The Shadow Knows

by Diane Johnson

The anonymous heroine, N, is a young woman who has broken free of a constricting marriage and is struggling to raise four children alone in a housing project. Coming home one day N finds her door hacked with an ax and smeared with what appears to be a mixture of blood and crankcase oil. A few days later a strangled cat is left outside her apartment door. Everyday, she is plagued by mysterious, disturbing phone calls. Playing detective and attempting to figure out who her enemy may be, N's real fears merge with paranoid fantasy in this fascinating story which rivals the best of Henry James's dark, psychological gothic tales.
• Johnson's most recent novel, " Le Divorce," was a phenomenal success.
• Long out-of-print, this classic Diane Johnson novel is now available for all the readers of" Le Divorce" left hungry for more.
• "The Shadow Knows" received outstanding reviews.

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Novels, Mystery, Mystery Thriller, Literature, American

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1974

About the author

Diane Johnson is an American novelist and essayist whose satirical novels often feature American heroines living in contemporary France. She was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for her novel Persian Nights in 1988.
In addition to her literary works, she is also known for writing the screenplay of the 1980 film The Shining together with its director and producer Stanley Kubrick.

Reviews

[Jack Tripper · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cover of my 1976 Pocket Books mass-market (254 pages). Interestingly, Stanley Kubrick considered adapting this novel instead of The Shining, though he did sort-of make it up to Ms. Johnson by choosing her to co-write the screenplay with him. I'm sure that didn't cause any of King's bitterness toward the film.

[Grady Hendrix · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is so good that it inspired Stanley Kubrick to hire Johnson to write the screenplay for The Shining. Kubrick ain't wrong.

[Elaine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Diane Johnson seems not be known much these days, but she was one of the best seventies writers and this novel is, arguably, her best. Her writing sparkling and her stories perceptive and engrossing. If you like Margaret Atwood, you'll like Diane Johnson, although you might like Diane Johnson even if you don'tlike Atwood. You really LIKE Johnson's quirky women in distress or maybe more accurate to say,in tough situations.

[Graham · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author Kim Powers recommended this at the '07 Texas Book Festival. Protagonist is self-absorbed, hypercritical, constantly reassessing her situation and inner emotional states, seeming to seek the worst in others and yet maintaining an inner sense of propriety that is heroic under such depressing circumstances. I don't like her, yet I identify with her attitudes towards psychoanalysis, the poor, marriage.

Osella is unforgettable; her enormity and earthy intuition make her an engrossing counterpoint to Ns detachment and cynicism. Characters such as Andrew (her lover), her children, and Gaavy (husband) lack depth.

[Elric Kane · Rating 4 out of 5]

I see why this book inspired Kubrick to reach out to Diane to co-write The Shining with him. It’s as if you are inside the mind and every passing thought of the female protagonist, no thought guarded or watered down. Doesn’t have much of a story engine to make it move but in terms of voice it’s remarkable.

[Nikki · Rating 2 out of 5]

The writing was lovely and unpretentious, but after reading about 80 pages, I skipped past 200 pages and didn't seem to miss much. That's never good. The twist at the end was radical and surprising, but I kind of wish I'd never read it.

[Jason Kron · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a stupid good whodunit novel with one of the strongest first person voices I've ever read. Diane Johnson co-wrote the screenplay to The Shining with Kubrick, and so I pictured the main character as being Shelley Duvall the whole time, which made the book even weirder.

[Danielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am convinced Ms. Johnson doesn't know how to end a book properly.

[Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outlandish, quotidian, literary, profound. An eventful week in the life of a divorced mother of four in Sacramento reads like something out of Poe. Quite an accomplishment.

