Neighbors can be seen as one of a trilogy of Berger's satiric novels about modern America's bad manners. The others are Being Invisible (1987; see separate entry) and The Houseguest (1988; see separate entry). While Neighbors is not explicitly a fantasy, it hovers on the edge of the Gothic or the surreal, especially in its final scenes. Being Invisible, however, uses invisibility to provide its protagonist with the vision to see reality more clearly. And The Houseguest, although staying barely within the bounds of naturalism, often seems on the verge of entry into the fantastic.

All three novels describe the ways that contemporary people who could be expected to treat one with civility— neighbors, hired help and tradesmen, bosses, and society's authority figures—manage to treat people of good will with insulting contempt.