The Interloper: A Novel

by Antoine Wilson

All Owen Patterson wants is a normal life and a happy marriage. But a year after the senseless murder of his brother-in-law, his wife remains in mourning and his in-laws won't talk about anything but their dead son. The murderer, Henry Joseph Raven, is in prison, but to Owen, that isn't punishment enough. Owen embarks on a quest to "balance the scales of justice," writing letters to Henry Raven under the pseudonym Lily Hazelton. His plan: seduce the murderer, then break his heart.

As Owen pursues his self-appointed mission, Lily Hazelton develops into a curious amalgam of details from his imagination, snatches of his difficult childhood, and memories of his cousin Eileen, a suicide who was his first true love. Bringing together an epistolary game of cat and mouse and the harrowing record of one man's psychological collapse, "The Interloper" is a compelling and original debut from a bold new writer.

Genres: Fiction, Literary Fiction

260 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Antoine Wilson is the author of the novel Mouth to Mouth from Avid Reader Press (Simon & Schuster), and the novels The Interloper and Panorama City, from Other Press and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, respectively.

He is a contributing editor of the literary journal A Public Space as well as the Los Angeles Review of Books. His fiction and essays have appeared in The Paris Review, StoryQuarterly, Quarterly West, and Best New American Voices, among other publications.

He was winner of the San Fernando Valley Award for Fiction, and has been a finalist for The National Magazine Award, the Southern California Independent Booksellers Association Book of the Year Award, and the Foreword Magazine Book of the Year Award.

He was recipient of the Carol Houck Smith Fiction Fellowship at the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing, and has taught writing at the University of Iowa, the University of Wisconsin, the University of California San Diego, the University of California Extension Writers’ Program, and the Otis School of Art and Design.

Born in Montreal and raised in Central and Southern California as well as Saudi Arabia, he now lives with his family in Los Angeles. He can be found on twitter at @antoinewilson and Instagram at @theantoinewilson

Reviews

[Edan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Interloper is engrossing and creepy, and I would recommend it to anyone who needs something smart and entertaining to devour while sunbathing in Hawaii, or while holing up in bed on a too-hot Sunday. The conceit is a little flimsy, and the end maybe too rushed, but, hey, these problems are small and forgiveable.

[Stacy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is more like 2.5 stars for me. Owen, during his "descent into madness", is a very unreliable narrator...but I'm not sure that he was DESCENDING into madness. I think he was always a cuckoo bird. Who else but a crazy person would think that a broken heart would represent justice served for a murder? Why would he think someone who would kill, in cold blood and without remorse, would have a heart to break? These are not the thoughts of a sane person.

There were some parts that were pretty funny. I enjoyed Owen getting into character for Lily and I found the Cartoon GI to be one of the best characters in the book, though he wasn't in it nearly enough, and the author dropped the ball by doing nothing with the purple panties.

There was definite potential here. Unfortunately it wasn't tapped into but I like the author's writing style well enough to give him another chance. The Interloper was a debut, after all. Hopefully he will hit his stride in subsequent books.

[Candi Sary · Rating 5 out of 5]

I saw Antoine Wilson speak on a panel at the LA Festival of Books, and after hearing him read an excerpt from one of his novels, I had a feeling I would love his writing. And I do! This was one of my favorite novels in quite a while. Wilson’s characters are so bizarre, well-developed and intriguing. I couldn’t stop thinking about them. I finished the book in a couple days. I especially loved Lily. How did he make Lily, the fiction inside the fiction, so real? And Owen—what a brilliant mess he is! I didn’t feel like I was witnessing craziness from the outside, I felt like I was right there inside his mind with him where it all made sense. Wilson's story is just weird and dark and wonderful and refreshingly original.

[Maria · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh. I like the idea of this story (a man develops a false identity and corresponds with the man who is in prison for shooting his wife's brother) but the book just didn't do it for me. What was supposed to be one man's descent into madness just felt a little silly.

