Customer Reviews

KNOCK ON ANY DOOR

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
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"What's life?" " A magazine." " How much it cost?" "Twenty cents." "I only gotta dime." "That's life." After 45 years I still remember parts of Knock on Any Door. I related more to that book than to any other I read as an adolescent in the 50's. Why is that? I'm not Catholic. I'm not American. I didn't speak the language of Nick. Willard Motley is an underappreciated writer who deserves the highest accolades in touching a chord in young people . The film with Humphrey Bogart directed by Nick Ray didn't do justice to the book. From the first word to the last I lived every word with Nick Romano and his life still echoes with me. Sound sentimental? No. Sounds like great writing. The music, the pool halls, the tenements, the "windy city", the guilt. It was a life to me. Thank you Mr Motley wherever you are or wherever you may be resting.

I was afraid to pick this book up. It was several hundred pages in a battered paperback (which would break before I even finished the book), and the print was small. But I decided to give it shot. A few hundred pages later, I drove several miles back to a junior high school gym, thinking that I'd left it there. It was in my front seat the whole time, but I couldn't bring myself to think that the trip was wasted. Once you start this book, you'll be glad to drive an awfully long way to be able to pick it up. This book drew me in in a way that few books have (I wouldn't think that a book about a person like Nick Romano could be compared to Harry Potter, but, well, here we are.) This is a novel that may just change the way you look at the world. It will change the way you look at juvenile crime and punishment, it will change the way you think of the death penalty. It's not just Nick who's stayed in my mind. It's all of the small characters. There are people who show up for about a page, and I've never been able to forget them. It's a terrible shame that Willard Motley isn't often mentioned when people discuss the greatest writers of the century; I've read my share of Fitzgerald and Hemingway and Bellow, and this book puts Motley in the same class as all of them. Not only did I put an awful lot of effort into getting my hands on the sequel, but I found myself seeking out copies of every book listed on the "other books you'll enjoy" page at the front of the book. It's that kind of novel. This book is important. Now more than ever, when, as one reviewer points out, people like Nick are being executed weekly in Texas. Get it, read it, and encourage others to do the same. Don't let this classic fall into obscurity.

Many years have passed since i was 17 in 1955 and first read Knock on Any Door. Now i am 62 and read it for the 2nd time. Mr. Motley wrote a masterpiece, a classic that will live a long time. Like Nick I came from a poor background and was a rebellious teen. I identified with Nick when I was 17. I understood his feelings toward society in general and authority in particular. For years I wondered if I would feel the same. When I had finished reading it, I realized how much my attitude had changed over the years. I kept seeing opportunities where he could take his life on a different path, but always he took the easy way out. Still, Mr. Motley's skill made it impossible not to empathise with Nick.

Of course there are writers that use their brains, and writers that write with their hearts...Willard Motley spills his guts all over the pages in every one of his four novels.

I first read KNOCK ON ANY DOOR when I was a freshman in high school, and got sent home with a letter to my parents for bringing "unacceptable reading material to school"!!! I have read that book at least three more times, and each time it is a belly punch. The Bogart movie did not do justice to this fine work.

I did not know Motley was African-American, until after I finished his thrid novel.

Willard Motley was not just a great novelist, he was what the heart and soul of this Nation should be.

I read this book 41 years ago , i was not very well educated my school only taught religion and self preservation, i left at 15 . One day i found this book on a bus and took it home it was on the shelf for a month or two then one night i started reading my first novel i could not put it down i found a new pleasure in life instead of going out every night hanging round with the gang and breaking the law for kicks i changed and i put it down to this book knock on any door, i found the author understood my feelings and it was so easy to understand thank you Willard Mottley

I have read many books from romance novels to classics and this is the best book I have ever read. I could not put this down and I found myself so involved in it I cried at the end. I would also recommend the sequel, Let No Man Write My Epitaph. If you only read one book, read this one.

I first read this book when I was 14. I am now 67. I was living in what is now a horrible, drug-ridden, part of the city (Jackson and Crawford). I had lots of fights, played a lot of pool, and shopped on Maxwell Street on weekends. As I grew up, I fought a lot and became a bartender at the College of Complexes on State Street. I still find myself thinking of Nick Ramano growing up from an alter boy to a bum who made drinking money by rolling drunks. Willard Motley is (or was) an outstanding author capable of creating characters that were so realistic that I still think of them 53 years later.

I have read it 4 times now and still I can't get enough of it. Just when you think you can't handle another emotion you are hurled into the next highlight. It will change your view of society (and of yourself) forever.

I find it astonishing that the reviews of this title and also the reviews for "A Stone for Danny Fisher" are so similar, and echo my feelings about these two books. Having grown up in NYC, though not in the same circumstances, I found these coming of age stories fascinating. It is almost 50 years since I read them and suddenly find myself wanting to revist them to see if my reactions are the same. So many of the reviews here echo this sentiment so I am going to read both of them again. I have recently acquired copies through eBay. If you have never read these two books I would recommend that you check out the other reviews here and get a copy of each

This book kidnaps you. I would pick it up and two hours would go by. The author bring you into Nicky's world and it becomes your world, too.