Sneaky People [Paperback]

Thomas Berger (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 1983

The time is the 1930s. Buddy Sandifer, dressed in his natty white flannels, baby-blue shirt, striped tie, tan-and-white shoes, and coconut-straw hat with polka-dot band, is falling into one of his moods. Owner of a used-car lot and father of a fifteen-year-old son with a penchant for sex manuals, Buddy has decided to murder his wife and marry his mistress, Laverne, a robust blonde who cooks his favorite meal of fried pork chops, fried potatoes, and fried apples while wearing a short pink apron over black-lace step-ins and brassiere, long-gartered silk stockings, and platform shoes. The only problem is how to arrange the crime.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"If you have time for just one novel this season, Sneaky People is the one...Thomas Berger is a magician...he never hits a false note."

-- Detroit Free Press

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

From the Publisher

7 1.5-hour cassettes --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Delta (April 1, 1983)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385292058
• ISBN-13: 978-0385292054
• Shipping Weight: 13 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,462,246 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Loss of Innocence Novel Told With Irony, July 3, 2005

By 

M. JEFFREY MCMAHON "herculodge" (Torrance, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Sneaky People: A Novel (Paperback)

Drawing from nostalgic middle America in the 1930s, Berger writes about a rogue car salesman Buddy Sandifer who plots to kill his skinny wife so he can marry his sumptuous lover Laverne. As foul as Buddy is and as important his scheme is to the plot, he is not really the focus of the novel. The real focus is Buddy's son Ralph, a sympathetic adolescent overwrought by natural lusts and in possession of an honesty and integrity that his father lacks. It is those chapters told from Ralph's POV where the novel really shines for at its heart Sneaky People is, for all its lusty rogues and ironic twists and turns, a sweet and tender novel about a wholesome boy awakening to his sexuality and connecting that sexuality to a gallant form of manhood that his father, sadly, never showed him.

Only Berger, a true original, could pull off a novel like this: Part seedy, malicious plotline, part perverted, unctuous characters, and part tender loss of innocence story--told with the sneaky, ironic syntax that Berger is so famous for.

One last point: The childhood friendship between Ralph and his vulgar, bullying neighbor Hauser seems to have been used for a later novel, when they've reached middle-age, in what for me is Berger's best novel, titled Best Friends.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Humor in the car yard..., February 23, 2003

By 

Julian Faigan (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Sneaky People: A Novel (Paperback)

Berger is a very acute observer of modern (1930s) American life -from flogging off used cars, to the gun culture, to growing up as a teenage boy... There are quiet laughs throughout the book - and some not so quiet - but guaranteed smiles on every page, as much from the mad situations he describes as from his restrained choice of language. He is a fine writer and I will be seeking out his other works.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An engaging, witty tale that flies off the pages., June 19, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Sneaky People (Paperback)

A master of sublime plot twists that are more than stirring they jolting, Thomas Berger shows off his storytelling talents in Sneaky People. At the heart of this story is an all-business used car dealer in the years before the Depression who wants his wife dead so he can move in with his favorite prostitute-turned-girlfiend. Buddy is certain his oddball but ever-faithful wife is a insufferable bore. What he's not sure of is if his half-wit mechanic has the brainpower to pull off the hit. One is left wondering what gives Sneaky People its knockout punch. Is it that beneath the surface of its glib, ordinary characters you discover the poetically quirky and deranged? Or is the serenditipous nature that it's unlikely heros get from A to point B?