The Intruder

by Anton Myrer

Psychologický román s kriminální zápletkou se odehrává v 90. letech v USA a líčí náhlé prozření muže, který celý život lpěl na tradicích své společenské vrstvy.
Čtyřicetiletý architekt miluje svou práci, které věnuje veškerý čas a domnívá se, že je nejen dobrým občanem, ale také milujícím manželem a otcem. Od dětství je mu vštěpováno přesvědčení, že jeho stará a vážená rodina, náležející k bostonské elitě, jedná za všech okolností nejen správně, ale i spravedlivě. Zločin, spáchaný na jeho ženě, přepadené a znásilněné ve vlastním domě, otřese mužovou sebejistotou a donutí ho zamyslet se nad tím, zda byl své ženě v manželství vždycky plnohodnotnou oporou. Tento čin a jeho následky na čas zpřetrhá mezi manžely pouto důvěry a konečná konfrontace s pachatelem je hořkým, ale obrozujícím momentem pro oba partnery a staví jejich vzájemný vztah na nový základ.

Genres: Horror

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1965

About the author

Anton Myrer, who died of leukemia in 1996, was a best-selling author whose themes were America's loss of innocence and the use and abuse of power. He is particularly remembered for The Last Convertible (1978), a summation of the American experience during and after World War II, and for Once an Eagle (1968), which traces the life of a regular Army officer and his family from before World War I to Vietnam. Orville Prescott, in The New York Times wrote of Once an Eagle: "Myrer is a superb story teller....who cares about the narrative and is a master." The Army War College Foundation, which is republishing the novel this year, describes it as "a perceptive study of the profession of arms an a chilling overview of armed conflict... Myrer forces us to smell and feel the battlefield as well as hear and see it."

Myrer also wrote Evil Under the Sun (1951); The Big War (1957), of which one critic wrote, "I doubt if it is possible to come much closer... to an American War and Peace"; The Violent Shore, (1962); The Intruder: A Novel of Boston (1965); The Tiger Waits (1973); and A Green Desire (1981). The Library has copies of all eight novels in much-read first editions and, in the case of six of the eight, in leather-bound volumes recently donated by Mrs. Myrer.

Born in Worchester, Massachusetts, Myrer grew up in the Berkshires, Cape Cod, and Beacon Hill -- all settings for his novels. A 1941 graduate of Boston Latin School, he interrupted his education at Harvard after Pearl Harbor to enlist in the Marine Corps and spent more than three years in the Pacific. He rose to the rank of corporal, took part in the invasion of Guam, and was wounded. He returned to graduate from Harvard magna cum laude and subsequently lived on the Cape, in Portugal, and at the time of his death, in upstate New York where he received books by mail from the Library

All who have read Myrer's novels know the strength and passion of his moral vision.

by Barbara H. Stanton

http://www.nysoclib.org/notes/notes4-...

Reviews

[Phil · Rating 2 out of 5]

The cover blurb promised "A novel of terror and desire" but do not expect either here; talk about misleading! The Intruder is really a drama set in Boston that involves ruminations about class, urban renewal and relationships, but do not expect an updated Henry James novel here either. Our main protagonist Gardner comes from a Bostonian blueblood family; for generations his relatives made Boston home and his mother can relay the entire family tree of illustrious ancestors. Nonetheless, Gardner married way beneath him, a lovely gal he met while on a job (he works as an architect).

The plot is rather thin and based upon the rape of his wife; a plot devise that never rings my bells for sure. One day Gardner went out of town for a job and some guy broke into their house, raped his wife, then sat around, watching TV before departing. Because of Gardner's family name, the cops were all over it, even staying 24/7 at their house in shifts. Do not expect a police procedural however, as the cops are simply window dressing. The 'assault' as it became referred to induced a crisis into Gard's and his wife's relationship for sure. Much of the novel revolves around deep introspections of the main characters. Gard, a true Yankee for sure, and his wife Janet, a lover of life, but 'born low'. Gard sees the world in black and white while his wife sees all kinds of grey...

The only reason I kept reading this involves the setting (I love Boston!) and the debates over urban renewal that Gard's firm is involved in. Tearing up the North End to build the expressway was a crime that ripped out the heart of a community in Boston. I know the Big Dig attempted years later to undo the damage, but so it goes. This was first published in 1965 and LBJ's war on poverty was in full swing. In this case, it meant lots of dreary, high rise housing projects in Boston, where the architects, builders and so forth milked the contracts for the cream.

The writing is overwrought, the pacing glacial, and I had very little sympathy for any of the characters (well, maybe Janet the wife). Gard and his mother emerge as walking tropes and no one else is really developed. I cannot think of anyone I would recommend this to. 1.5 limp stars, rounding up as I did manage to finish it.

[Kyle · Rating 3 out of 5]

So far Urban Renewal and the most sickly sweet marriage of sexist proportions I can hardly stand to read about just to get the old Boston flavor.

Alright, this had so much Boston flavor that I loved it even though the writing was a bit too lyrical in places and the author is a sexist bastard.

This is a novel about a rape and the aftermath of the rape to a marriage. Not very realistic in some ways... At least, I found myself doubting the validity of the author's description of things quite frequently.

I guess the main character was pretty hard to take. Even though it's about his wife, Janet, getting raped, the main character is her husband, Gardner Alcock Lawring. He's a real Boston Blue Blood. Money and Victorian morality. Work ethic, duty, basically Republican. To him everything is right or wrong, black and white, which is a lot easier to think if you have enough money to stay out of trouble all your life.

Lawring is an big-time architect working on all the buildings to replace the old West End during urban renewal. Part of the reason his wife gets raped is because urban renewal tore the (Italian)rapist's house down. But it goes much deeper than that...I won't give any more away.

Urban renewal is a real sore spot with me. My family lived near the West End on Beacon Hill until the early 70s and they were very bitter about it.

I am just now thinking about how racist it is too. Black people figure only as criminals and suspects. But more than that Lawring basically has a caste system with him at the top. Every-fucking-one is beneath him, even his wife. His mother has a very old house on Mount Vernon Street, whereas she's just a working class girl from Somerville.

It was absolutely sickeningly racist and sexist, no lie, but I guess you could write anything and if you set it in Boston and walked around a lot, I'd probably like it.
<3 Boston

[Barbara · Rating 1 out of 5]

Jak může někdo, kdo napsal Poslední kabriolet, napsat tohle?
A nebo jak může někdo, kdo napsal tohle, napsat Poslední kabriolet?

[Diane · Rating 1 out of 5]

Last Anton Myrer book that I read. I only remember this book being disturbing.