Customer Reviews

People Who Knock at the Door

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

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. (It is, however, rather like EDITH'S DIARY.)

But if you aren't, read on!

"People Who Knock on the Door" may seem like a departure from the typical Patricia Highsmith fare. It is a story about the changes that occur in one family throughout the course of one year, a simple enough plot, but one filled with the sense of unease that proliferates Highsmith's writing. The novel is almost narrowly and simplistically focused at the beginning, but branches off as the story progresses, leaving readers unsure as to where to align themselves.

The novel opens rather vaguely, as Highsmith isn't one to state the obvious directly. The reader meets seventeen-year-old Arthur Alderman at the end of his senior year, ready to attend Columbia in the fall. When his fifteen-year-old brother Robbie becomes seriously ill, their father becomes a born-again Christian, suddenly devout to the Lord and expecting the same from his family. Arthur cannot align himself with his father's beliefs; he views his father as a hypocrite, a man who has preached the value of money all his life suddenly changing his beliefs and forcing his family to feel the same way. Arthur's mom goes along with this new life, in order to keep the peace, while his brother Robbie believes hook, line and sinker to the point of obsession.

When Arthur will not change his ways to suit his father, his father refuses to pay for college and kicks Arthur out of the house. Arthur's father cannot seem to see the damage he is creating in his own family, and when disaster strikes close to home and the tables are turned, it may be too late to reverse the changes he has wrought.

Highsmith spends a lot of the narrative following Arthur through his first year of college; it is a well-drawn portrait, but one that lacks the vividness of her best creations. Arthur rarely comes to life off the page, and that applies to the other characters as well. The story is somewhat predictable, the reader can easily guess most of what will unfold, but Highsmith is talented enough to maintain the suspense, subtly crafting cracks in Arthur's story. I found myself disliking the main character in the end; despite tragedy, he gets virtually everything he wants, but is he on the right side of the issues Highsmith writes about? And that is where the genius of "People Who Knock on the Door" lies - in the twists that take the reader from seeing everything from Arthur's perspective to questioning his ability to relate the story at hand.

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).

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.

A few things are a little off kilter in Chalmerston, the small midwestern town in which the narrative to People Who Knock on the Door unfolds. Perhaps Highsmith's long, self-imposed exile to Europe left her ill equipped to accurately portray life in America's heartland. For example, when did underage high schoolers start regularly tossing back gin and tonics like old pros under the approving eyes of parents and adult neighbors? This happens so frequently in People Who Knock on the Door, it comes off as either some sort of running gag or a bizarre example of product placement.

In any event, that and other similar criticisms aside, People Who Knock on the Door is a very good novel. It centers around the conflict between Arthur Alderman, a bright, amazingly well adjusted teenager and his father, a rigid thinking authoritarian who has recently succumbed to hyper-religiosity of the born again variety.
Arthur's mother and maternal grandmother both side with Arthur but they refuse to act on his behalf in order not to upset Dad. Younger brother Robbie, whose life heretofore has been directionless, adopts his father's new found religious zealotry.

People Who Knock on the Door is a solid example of storytelling featuring characters whose actions are entirely consistent with the well defined personalities bestowed upon them by the author. Highly recommended.

Patricia Highsmith wrote this book, right. . . ? It is a lackluster effort from someone as talented as she. This book seems like more of a rant on Christianity and organized religion, which would be fine if something else interesting were going on. What confused me most initially was the setting, in terms of time. Was this family "Leave it to Beaver" or "Six Feet Under". . . ? Everyone seemed so stereotypically '50s, without any of the true dysfunction that would seem to have been exhibited by a family in the '80s, particularly the main character. Maybe I just don't remember the '80s well enough. Despite the differences in opinions and viewpoints of various family members, little tension--implied or otherwise--develops.
Am I having sex with my girlfriend? Sure, but it's all secret, implied, and hush-hush--sounds more '50s-ish than '80s-ish.
Does she get pregnant? Sure, but I don't care all that much, and I'm really not all that panicked about it.
Are her parents ready to kill me? No, they don't seem to care much either--more '80s than '50s.
Do my parents care all that much? Not really, since they're not even sure I have a girlfriend. Despite their initial reaction--or lack thereof--I get kicked out of my house. Rather quietly. I don't resist, either. I don't even yell back when my dad tells me. In fact, I seem to care very little. . . .
Do I hate my brother? I guess, but not all that much.
Et cetera.

The result is that the reader doesn't care that much, either. I love Highsmith's sublety and implied nature of the conflict and violence that lies within. Her pacing is immaculate. I have never been bored. Until now. She just doesn't build the tension in the early pages enough to carry through subsequent chapters. The result is that I finished simply out of inherent loyalty to Highsmith--not concern or interest in the plot or characters.

I am not used to being "bored" by Highsmith, and I have truly enjoyed and anticipated each of her novels that I've read. If you're new to the club, you might want to start elsewhere. If you're fiercely loyal, you still might want to go somewhere else. If you run out of other titles, give it a run. At least it's relatively short. . . .

I've always placed Highsmith as a writer of the 50s and 60s. This book was published in 1983, and it's set in a peculiar version of the early 1980s in which characters are named Arthur and Cora and Mildred. It's also a peculiar place where high school students are offered beers and hot toddies by their parents and a teenager works at a neighborhood shoe repair shop. A place where an ex-boyfriend refers to his ex-girlfriend's new flame as "Mr. Hargiss." Highsmith was in her sixties at the time, so perhaps she felt a contemporary setting would update her unique brand of unease, but she doesn't quite make it. For example, she confuses "angel dust" with cocaine. Unfortunately, the bizarro-world details distract from the story, about religious fundamentalism and small-town gossip. It's still a good read, just a distinctly odd one.

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!

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.