Customer Reviews

Sleeping With the Enemy

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3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I was surprised when I found out that the movie was based on a novel by the same name. I was even more surprised when I found the novel at my local library a while back. But what took my breath away was that the book was in fact ten times better and a bit different than the movie.

You probably know the plot and characters by now, so I won't go into that. What I will say is that the writing is some of the best prose I've read in a thriller novel of this kind, and the bad guy (the husband) is one of the most realistic and most interesting villains in modern fiction. The main character, Sara, has life breathed into her through Ms. Price's writing that the movie never had a hope of matching, and I found myself caring for her and those around her greatly, while at the same time anticipating when her husband would find her.

If you've seen the movie, you owe it to yourself to read this book. If you liked the movie, read the book to get an entirely different and much better form of the main plot. If you hated the movie, read the book so you can see how the movie 'should' have been.

Great work, Ms. Price, I'll have to be looking for more novels by her. This book gets a high recommendation from me. Pick it up!

This was a treat after seeing the movie. A bit different than the movie, but in many ways better because the reader gets to see into the minds and thoughts of Laura/Sara and Martin, as well as Ben. The movie couldn't help but use some of the parts of the book in exact form, such as the breaking of the lights so Sara finds her way home after jumping off the boat. So many women in similar situations will find inspiration in Sara's courage -- and realism in the book, as she almost turns back a few times and almost calls Martin, despite finding him a monster.

Sara has obviously been beaten many times and frightened of her husband, stays far longer than she should. But the soul-wrenching part is, she DOES get away, and she's able to live again. Highly recommended for all readers of thrillers and especially people interested in domestic violence.

In Sleeping With the Enemy Nancy Price is a spell-binding writer who dodges every Hollywood cliché to write a real "suspenser." In the movie Julie Roberts has only one man to run from-but the Sara Burney of the novel has three. Her husband, a controlling martinet, is the first man she must escape, but two other dangerous men wait where Sara tries to hide. They, too, want to make use of her. The boy next door wants sex. The professor next door, like her husband, distrusts women: he wants a servant so he can write his books.
But Sara is smart, courageous and lucky. She helps two other women, senses her danger, escapes and covers her tracks. The police won't find a dead man in her front hall. Her happy ending is a true one: she's going back to the house she loves and had to abandon. She dreams of every detail of that house as the book closes (while the professor dreams of a useful wife to the very last word). Sara will have a home for her mother and herself, a home that is safe at last, and her own.

In general the book was not as good as the movie because there were no real nail-biting moments. (Stephen King's Rose Madder had a far better description of a fleeing wife's terror and hope). I liked how Sara plotted her limited spending and fixed up her new home by herself, and I enjoyed some vivid descriptions of foods she ached to eat and material comforts that she missed. But I could not get interested in the lives of the bitter mute invalid and her home companion who was hiding a pregnancy from a disapproving family. Those women were so passive and boring, and they turned a potential thriller novel into stereotypical "chick lit". At least the book's version of Martin wasn't as over-the-top as the movie's, and readers got plenty of passages from his perspective.

There's more than a few negative reviews of this book on Amazon and I think this is because people approach the book expecting to read a printed and bound version of the movie. The movie was a rather hollow suspense thriller with little characterization, ridiculous coincidences, and a crowd-pleasing ending. The book is a little more nuanced and complex.

The action doesn't unfold at a whiplash pace, which I think is a problem for people. The story moves slowly and deliberately, observing Sara's life and the life of the people around her. It's practically a rabbit hole of tangential characters related to minor characters related to supporting characters - from Sara's old swimming buddy's lesbian girlfriend's sarcastic younger brother to a coworker's unborn baby and other members of her white trash family. Nancy Price really creates her own populated little world.

The characters are more believable, too, particularly Martin the husband. In the film he's a two-dimensional psychotic abuser (and it's never explained what attracted Sara to him in the first place) and in the book we get glimpses of his own violent domestic background during his parents' visit, a sense that he's not as wealthy as he'd like to be (the Burney's summer home is a dump) and a feeling of regret and an acknowledgement that he can't stop himself no matter how hard he tries. The character isn't just out for revenge. He honestly wants Sara back and once he realizes he can't have her, well...the book ends a lot differently than the movie.

Another thing to keep in mind is that this book is a literary thriller NOT a romantic thriller (as it's been marketed). A breakthrough comes to one character after another dismisses Henry James (while reading "The Golden Bowl.") This same character is a literature professor. Sara wants to get her master's degree and become a librarian. Nancy Price was a short story writer before she became a novelist and she works two of her Virginia Quarterly Review pieces ("The Invisible Ones" and "The White Mouse") into the plot of "Sleeping With the Enemy." One is about an overweight girl who hides her pregnancy from the world and the other is about two kids discussing a dead sibling and playing with a pet mouse. I've read the original versions of both of these stories and Price weaves them into the narrative quite well.

