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the complete review - fiction

The Stranger next Door

by
Amélie Nothomb

general information | review summaries | our review | links | about the author

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Our Assessment:

B : a decent, creepy thriller, but not quite up to her usual standard

See our review for fuller assessment.

  From the Reviews:

• "Amélie Nothomb transforme sa petite histoire inoffensive en farce macabre assez irrésistible. Il faudrait une volonté d'acier pour ne pas se délecter de ses descriptions répugnantes et de ses plaisanteries d'une rare noirceur." - Didier Sénécal, Lire
  
  
• "Nothomb develops this improbable plot in a highly entertaining fashion." - Janet Kaye, The New York Times Book Review
  
  
• "Das Ende ist zugleich grausam und befreiend. Nothomb überlässt es den Lesenden, es als Happy-End oder Katastrophe zu sehen, so wie sie auch die Figuren, Szenen und die (hervorragenden) Dialoge durchweg zwischen lebhaftem Witz und tödlichem Ernst schweben lässt." - Daniel Rothenbühler, Tages-Anzeiger

Please note that these ratings solely represent the complete review's biased interpretation and subjective opinion of the actual reviews and do not claim to accurately reflect or represent the views of the reviewers. Similarly the illustrative quotes chosen here are merely those the complete review subjectively believes represent the tenor and judgment of the review as a whole. We acknowledge (and remind and warn you) that they may, in fact, be entirely unrepresentative of the actual reviews by any other measure.

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The complete review's Review:

       It is a sad commentary on the state of American publishing that a successful, accessible, charming, and certainly very marketable author such as Amélie Nothomb must wait for nearly a decade to get the first of her books published in an English translation. The precocious little literary superstar, whose work is available throughout Europe (and who has achieved both best-selling and cult status there) remains practically unknown here. So Holt is to be commended for finally bringing her to these shores. We wonder why, of the half dozen books she has written, they chose this one, but its better than nothing .....
       The Stranger next Door (not the world's greatest title, by the way, and bearing no resemblance to the original French one) is the unusual story of Emile and Juliette Hazel, an old couple very much in love and very happy with their relatively isolated lifestyle. Emile retires as a high school classics professor and the couple look forward to enjoying their old age together, living simply yet comfortably, happy just to have each other. Into this small idyll comes their neighbor, the unlikely doctor with the unlikely name Palamedes Bernardin.
       Palamedes Bernardin is staggeringly boring, an exaggerated literary figure who imposes himself on the Hazels. They are too polite to turn him out, and he keeps reappearing, becoming a fixture in their life. He also becomes the fixation of their life, as they try to figure out how to avoid him and return to their wished for life-style. The doctor is a failure of great proportions, clinging to the Hazels -- the ultimate neighbor from hell insofar as he constantly invades the Hazels' space.
       Added to the mix then is Palamedes unlikely heap of a wife, the cyst Bernadette, a horrifying yet marvelous creation as well. Nothomb's novel is in part surreal, both philosophic meditation and thriller. She has a lot of fun with this simple premise, torturing her characters with glee.
       It is a good story, but not for the squeamish, and even we found the characters too unpleasant to truly enjoy it. We do recommend it -- Nothomb is a writer one should be familiar with -- but readers should know that she has done better than this and should look forward to the appearance of her other work in English.

Please note and consider that this review is based on the original version of the novel and not the English translation.

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Links:

• Le Livre de Poche publicity page
• Diogenes Verlag publicity page (German)

• Booklog for Charlotte
• FFWD
• 1streading's Blog
• Rob Gonsalves
• His Futile Preoccupations .....
• Hungry like the Wolf
• Kirkus Reviews
• Lire (French)
• The New York Times Book Review
• Publishers Weekly
• The Second Circle (scroll down for review)

• The complete review's Amélie Nothomb page.
• Amélie Nothomb site
• Amélie Nothomb at the Institute of Germanic & Romance Studies

• Les aérostats
• Antichrista (Antéchrista)
• Attentat
• Barbe bleue
• The Book of Proper Names (Robert des noms propres)
• The Character of Rain (Métaphysique des tubes)
• Cosmétique de l'ennemi
• Le crime du comte Neville
• Fear and Trembling (Stupeur et tremblements)
• First Blood
• Human Rites (Les combustibles)
• Hygiene and the Assassin (Hygiène de l'assassin)
• Journal d'Hirondelle
• Life Form (Une forme de vie)
• The Life of Hunger (Biographie de la faim)
• Loving Sabotage (Le Sabotage amoureux)
• Mercure
• La nostalgie heureuse
• Péplum
• Pétronille
• Les prénoms épicènes
• Strike Your Heart (Frappe-toi le cœur)
• Sulphuric Acid (Acide sulfurique)
• Thirst
• Tokyo Fiancée (Ni d'Ève Ni d'Adam)
• Tuer le père
• Le voyage d'hiver

• Michel Zumkir's Amélie Nothomb de A à Z

• See Index of French literature at the complete review

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About the Author:

       Belgian author Amélie Nothomb was born in Kobe, Japan, August 13, 1967.

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