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jess_mango's review against another edition
4.0
It’s a normal morning when John Felton answers a knock at the door of his family’s home. Standing on the doorstep is a stranger who claims that he’s having car trouble and would like help pushing his car down the road towards the nearest service station. John, a middle class Real Estate agent with a wife and 2 children likes to think that he is a nice, helpful, and polite guy so he agrees to help the stranger. This decision is the first of many that make John’s day go totally off track into dangerous situations.
The stranger, Ritchie, is totally obnoxious and does not care at all for others, although he does keep stating how much he admires John. John becomes an unwitting participant in Ritchie’s crime spree. John has many opportunities to chose to exit the situation. John seems incapable of saying no. He just keeps going along with Ritchie since he seems to be afraid of the awkward situation that would arise if he voiced his opinion or opted out.
The book raised lots of philosophical questions such as: “What does it truly mean to be evil?” and ”How good can you be if you stand by and let evil carry on?”. Meeting Evil is a well written work of black humor. I found myself completely drawn in and unwilling to put the book down. It is difficult to give an in depth review of this book without giving away too much of the story, so I will keep this review brief. I had never read anything by Thomas Berger before but after reading Meeting Evil I will definitely pick up something else by Berger at some point in the future.
The stranger, Ritchie, is totally obnoxious and does not care at all for others, although he does keep stating how much he admires John. John becomes an unwitting participant in Ritchie’s crime spree. John has many opportunities to chose to exit the situation. John seems incapable of saying no. He just keeps going along with Ritchie since he seems to be afraid of the awkward situation that would arise if he voiced his opinion or opted out.
The book raised lots of philosophical questions such as: “What does it truly mean to be evil?” and ”How good can you be if you stand by and let evil carry on?”. Meeting Evil is a well written work of black humor. I found myself completely drawn in and unwilling to put the book down. It is difficult to give an in depth review of this book without giving away too much of the story, so I will keep this review brief. I had never read anything by Thomas Berger before but after reading Meeting Evil I will definitely pick up something else by Berger at some point in the future.
blevins's review against another edition
1.0
Sometimes I'm baffled by the average scores on goodreads--this is one of those times. I only finished this awful book just to unleash a rare one star review!
This was just terrible, from start to finish, which was kind of a surprise because I've read a few other Berger books (Being Invisible, Neighbors, Little Big Man) and enjoyed those a lot. Same direct Berger style but the story of a man who is accidentally drawn into a hellish day of crime he can't get out of absolutely drove me crazy.
Frankly, the lead character (John) is a complete and utter moron. It's hard to take when Berger paints each person in this book so one-note, obvious, naive and simpleminded. John never gains any smarts the entire story no matter what has gone down. Ugh. Let me say it again: ugh!
This was just terrible, from start to finish, which was kind of a surprise because I've read a few other Berger books (Being Invisible, Neighbors, Little Big Man) and enjoyed those a lot. Same direct Berger style but the story of a man who is accidentally drawn into a hellish day of crime he can't get out of absolutely drove me crazy.
Frankly, the lead character (John) is a complete and utter moron. It's hard to take when Berger paints each person in this book so one-note, obvious, naive and simpleminded. John never gains any smarts the entire story no matter what has gone down. Ugh. Let me say it again: ugh!
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