Searching for Intruders: A Novel in Stories (Hardcover)

by Stephen Raleigh Byler (Author) "That fall the roaches took over our home..." (more)
Key Phrases: most fuckable, searching for intruders, dirt pile, Rubber Ducky, Coach Phooder, Luis Lopez (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Though this debut novel contains moments of promise, Stephen Raleigh Byler's Searching for Intruders fails to achieve the emotional depth to which it aspires. In a series of short stories separated by vignettes, the book's narrator, Wilson Hues, relates painful incidents in his life. In his matter-of-fact writing style and unflinching portrayal of emotionally and physically damaged people, Byler purposes to reveal the continuing effects of early psychological scarring through the eyes of his oversensitive narrator. Among other traumatic experiences, Hues describes the roach-infested New York apartment he and his wife shared, the alienation he encountered during his college years, and the trials of a later doomed relationship. Some of the stories resound more effectively than others, such as the poignant and starkly rendered "Shooting Heads" and "Flying," wherein the author shows insight and restraint. However, the flat, aimless prose and thematic repetition hinder the majority of the novel.

Byler demonstrates little in the way of inspired, original writing, and often slips into melodrama. While the humorless tone suggests further implications, each of the stories focus on the same notion of cyclical abuse. Disastrous patterns emerge in the novel, and the reader waits for the narrator's obsessive, selfish nature to undue his search for contentment. This recurrence, as told by a character showing no signs of self-effacement or growth, results in a disengaging and often unintentionally humorous novel. Ultimately, readers won't find much in Searching for Intruders that's worth finding. --Ross Doll

From Publishers Weekly
Resilience, empathy and a dark sense of humor sustain the well-intentioned perennial loser whose flat but curiously captivating voice guides us through the linked narratives that make up Byler's impressive debut. A walking wounded spawn of Reading, Pa., 34-year-old Wilson Hues vainly battles roaches, blunders into domestic disputes he can neither control nor understand, gets a divorce, takes up a terminally ill lover ("Pollute me, please"), loses her, too, and finally flees the country altogether, seeking affirmation (or maybe just plain solace) through yet another doomed relationship (this time with a diseased animal). Wilson's monotonous litany of woe is interspersed with increasingly disturbing flashbacks to his family's tortuous disintegration, his father's horrific death after a plane crash and finally the brutal double murder of a friend's parents. It is appropriate that Wilson becomes fascinated with Stephen Hawking's descriptions of the matter/antimatter collisions that make up the universe: he himself is one of those stubborn particles whose repeated collisions refuse to yield any sort of universal resolution. Byler's novel-in-installments winds down with a bleak metaphor for Wilson's alienation and his perennially self-defeating search for love: he briefly adopts a stray dog in a South American country with a federal culling policy. In disciplined and straightforward prose, Byler creates a dystopic vision of roadside America, full of the doomed and damned, perfect January reading. (Jan.)Forecast: This promising first novel is supported by a five-city author tour and a 15-city NPR campaign, and should provide Byler with a firm base on which to build his career.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow (January 8, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0066212944
• ISBN-13: 978-0066212944
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,732,410 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The real story-what guys really think...., January 20, 2002

By A Customer

"Beauty Queen" is incredible. So nice to find a guy like Stephen Byler who tells it like it is. Now we know there is a guy in the locker room who is on our side...
Cheers to Byler for standing up.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Moving and insightful, March 15, 2002

By	Karima Sundarji (Astoria, NY United States) - See all my reviews

I was recommended this book by a friend and bought it not knowing about the critical praise it had received. Maybe that is giving me a little less bitter and objective view of the book. I could not put the book down and devoured it in one sitting. I thought Mr. Byler's chapters were each moving, touching and enlightining. I needed to know what happended next. I, for one, can't wait to pick up a copy of his next book. He told this remarkable set of stories without sensationalizing them. I don't understand why other readers feel that they need to make personal attacks on Mr. Byler and his education background for one? Why not just review a book?

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bitter?, February 4, 2002

By A Customer

I've just read Searching for Intruders. It is an excellent piece of fiction that is justifiably well received by Byler's peers and literary critics. And then I read the reviews on this site. Have the people trashing this book even read it? Do they have any clue about what good writing is? One person mentions that the author uses personal experiences in the novel. Um, isn't that what artists do? It's almost as if these people know Byler and are envious of his startling success, while they spend the next ten years writing obits for their local paper. After seeing Byler read an excerpt from the book last week here in Boston, I am convinced that he's the real deal. His persona is as honest as that of Wilson Hues, the main character of his book.
My advice? Pick up a copy, read it, and develop your own informed opinion.