evolution was incredible. I still think about this book, and I finished it a month ago. The final chapter sneaks back around and bites you in the a**. Masterful-buy this book! (As noted in some of the above reviews, there are some morons reading this book. This book is not for morons.)