[Steven · Rating 1 out of 5]

While I admit that the conceit is not unoriginal, the execution leaves a lot to be desired. There are so many different styles represented in the book that I feel as though the author had a germ of an idea, but in working out to novel-length, just inserted several sections which feel like topical writing assignments ('imagine you're at the supermarket,' 'imagine the journal of an 'ordinary' person,' 'imagine writing letters to a prison inmate where you have an ulterior motive,' etc.).

The protagonist is a mass of unaddressed contradictions, which in and of itself isn't either unrealistic or off-putting, but set against the already-thinly-populated world of the novel, it's problematic. We have no real foils against which to compare him/his actions, and those characters who should feature prominently (the Stocking family, for starters) are never given the depth they deserve. Is the protagonist/narrator sufficiently sensitive or skilled to adequately describe them to us? Perhaps not, but that constraint doesn't make for interesting reading.

There are a couple of set-ups for a good deus ex machina, but the proverbial Checkovian gun never goes off in the third act (even though a real one does). Some reviewers mentioned that they felt the ending was rushed, but I think that was in keeping with the protagonist's psychological state.

[Margaret Carmel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I couldn't put my finger on exactly why I was struggling to finish this well-written book until the very end.

Growing up, if a character on a show or movie was committing one mortifying act after another I couldn't take it and had to leave the room. I knew it wasn't real, but the second hand embarrassment of watching even a fictional character blunder their way into disaster was too much to watch. That's what reading The Interloper was like.

Owen Patterson married his wife Pattie and was ready to start their new life together, until her brother was suddenly murdered in rural Colorado and her family could not handle the news. When her family was still in mourning years later, Owen decided to take revenge in the oddest way possible. He was going to write to him as a woman and try to seduce him and then break his heart.

The writing here was solid and inventive, but it was hard for me to get past the cringey feeling of watching someone completely go down the rabbit hole of bad decisions and know they won't make it out intact. I did enjoy the somewhat of a twist ending, but it was hard to read to the end because I knew dreading every move.

If second hand embarrassment is not something you deal with, you might like this, but I couldn't allow myself to enjoy it.

[Thaisa Frank · Rating 5 out of 5]

Antoine Wilson has graced the world with a straighforward first person story about a man who devises a complicated revenge for the murder of his wife's brother. In the process, his own identity blurs. It is creepily funny in many places, with creepy and accurate commentaries on urban life (why do so many older women shop wearing sunglasses? what is the false bonding that comes out of cheering for the same team?). Wison is a very good writer--inventive. At times i found a disconnect between the wittily cynical narrator and his love for his wife--whose familly he sees with a pitiless eye. I felt his cynicism and wit far more than his love
-- and since this is an unreliable narrator, I wasn't sure whether this was intentional or what he wanted me to think. Nonetheless, I'm giving the book five stars. It's hard to tell a straightforward story in a novel--one that rises above the surface of psychologizing and awkward flashbacks, yet seamlessly weaves in the past of the narrator. This is both a good read and well-written.

[Tim Jin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The concept of "The Interloper" is about the main character writing to the murderer of his brother in-law's killer, but instead writing as himself, he pretends to be a chick and they start to become pen pals. A little twisted and silly at the same time, but totally funny moments on how Owen develop this woman for the inmate and trying to break his heart to get revenge for the mourning family.

As you understand Owen, you will realize that he is just another ordinary guy, writing computer manuals for a living. He has another side of him (which we all have), that want to explore his quirkiness.

It is not something that I would read during the week, but as for weekend entertainment, just to lounge around, it was fast pace and fun. The last few hours of this audiobook is just freakin' hilarious.

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

A guy whose brother-in-law is murdered seeks revenge by sending love letters to the murderer in prison under the alias "Lily Hazelton," a fictitious woman on the outside. His plan is to get the murderer to fall in love with Lily and then break the murderer's heart, taking away a loved one just like the murderer did to the him.