It's also quite beautifully written, touching on themes of loneliness, depression, isolation, insecurity, and how self-preservation can come with an overwhelming sense of guilt (Sara's escape from Ben is paralleled with an incident from her childhood in which her brother drowned and she got away). Like another reviewer on here, I own two copies of this book and read it about once a year. It's that good.

I love this book so much I have twice tracked down used copies of it after losing a copy. If I lose this copy, I'll be looking to replace it again. It has a permanent place on my bookshelf. I reread it about once a year. This is not a novelization, for anyone who might be wondering. This is an original novel that inspired the screenplay that most people are more familiar with.

It's hard to explain the appeal of this book, since the subject is so difficult to read about, but I'll try. I think it has to do with the supportive female relationships depicted in the book. If you've seen the movie, you already know the action that sets the plot in motion, but you've only seen a little of the web of relationships the heroine develops in the book.

The plot is exciting, and again, anyone who has seen the movie that was based on this book (or a half a dozen movie knock-offs) is already familiar with it: a woman is so determined to break free of her abusive, controlling husband that she fakes her own death in order to escape. And again, the falling action begins after the husband discovers that she might really be alive.

It's what happens in between that makes this book a keeper for me. If you've seen the movie, you've seen that the heroine develops a cautious but sweet relationship with Ben, her drama teacher neighbor in her new town. That happens in the book, too. You've also seen that the heroine has a beautiful relationship with her mother. That is also in the book, but there is so much more. Remember the African violets Julia Roberts lovingly sets on a windowsill during the housecleaning montage? Those have a great deal of significance in the book, and they are directly related to the heroine's relationship with her mother. There are a number of beautifully written relationships in this novel, some of them offered as vignettes featuring side characters who don't appear in the film, and some directly related to the heroine (I will keep using that term because the book and movie switch her real name/alias and I want to avoid confusion). As the heroine rediscovers who she is, she also rediscovers how to make connections to the other people around her, especially the women she encounters. The theme of reclaiming the self that is so integral to the film is present here as well, but there is a strong undercurrent of reclaiming the self-in-community in the book, and it's not easy for her. She has to overcome barriers that she has built up to protect herself. It's a wonderful read.

The suspense aspect is back as well, when Martin, the husband, begins trying to track the heroine down. I won't spoil the ending because there is a slight difference between the book and the movie. It's enough of a difference to avoid spoiling it, but I will say this: I preferred the movie's ending on my first read, but on subsequent reads, I realized the author was trying to make a specific point with her staging of the denouement. It's not a downer ending, don't get me wrong, but it does create a different impression, of the heroine, of Martin, and of everything that has led up to that point.

Well, enough of my blathering. This book is out of print but there are still a number of used copies in circulation and they are currently not expensive to get hold of. Take advantage of that while you can and get yourself a copy!

I saw the movie and I thought it was good. So I decided to find the book. I looked all over the place for it and found it in a used book store. I read and re-read it. I love it!! It is my favorite book. The detail was exquisite. Try to find it, it is a must read. Very realistic. Strong plot. Great ending! (Different from the movie)

This is one of the best books I have ever read, and the movie does it no justice whatsoever. The little details, such as the fact that Martin and Sara both have blonde hair, aren't wealthy, Sara keeps diaries, Martin's parents, the boy down the street that gets shot, Sara's pregnant friend, the elderly woman Sara works for, the two kids on the bus with the mouse, all get lost in translation from print to film. How many other books can follow the main character's old friend's lover's little sarcastic brother? It's wonderful in detail. The ending was more sympathetic and believable, with Sara having sympathy for her dead husband, and her fear and struggling to get by on tomato soup and her joy of reading books is so wonderful I can't even describe. Wonderful.

In 1998 I drove all the way from Charleston, SC, to Abbeville, SC, to see the house where most parts of "Sleeping with the Enemy" have been filmed.
I was lucky and did run into a plumber at a gas station who happened to know where the location is.

I always thought that the film is even better than the book, but I still enjoy reading the book. Some charcaters like Ellen, Mrs. Nepper and Ms. Channing are not all that interesting, but even though it's a good book to read and I can recommend it.

I made the mistake of watching the movie before reading the book, and because of that I found the book to be completely different from the movie and therefore hard to follow. There are a few characters that were interjected into the story that confused me and there were times when I found myself just skimming over parts that were uninteresting. The writing itself is good and suspenseful, but the story, for me, was just overall hard to follow. I would recommend reading the book beforehand, especially if you have interest in seeing the movie because both are told quite differently from one another.