The Feud

This book is a cruel masterpiece of cynical and nasty slapstick humor. The protagonists, the Bullards and the Beelers, are both families of barely sentient wit who behave in ways that are competely understandable, completely human, and completely stupid. Berger's writing and plotting, though, are first-rate-- I laughed out loud throughout this thing, and I've read it three times over the last 25 years (time to read it again). You've met people like this before in the works of Flannery O'Connor, Faulkner, Charles Portis, and Erskine Caldwell, but Berger's light touch makes "The Feud" a real find.

I picked this book up in the bargain rack at a mall bookstore in South Carolina while on a road trip in college. It is still one of my favorite books of all time. I read everything else Berger ever wrote because of this novel. It will make you laugh out loud. The characters are great and the plot is hilarious. As for the previous reviewer- it was made into a movie- a low buget comedy filmed in North Carolina in the late 80's. It went straight to video. Berger is a wicked writer.

Memorable characters, a fun story, and insidiously amusing throughout. I can't believe someone hasn't made a movie of this great book.

A great book. Hilarious. Offensive. Subversive. It is like "Mayberry on Acid". Coincedences and misunderstandings abound in Berger's best.