The Other (New York Review Books Classics)

I read this book as a child since it was lying around the house and I was a voracious reader. I was only eleven or twelve at the time; coincidentally, roughly the same age as Niles and Holland. The impact it had on me was immense. Thomas Tryon's ability to create a picture, however gruesome, in one's mind is unparalleled. This story stayed with me for years. The twist ending is one for the ages.I re-read the novel just recently (and I'm desperately trying to find the movie version as this is an American gothic classic as well) to validate its genius and impact. It did not disappoint. One of my favorite books of all time, as is the book AND move, To Kill A Mockingbird, both of which were directed by Robert Mulligan.

The anxieties stoked by the rebellion of the baby boomers in the late Sixties (particularly after the Manson Family murders at the end of the decade) gave rise to all kinds of horror fictions and films about evil children in the early part of the next decade; this 1971 atmospheric novel by Thomas Tryon was one of the best, and most influential. You can trace many later developments in horror fiction--particularly Tryon's very flexible use of an informal and dreamlike first-person narrative--to this early book which was a huge bestseller in its day, and is still a marvel for how well it is told and for how efficiently its horrors come ticking along. It is now available in a beautiful re-issue edition from the Centipede Press.Tryon was an extremely handsome Hollywood leading man whose career largely began to bottom out at around the same time the late 60s and early 70s boom in horror was signaled by the Ira Levin novel ROSEMARY'S BABY and its subsequent film adaptation by Roman Polanski. Inspired by that film, Tryon tried his hand at writing a novel based on his childhood memories of rural Connecticut and came up with this finely constructed story of personality transference among a pair of twins living there during the Depression. (The idea of the evil doppelganger goes back to Poe and Dostoevski, of course, but seems quite relevant coming from a gay man who had been living in the public eye in the 60s as a movie star.) The 1973 Richard Mulligan film adaptation, for which Tryon himself wrote the screenplay, has perhaps become today more famous than the novel itself, but the novel is really better, as Ramsey Campbell points out in his brief introduction to this edition: the sense of the drowsy longeurs of summer are stretched out a bit more, and the crucial "game" that the twins play with their grandma and its connection to the major events of the novel are clarified. This is an excellent example of how finely and intelligently genre fiction can be crafted.

This is a tale of terror—multiple, monstrous terrors. It's no surprise to learn that from Dan Chaon, author of the afterword of this NYRB reissue, that this book enjoyed best-selling sales when first published in 1971. It was also adapted into a less successful movie during that era. I am happy never to have seen the movie, because this is the kind of story that works far more effectively in the mind, without cinema's naturalism (or, in this case, unnaturalism). Tyron pulls off a stunning feat: he grips you from the first page while at the same time signaling that your footing is insecure. You may think you know where you are but, like the novel's characters, you are virtually clueless until the very end. Even when all is revealed, the deepest mysteries remain—not because, as a reader, you've been cheated, but because true mystery is impossible to resolve.Although it captures an era decades before I was born, a big reason why this novel sucked me in is its care with everyday details: a world of crystal radio sets, trollies, kewpie dolls, and neighborhood fishmongers. The notorious news of the day was the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby, The geography is the New England mapped by Stephen King; the mood, steeped in childhood nostalgia, is Ray Bradbury's. The difference is that Tryon, though far less prolific than those giants in the field, is a better writer than either. His prose is poetic in its diction, range of colors, and metaphors, but it's never pretentious. The atmosphere unsettles from the start and grows more frightening. The most chilling events are described with restraint. This is one of the best-written thrillers I have ever read. It's also one of the best-written books of any kind I have read in a long time.Chaon stresses "legerdemain" as the secret to Tryon's triumph in "The Other." I could not agree more. Now that I know the plot, I intend to reread the book to enjoy its construction, its skillful misdirection, its lightness of touch, its — legerdemain.

A great horror story. This is the first time I've read this book in many years and it still scares me.Tryon is excellent in building suspense and keeping the reader off kilter as to what new horror will come next. He also is great at keeping the secrets of the Perry family and keeping the reader guessing as to what is reality and what is the imagining of an unreliable narrator. It holds the reader's interest from start to finish and is hard to put down.The setting of the main action is the bucolic Perry farm in the small town of Pequot's Landing. It brings back the images of a leisurely summer in the 1930s as we follow Niles Perry through what on the surface appears to be a typical boy's life. As the story progresses it becomes alarming clear that all is not as simple or serene as it seems.The story reveals the tragedies of the Perrys but as it progresses the reader learns there are more things to come that will eclipse the past with new horrors to come.In addition, this is also the study of a descent into psychosis. What was intended to be a game becomes the catalyst for releasing a demon in the form of a young boy's obsession with his twin and its deadly consequences.This was Thomas Tryon's debut novel and my favorite. He was a true literary talent.

