Buy it here:

Amazon

Synopsis:

Chuck Burgoyne is no ordinary houseguest. The Graveses (father Doug; wife Audrey; son Bobby; and daughter-in-law Lydia) have gotten used to his polite manners and gourmet breakfasts. But one morning at the Graveses’ summer home, Chuck fails to appear.

When Chuck finally does surface, he is no longer sweet and charming, but rather has become aggressive and arrogant, abusing each family member in turn. Each family member that is, except the fellow outsider, Lydia. Once Chuck rescues her from the dangerous undertow of the ocean, Lydia can’t help but feel obligated to him, even after his uninvited advances to her while she’s half asleep. Slowly it becomes apparent to the family that Chuck isn’t anyone’s guest but rather a perfect stranger who wormed his way into their home. Yet the Graveses are so concerned with not offending him by being impolite that they willingly accept the abuse he freely dishes out. In private, however, they all scheme for his undoing. But will anyone muster up the courage?

An eerie and clever novel, The Houseguest introduces one of Berger’s most dangerous and compelling villains.

Review:

“The process that led to the decision to kill Chuck Burgoyne, who for the first week of his visit had proved the perfect houseguest, began on the Sunday when, though he had promised to prepare breakfast for all (he was a superb cook), he had not yet appeared in the kitchen by half past noon.” ~ p. 3

This is the first sentence of The Houseguest, the 1988 novel by Thomas Berger. The novel is about Chuck Burgoyne being the houseguest of the Graveses family, Doug, his wife Audrey, his son Bob and Bob’s wife Lydia. All four of them love Chuck but he quickly grows out of favor with them, and the family starts to accuse one another of letting this person into the house as their guest. Only to find out that none of them invited him.

The core of this novel is a home invasion story, one of the most frightening horror/thriller subgenres because a stranger breaking into our home and uprooting our lives is a total breakdown of our safe space. The whole world is dangerous when your home is in danger. The Graveses home is a vacation home on an island, and this creates a different type of danger. They are away from their real lives and can feel the isolation. There is no escape from the danger that Chuck Burgoyne represents, and he uses this as one of his advantages. This is also a social satire about the Graveses who have more money and privilege than sense. They feel like they can get away with whatever they want because they have money, this vacation house on an island ran by pretty much one family, The Finches, who do all of the cleaning, the taxi service, own the grocery store, and are law enforcement. Doug Graves is a lawyer and habitual adulterer that women are not safe to be around, even forcing himself on some of his son’s girlfriends when everyone was underage. His wife Audrey is sad, angry, and an alcoholic, mostly because she hates her husband and the life that she lives. Their son Bobby is an idiot, and Lydia does not know where she fits into this family. They all see themselves as better than the Finches and the island, and Chuck uses all of their arrogance against them. They think that they have the upper hand because this is their home, they are privileged, and they do not the sense to feel otherwise. As the book progresses, so do their schemes to kill Chuck, and each one is more ludicrous than the last. In the end the satire comes full circle.

The other thing that can be said about this novel, which can be noticed just from the first sentence, is that Thomas Berger’s writing is intricate and interesting. There are many things to unpack in this one sentence as well as every sentence. Berger writes a slim novel, but there are so many events that are explored, so much of the family history and character development unravels in a single sentence. This can be off-putting to some readers because this is not a style used very often. Periodically reading a book written with this much richness in every line is impressive. Even though the story does fall short in many aspects because there is not a single character that you want to win in the fight between the houseguest and the family, The Houseguest is an interesting read, if only for how it is written and how the story unfolds.