Customer Reviews

Searching for Intruders: A Novel in Stories

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

 

 

"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.

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.

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?

Byler's novel told in 11 chapters of varying lengths covers a series of moments in the life of character Wilson Hues. The shortest chapters are like snapshots of his childhood eclipsed by abuse from his father. The longer chapters center on Hues' adult life, as he goes from job to job, different homes, and shaky relationships. It's amazing how the author combines humor with the tragic element of these stories. These significant moments in the life of Wilson all added up to a vivid and complete pattern that all comes together quite nicely by the end of this story.

In one chapter called "Roaches", we learn of Wilson's futile attempts to rid his NYC apartment of these hated pests while at the same time that he is trying to save his marriage to a wife who is becoming more and more dissatisfied with him. His description of the roaches, crawling on the kitchen floor in such great numbers that the floor itself appears to be moving, is unnerving. His wife's growing frustration with him and Wilson's inability to cope with it all is heartbreaking and moving. The author gives us a warmhearted and sympathetic hero that anyone with a heart would feel sorry for and want to help.

This sad, but funny, personal account of one man's life is fresh and original, written by a young new author who shows great promise. A strong debut that will engage all who read it. I look forward to his future endeavors.

Joe Hanssen

What a pleasure to read a novel that is refreshingly unpretentious, witty, intelligent, and endearing.
As a woman, I especially appreciated Wilson Hues's determined refusal to succumb to a "typical" American male behavior - the tendency to repress emotion. He faces tragedy head-on, and instead of allowing it to consume and embitter him, he transforms into an exceptional example of what a man is capable of being. If this book does nothing else (besides launch what's sure to be a stellar career for Byler), I hope it encourages other males to have the guts to give it a try as well.

In this book, Stephen Byler's debut novel, we are introduced to Wilson Hues, a rather average modern man. Through the 11 short stories told in this novel, we are witness to some of the more profound and some of the more touching events in the fictional life of Wilson Hues. Wilson is your everyday male trying to fit into a world that attempts to force the sexes into certain roles. He hangs out with an acquaintence who turns out to be a much more aggressive and unbalanced man than originally thought. He has problems fitting in with his college tennis team because he won't join in their macho woman bashing. When he attempts to avoid telling his girlfriend about his past, it comes out later to cause even more pain. Simply put, Wilson has nothing but poor luck. In the end (as a reviewer put it) you want to give him a hug and tell him everything will be just fine.

These are good stories, they stick with me like a bowl of hot pasta on a cold winter night. The title piece of the book, Searching for Intruders, is hilarious, reminding me a bit of A Rose for Emily without the southern gothic twang. Byler's writing is deceptively simple--his ear and eyes are so sharp, he makes it look easy. And it's not. I don't care where or when he wrote these stories, I'm just glad he did, and he was willing to share.

Having said all this, I want to publicly avow that I am not a friend or family member of the author. I've never met the guy (although I wish I could and get him to sign my book). I did grow up in rural Ohio, surrounded by Amish, and maybe I'm picking up on subliminal Amish vibes. Who knows. What I do know is, a writer's readers can be ruthless, one reason why I never pick up the pen. I'll duck and run and read the fine words of more courageous authors such as Byler.

Not only is Byler's "novel in stories" (a structure ripped off from Hemingway) overwrought and oppressively self-serious, but his whole pseudo post-macho posturing is just the sign of a young, immature writer. Regardless of what the author set out to do, ALL the women characters come off very badly here. There are flashes of nice writing, but even that reads like standard MFA workshopped material. What will Byler do next? We'll see. For now, do some real reading. Skip this, and go read Hemingway, Carver, Chekhov, and Conrad if you like this kind of writing but want to see it done much much better.

This book is a little different so it's not that easy to review.I did like some of it maybe even a lot of it. There were some parts that were kind of slow. I loved the roaches part and the last part when they were searching for an intruder. I don't understand what the major point of the book was or if it really even had one. Here's the thing I wished that I hadn't actually bought the book because it's not a keeper. I would recommend that you borrow it from someone or the library just don't go out and buy it.

Does this author know anything about ANY of the following? 1) character development 2) plot 3) imaginative imagery 4) understanding female characters in a realistic way 5) nuance 6) structure 7) none of the above. The answer is: (7) NONE of the above. Better luck next time, with a better-written book.