The novel in the Berger canon which The Houseguest most resembles is Neighbors, both in its concern for America's obsession with bad manners and in the gradual development of a highly surrealistic situation. The Hottseguest provides credible motivations for its characters and returns to the credibility of realism at its conclusion, while Neighbors is an absurdist morality play on a high literary level.
Characterizations in The Houseguest also recall other Berger novels. Doug Graves is a more memorable version of Blaine Raven, Carlo Reinhart's snobbish, drunken, womanizing father-in-law. Audrey is reminiscent.....
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