The plot sounds hokey, but the book is good--a fast, engrossing read. Wilson is a talented writer, and his attention to detail is what separates him from a lot of pretenders. He really brought the narrator to life.

[Lauren · Rating 2 out of 5]

Argh! This was reviewed positively by The New Yorker. So, I eagerly bought it and dived into it when I had the chance. Very disappointing. Very amateur. The premise was somewhat interesting... but it fell flat in the hands of this author. His cadence was unnatural... I could feel him struggling to sound more eloquent than he actually is. And the 'unreliable narrator' technique that I usually adore really annoyed me in this instance. Not recommended!

[Dennis · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's really hard to get into a book when people do stupid incomprehensible things. There was no logic in this and although the final incomprehensible act added some finality to the idiocy which preceded it, it wasn't enough. I noticed that one of the reviewers on the cover was TC Boyle; assuming this refers to T. Coraghessan and not Top Cat, this makes some sense as there was the same feeling of inanity but without the logic.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

An intriguing literary thriller that generates a surprising amount of tension before a weak final act punctures it. The Lily character is abandoned as soon as Raven is released, but she had become the most interesting person in the book, and the narrative suffers from her sudden disappearance.

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars. I really wanted to like this book - I loved the premise - but it failed to deliver. The story was not at all compelling (and certainly not believable), and the protagonist was so one-dimensional it was impossible to empathize with him. At least it didn't take me very long to read.

[Cai · Rating 3 out of 5]

THE INTERLOPER, by Antoine Wilson, is the story of a man who is falling apart. Owen, the book’s narrator, is happily married to Patty at the story’s outset—or so it appears—but when Patty’s brother CJ is murdered, and Patty and her family are inconsolable a year later, Owen feels impotent. He devises a far-fetched plan to restore his wife’s pre-murder happiness by writing letters to CJ’s imprisoned murderer, Raven, on behalf of Lily, a character of his own creation, with the eventual hope of manipulating Raven in various ways. As one can imagine, things do not go as planned, and we watch the crumbling of Owen himself.

While the events of the novel often strain credibility, the intelligence and keen’s perceptions of Owen’s narrative voice are a joy to follow, and one cannot help but root for him.

[Eric Van · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author's first novel and a doozy it is, too. Not quite as good as his current novel, Mouth To Mouth, but that was a tour de force. Again. we're in Wilson's seriously twisted psychological landscape, so claustrophobic that nothing seems to exist outside its boundaries. Wilson's prose, his style is so immersive that at some point you begin to believe what you're reading is non-fiction. It's not. I wanted to give this book five stars, but the very last sentence (!) let me down. Still, perhaps that's the smallest of quibbles, though last sentences tend to stay with me. I will say that I was so entranced by Mouth To Mouth I started on this one right away. All in all, highly recommended.

[Sean Kinch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Much to enjoy in this novel—quick pacing, lovely writing, creepy suspense—mostly its meta-fictional resonance on the art of fiction. To lure the murderer of his brother-in-law into his trap, Owen Patterson begins writing letters to the prison as Lily Hazelton: “I was pleased with the way she was coming out, as I learned to incorporate more of the ‘stuff of life’ into what had been a generic woman,” Owen sounding as if he’s benefitted from the workshop process. You hear echoes of Nabokov throughout, especially in the climax. A terrific read—enjoy

[Linda Frances · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad, but not very good, either. I get out of patience with obsessed characters, which Owen certainly is. At least it featured an obsessed male for a change, after so many females who all seem to be obsessed with a man, or having a baby.

I was expecting a huge twist at the end, but it just fell flat.

[Annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5; I loved Wilson's Mouth to Mouth, so I was excited to pick this up. Exceedingly clever and concise, though I think it is clear that he hadn't quite mastered his craft yet here. Still an extremely entertaining read!

