Synopses & Reviews
Back in print with a new Introduction by Jonathan Lethem, a hilarious and sinister master-piece by "one of the century's most important writers of the English-speaking world" (London Times Book Review). Reissued to coincide with the publication of Thomas Berger's new novel, Best Friends, this cult classic introduces a new generation of readers to one of America's most stylish and provocative authors. With a new introduction by Jonathan Lethem, Meeting Evil tells an adrenaline-pumped, genuinely frightening tale of malice and malevolence that swerves swiftly and irrevocably to a catastrophic climax. John Felton meets evil late one Monday morning when the doorbell rings. Standing on the front porch is a stranger in a baseball cap. He tells John his car has stalled and asks for his help. He calls himself Richie and wears expensive running shoes. An altercation at the gas station leads to a shocking crime as violence begets violence. At the end of this harrowing day, John returns home to find Richie ensconced in his living room, chatting up his wife. The evil has somehow seeped into his own life. Thus begins the transformation of an unremarkable husband and father of two into a desperate man willing to go to any length to protect his family from the darkness that threatens them. A chilling portrait of mounting menace played out against an everyday world of domestic routine, personified in a protagonist of basic decency grappling with both the immediate and existential meaning of true evil, this is an extraordinary masterwork by "one of America's most important comic artists" (The Boston Globe).