[SerlingBucket Hailey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Diane Johnson was contacted by Stanley Kubrick himself to co-write The Shining (1980) with him upon reading this novel, and reading this book in tandem with the film she would later work on displays her very distinguishable writing style. Not an easy book to read, Johnson's way of character interaction is similar to Cormac McCarthy's as she doesn't frequently use quotations but instead accounts from our narrator of what others have said. Though this stylization might be confusing for some I think it enhances the books themes of paranoia shown through our narrator simply referred to as 'N', almost making her an unreliable narrator at times since her distortion of the world influences how she perceives those around her. If you're a fan of Kubrick and would like to understand the influences The Shining had that has made it such a classic in the eyes of many, give this novel a read

[Alec Hawkins · Rating 2 out of 5]

The novel is presented as a woman in peril, Giallo-like crime thriller, but it’s really 300+ pages of a single mom living vicariously through her house keeper’s love drama. These passages, which make up the majority of the novel are startling tone-deaf and very uncomfortable.

[Terry · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don’t give out 5 star reviews left and right even if it’s a beloved classic, but something in this book gripped me and wouldn’t let go. Fascinating novel with a fascinating voice. Makes me want to read more from this author.

[Holly · Rating 4 out of 5]

As I devoured this book (I adore Johnson) I struggled to determine what she was trying to accomplish. Is it a mystery; are we meant to figure out who is behind the bizarre acts that befall N over the course of a week? Is it a comedy (it *is* very funny)? Is it a satire? Is it a book about how we are never truly safe and comfortable, that life is unpredictable and wild and uncontrollable, and how as parents this fear of what life will dish up is especially terrifying because the parent is all that stands between children and the big bad world? Can anyone become a murderer w/ the right provocation? The bizarre events have multiple witnesses, but are they all symbolic of something else? What does the shadow know?

N's life is a mess: She is divorced, has four kids who live with her in a housing project, may be pregnant with a married man's child, has been thinking idly of suicide, has received a cold letter from said married lover, has a crazy ex-husband -- and is now worried about getting murdered. Despite all this, she tries to "think radiantly." She is at heart a well-meaning person, if often off course or complacent, even naive. Her life has been picture-book until it slipped - she had a successful husband, she lived on the hill, she had a live-in nanny, she replaced the lack of love in her life w/ lovers. One by one, however, all these props are lost, and she's left with the life we see in this week of the novel. Ev lives with her, and her life is a mess, too: she is beaten and robbed by her lover, her own brother stole her glasses, she longs for a place of her own, even a place in the slums.

"The Shadow" was a radio program in the late 30s; the slogan was "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!" If the shadow is after N, then she's the one with something to hide. To want to murder someone, however, must have at its source some wrong-doing, and what can passive N have done to make someone want to kill her...or Ev, for that matter? (I'm not sure, however, that this is where Johnson got her title...). At the very end of the novel, N says that she feels like a shadow, thin and light. She feels that the culminating event has occurred, and she feels relief, despite what's she's been through, as if knowing that it is over has made what has happened almost worth it?!

**spoiler alert**
Bizarre events:
-front door hacked up w/ axe or knife and smeared with what looked like blood and oil (Bess?)
--phantom phone caller (not Bess)
--Osella's hate calls
--someone cut the crotch out of four pairs of Ev's underwear (this stinks of Osella)
--*maybe* someone at the window on NYE
--strangled cat on door step
--vomit on windshield (Bess? she has access)
--Ev getting beat up in laundry room (Osella?)
--tires are slashed (Bess? she had knife)
--previously N sees her ex-husband sitting on Osella's lap and sees him in the crib w/ the baby late one night
--Osella burns an effigy of N on the front lawn

List of people she knows want to hurt her or Ev:
--A.J. - Ev's violent lover
--Clyde - Ev's abusive husband
--Gavin - N's ex-husband
--Osella - N's ex-housekeeper
--Phantom phone caller?
--Cookie - Andrew's wife
--checker at the grocery store

What's interesting is that the horrible and bizarre things are most likely perpetrated by the women in the novel, and yet the book ends as it does w/ a man inflicting violence.