[Lily Kopp · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a fun revenge story, but the ending was a bit of a let down

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Owen Patterson seems like your everyday boring kind of guy. He writes text for computer manuals. He lives in a house. And he is recently married. Only, he married his wife after knowing her for only a couple months, and her brother C.J. just happens to have been murdered during their honeymoon in Mexico. Oh, and when Owen was a teenager, he had an inappropriate love affair with his older cousin who later died of a drug overdose, which may or may not have been a suicide. And Owen is still in love with her. But, of course, it's this whole murder thing that is tearing his marriage apart. Owen begins to obsesses over the murderer who is spending a 20-year stint in prison. He comes up with an ingenious plan - he'll pose as a lonely woman seeking an incarcerated pen-pal. He'll make the guy fall in love with the faux-admirer, and then he'll skip out on the guy, causing him to lose the assumed love of his life - and THAT will get him back for shooting his brother-in-law in cold blood and destroying his wife and her family. Based on this plausible premise, The Interloper proceeds. Okay, clearly, I think the plot is ridiculous - but this is an interesting novel from the perspective of viewing an unstable man spiral entirely out of control and lose his ability to tell fact from fiction. Throughout the book, there is the suggestion that the man in prison did not actually pull the trigger of the gun that killed Owen's brother-in-law - and based on the suggestions, I thought the story would take a turn it never did (but which I might have found a little more interesting). But, this is an entertaining book (I am always fascinated by the concept of women who do actually pursue men who are behind bars), and thankfully, it's a very quick read. At the very least, I give the author credit for coming up with a pretty unique plot (not an easy thing to do these days).

[Logan Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

I could not put this book down and totally fell in love with Antoine Wilson. The story is equal parts earnest and unsettling and shows the shockwaves of grief in a family unit (some people handle it better than others), the appeal of the forbidden, and our desperate human need for connection in times of trouble.

[Hans · Rating 3 out of 5]

For me, the experience of reading The Interloper was most like the experience of reading a Jim Thompson novel. In both cases, you are caught in a web of misanthropic behavior told in first person by an unreliable narrator. This book draws you in and provides enough twists to compel you to continue reading. However, the language in this book feels really flat, especially in the 13 pages filled with diary excerpts. Some portions seem like darlings that the author could not kill.

But, here are a couple ideas that I enjoyed along the way:

I might have preferred a discussion about what we were reading, but--as I had learned at an earlier dinner--not everyone reads for pleasure, and those who don't are ashamed of that fact, so discussions about books should occur only in the confines of a "book club"--to which I have never belonged.

Fate doesn't exist in real life. Sure, sometimes we see people setting themselves up for a fall unawares, but is that fate? Coincidence isn't fate. Character isn't fate. Fate, real fate, old-school Fate, is for characters in books and movies, not real people.

[John Rogers · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting, twisted story from a fine writer.

I read the book pretty much straight through, despite the fact that there were some things that would have made me quit reading a lesser author. But the power of good writing overcame minor reservations.

Wilson writes a clean, literary prose that is a pleasure to read. That said, the protagonist and the story bothered me. Wilson chose a first person narrative delivered by a person who was not, at least to me, likable. So, for a normal writer, two strikes. But Wilson hit a triple at least and may have won the game.

Wilson did about as nice a job as I’ve seen done with a one-person point of view, never stumbling in the mechanics of describing things and the feelings of others. Owen Patterson is a very odd dude, indeed. He has a vast literary inner landscape wrapped up in a not-too-bright, often annoying skin. I’m sure there are people like him, but the inner man and his actions often seemed discordant to me. I expect that discord was intended, but it often put me on edge.

Nonetheless, it is a fine book. I’ll read the next one.

