"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Byler demonstrates little in the way of inspired, original writing, and often slips into melodrama. While the humorless tone suggests further implications, each of the stories focus on the same notion of cyclical abuse. Disastrous patterns emerge in the novel, and the reader waits for the narrator's obsessive, selfish nature to undue his search for contentment. This recurrence, as told by a character showing no signs of self-effacement or growth, results in a disengaging and often unintentionally humorous novel. Ultimately, readers won't find much in Searching for Intruders that's worth finding. --Ross Doll
Advance Praise for
Searching
for Intruders
"Close hewn, stark, and sensitive...powerful...A strong debut from a writer who can whittle experiences to the quick."
--Kirkus Reviews
"Steve Byler's work is starkly original. His unadorned prose creates a strong emotional tone that reverberates in the silence of the reader's perception. He is one of those writers who can command the white space on the page, play the pedals, and leave the reader transformed. Byler is a young writer of great promise."
--Robert Stone, author of Damascus Gate
"Byler's debut is an alarmingly fresh entry into fictive reality."
--Jim Harrison, author of Legends of the Fall
"Stephen Byler's stories move with ease between shocking acts of physical and emotional violence and moments of quiet moral reflection. Searching for Intruders is a strong and distinctive debut."
--Tom Perrotta, author of Joe College
"Searching for Intruders is a stunning and innovative novel. At times harrowing, at times tender, Stephen Byler's stories gather the life of a young man striving for emotional honesty in a bewildering and often brutal world. Byler's prose--intense, poised, moving--is a remarkable achievement."
--Maureen Howard, author of Big as Life
"In his stories, Stephen Byler enters into a world he himself has discovered and made his own: that of heterosexual masculine tenderness, compelling and compassionate. His is a voice that will be listened to with amazement for revealing a sensibility that is wonderfully new to literature."
--David Plante, author of The Age of Terror
"Steve Byler's haunting debut left me breathless. These stories, written in a deceptively conversational style, are precise, poignant, evocative, and sometimes very funny indeed."
--Tim Cahill, author of Pass the Butterworms
"Stephen Raleigh Byler's Searching for Intruders returns us to the Hemingway of the Nick Adams stories. At their best, Byler's stories are tersely eloquent and marked by a vivid exuberance."
--Harold Bloom
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
Shipping:
US$ 4.94
Within U.S.A.
Book Description Condition: New. New. In shrink wrap. Looks like an interesting title! 1.1. Seller Inventory # Q-0066212944