How Bess describes N, with feelings of hatred driven by jealousy:
--stupid
--inner life of a cow or child
--simple-minded
--no sympathy for others
--hard and cold
--a taker
--insensitive

[Caitlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I will admit it was hard to get fully into the book in the beginning. About halfway in, I was hooked and when the attacks begun, I wanted to know if she was crazy or if someone was actually targeting her and Eve. When Eve died, I appreciated that she was in more of a state of shock and disbelief. The hunt for who the murderer was had to be the more exciting part of the book. I am greatly disappointed with the end though, because for such a strong and anxious women, she accepted being violated for the mere fact that she wasn't killed. I cannot. That just doesn't sit well with me. Her passive acceptance of what happened in the end.

[Isobel Mancini · Rating 4 out of 5]

“That happens a lot in life, I guess, that the thing you were dreading happens offstage, at the wrong time.” (185)

“Whoever the murderer was or is at first seemed important to know. I suppose that is an impulse that need not be explained. Everyone has it, it explains the power of Bluebeard’s room. You will open the door, you will draw back the curtain, you will look behind the arras to see whom you’ve stabbed. You will look out from behind to see who it is has stabbed you, and he will be familiar and be laughing.” (217)

[Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one of Johnson older books, written and set in the 70s. A divorced mother of four, the narrator lives in the projects of North Sacramento with her children and a live-in nanny. She is beset by the fear that someone plans to murder her and the book moves among current events and past memories that indicate she may indeed have something to fear. Some of the ideas expressed do not wear well in the 21st century, the children are not much of a presence, and the ending is rather abrupt. The imagery and language the narrator uses to describe her thoughts and fears are vivid and imaginative.

[Jorge Santana]

Back again.

Had a bit of a reading slump so decided to revisit this masterpiece to get back into it.

The perfect depiction of a panic attack with characters and motives pull straight out of a Kubrick film. Such a shame it was never adapted.

[Jill Flanagan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had to give up on this one because the narrator's attempt in the book to talk about her own racism was embarrassingly dated and felt self congratulatory.

[Pete Papagiannis · Rating 4 out of 5]

First Diane Johnson read for me. This was some wild shit, breakneck speed. Loved it.

[Rasmus Skovdal · Rating 3 out of 5]

This should possibly be a 4, rather than a 3, but I don't quite know how to feel about it. Certainly a fascinating book, and an interesting narrator (who is probably best understood if we consider what she doesn't tell us as much as what she does tell us), but it also takes a few wrong turns – I'm not sure what to think of the last two pages or so.

Well written – sometimes very much so – and bleakly atmospheric, full of paranoia and denial, with a lot to say about women/gender, and race (and socio-economic issues). Not all of it right, necessarily (pick up on the author's sarcasm, filter out some of the main character's points, even if she isn't to be ignored, just approached with caution), but there's a (rightfully) scathing criticism of how women were treated to be found here. The advice column letter, with the answer of ''oh, of course your husband is cheating on you, and it's fine, he's just at that age – and maybe you should make yourself prettier for him to avoid that sort of thing'' is insane, and probably pretty accurate in its satire.

I was kind of poised to recommend this to people up until the very end (the nightclub bit was bizarre, but good, though) but on the other hand, I'm not in any position to find the ending problematic, so I don't know. This is gibberish to anyone who hasn't read the book, so I'll leave it at that, and with a tentative recommendation.

[Mindy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a story of a mother of 4 who has left an unhappy marriage and is struggling to get her feet on the ground. This is dark book with the woman playing detective to find out why a myriad of strange happenings are occuring in her life ( like break-ins, threatening phone calls, etc). I enjoyed the book alot and think it was very well written. Although, I do remember being taken aback a few times.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

An early work by Diane Johnson. Worth a read for her fans, and probably a pleasant surprise for those who think she isn't really their cup of tea.

[Charlene · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5

[Bob Berry]

I remember reading this and being very surprised at how good it was in the 80's (I'd never heard of it) and I thought I'd give it another look.

[Traci · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good read. Would have been interesting to see how Kubrick intended to adapt it.

[Connie · Rating 2 out of 5]

A paranoid mother who looks for, expects and becomes satisfied with all that is negative in life. What a waste of time.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is so much to love about this book, but the last 3 pages (!) are miserably disappointing. Truly off the rails. Still I enjoyed reading it.