[Gita · Rating 1 out of 5]

OH MY GOD the ending was SO TERRIBLE. I never saw it coming. While I was reading the book, it never once struck me as a surprise ending type of book. ANYWAY I thought the book in general was dumb. It's like the author is making up whatever the hell he wants to write even if it doesn't fit into the plot or wouldn't actually happen in real life. Like the main character Owen thinks he can make his wife feel better about her brother's murder by writing to the murderer in jail posing as a woman, getting the murderer to fall in love with the woman, and then "breaking his heart"?? YEAH OK THAT'S REALISTIC AND NOT LAME AT ALL. Actually no, like what are you doing?? And the ending- it's like the author was trying way too hard to add something extra to his book. He thought he was soooo original and unique with that ending. But no it's just stupid, it doesn't fit with the overall mood of the book, buddy. Like don't they have editors and stuff to fix stuff like this??

[Carolyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sort of an odd duck. I don’t think it was ALL due to me just having seen [the movie] “Evening” before I started reading this, but the time it takes place in felt confused. It FEELS like it’s the ’50s or ’60s, very formal, the wife part of a “society” family, the way the murder took place, the writing of letters, the lingering on of CJ’s spirit: all felt very “old,” belonging to the time of Capote and “In Cold Blood.”

But then there are references to snowboarding, and photo shop and Mailboxes, etc. = so it’s supposed to be contemporary. I never really got over this tonal imbalance and really felt much of the plot and the characters would have worked better in THAT time rather than THIS one.

Did enjoy the epistolary drama, the lead’s plan to break the murderer’s heart. The ending reminded me of a very specific part of “Evening,” but I don’t want to give anything away.

[M.D. Vance · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this book up as a result of NPR having reviewed it... and that fact that I wanted to broaden my horizons.

This book is not your typical mainstream fiction. I suppose it might be considered more literary in nature (jmo).

I felt that the book explored deeper topics with it's troubled characters; things like personality flaws, obsessive behavior, insecurity, etc. To me, the events in the book serve to highlight the protagonist slide into these dark places.

There isn't a lot of action, but the story moves - reasonably. One trick the author used very effectively was this occasional hint as to the protagonist current situation being very different, as he writes about what has already happened.

In general, I found it enjoyable.

[J.L. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three-quarters, and probably even four-fifths of the way through this book it was on track for an elusive 5 star rating. It's tightly written with an interesting narrative style and a premise that sucks you in and has you turning pages late into the night. I had at least ten guesses as to where it all might be leading up to, but by the time you reach the ending it just sort of falls flat.

Without spoiling anything, the ending isn't "bad" so much as it's just boring. There were so many other possibilities that would have been more interesting (and that I actually felt were nicely foreshadowed), but the author ultimately decided to play it safe and quickly wrap things up.

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really like the beginning of the book. Owen describes how happy he is with his life and how quickly everything changed once CJ was killed. I liked the plan he formed for his revenge. Then I was forced to read the correspondence between Owen and Raven. All the time and energy the author devoted to the writing of the letters and the travelling to the mail box place to check for letters was long and boring. The letters themselves also grew tedious. The ending was also unusual. I still don't understand why Owen decided to kill anyone. His plan was to hurt emotionally, not physically. Why/how did he decide so quickly to kill? It felt untrue to the character.

[Christopher]

If I could I would give this three-and-a-half stars. Nice, tidy story about revenge gone awry. Letters to and from the main character compose much of the book, and I was pleased at how well the author constructed them. In a creative writing course, I had an assignment to write a letter to a long-lost friend, and it was by far my poorest effort of my college career, so I appreciated reading good ones.

[Shozo Hirono · Rating 4 out of 5]

I almost finished this in one sitting because I couldn't put it down. The protagonist is one of those classic creepy, unreliable narrators. I loved the way CJ, despite being a saint to his family, turned out to be a typical young, male asshole. I also liked the way the author depicted Raven's callous brutishness and Owen's blindness to it. However, I found some aspects of the book to be a little inauthentic and cliched. But these are minor flaws in a very engaging and enjoyable book.