I am an avid fan of the eponymous 1972 film, directed by Robert Mulligan, for which this best-selling novel by Thomas Tryon laid the literary groundwork. Tryon adapted his novel into a screenplay for said film, which he also executive produced. The result is, in my opinion, one of the best horror films of the 1970s, surpassing even spectacle-laden blockbusters such as 'Jaws' or 'The Excorsist'. The strength of 'The Other' lies in its understated eerieness and sense of dread, superbly set off against the wonderful and warm days of a seemingly neverending summer, filled with adventure and light.So naturally I was curious about Thomas Tryon's bucolic novel that, until now, I still hadn't read, even though I dearly love supernatural- and horror literature.To say that 'The Other' does not disappoint would be an understatement. In fact, it is one of the finest novels I've read in a long time in any genre, not just (supernatural) horror. But in that particular niche, it holds its own with the best of Henry James, E.A. Poe, M.R. James and more contemporary literati such as Ira Levin, Shirley Jackson, Susan Hill and Ray Bradbury.Tryon is a master of subtlety and atmosphere: always under-, never overstating, he takes his time to describe landscapes, people, their histories and the events that shaped them, imbueing all these with a palpable sense of dread, loss and an increasing tension that ultimately grips like a vice. The pastoral town of Pequot Landing, Connecticut is the setting for the story, but the origin of the evil that suffuses the novel is far more personal, internal and psychological. Not to mention intensely terrifying. The sky above Pequot Landing may be of the brightest summer-blue, but what goes on under its sunny expanse is very dark indeed.To give too much away of the plot would only spoil the pleasure of discovering this dark gem of a novel. Suffice it to say that the locus of the story is the farm of the Perry-family in 1935. The family has recently been struck by tragedy, and as each family member tries to come to grips with his or her personal grief, sinister occurrences begin to strike the Perry-clan and the people of the town.Tryon's lyrical use of prose is a delight - in the descriptions of landscapes, people, emotions, memories and situations, as well as in those chilling moments when unadulterated horror comes to the fore. 'The Other' is unforgettably terrifying, enthralling and, last but not least, deeply moving. Because as dark as the deeds described in the book are, Tryon makes it understood that they arise from a sense of loss that is so disruptive and overwhelming that, for some, it shatters the very fabric of reality. And, equal to this loss, is a yearning for reunion that is so intense that it obliterates everything else - and calls dark and sinister shadows into being.Ultimately, 'The Other' is so expertly written that it transcends its horror-genre tropes and becomes a meditation on youth, love, the passing of time and the way we are shaped by our personal histories.I fell in love with this book, and I know I will return to it again and again.For its beautiful use of language, its dark imagery, its haunting atmosphere and its heartfelt, searing central message.Novels don't get any better than this. Highly recommended.

This book started slow for me- I found it hard to get into. But I am glad I stuck with it. Some good creepy moments.

EXCELENTES ORGANIZAÇÃO, PRAZO E CONFIABILIDADE PASSADOS PELO SITE.

a bit different from the also excellent movie. very eerie

Un conocido nos recomendó su lectura, indicándonos que no podía dejar de leer. Algo escéptica, empecé a leerlo y de inmediato me cautivó. Es una historia donde la dualidad, personificada en esos gemelos que se ceden el testigo en la historia, con permiso de los demás narradores, esta siempre presente: el bien y el mal enfrentados, luces y sombras que se entremezclan, y donde nada es lo que parece, en una atmósfera inquietante, oscura, opresiva...Asistimos sin aliento a un relato de hechos torturados, grotescos, macabros, que nos confunden, donde es difícil diferenciar realidad de ensoñaciones, lo que es un fantasma, una ilusión de una mente enferma o el recuerdo de un alma torturada. Además, la forma en que esta escrita, su estructura formal es brillante: ayuda a que la historia sea aun mas misteriosa, mas escalofriante. El lector asiste al relato con el corazón encogido, no por lo que desconoce, sino por lo que en el fondo sabe, intuye desde el principio... mas que recomendable, imprescindible