 | |
| Author | Whitley Strieber |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Putnam Adult |
Publication date | August 20, 1990 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 317 p |
| ISBN | 0399135847 |
Billy is a 1990 novel by Whitley Strieber. [1] The novel tells the story of the abduction of a child and the terror of his experience. [2]
Barton Royal is an overweight man in his 40s who is obsessed with boys. He lives in Los Angeles but travels out of state to find and abduct a suitable young boy so he can be his "father". When he spots 12-year-old Billy Neary in an Iowa shopping mall, he follows the boy home, abducts him late that night, and drives back to California with Billy strapped into the back of his Aerostar minivan. The narrative includes glimpses of Barton's miserable childhood, especially the physical and sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of his father and his recollections of what he has done to other boys before Billy.
Billy tries to escape and also manages to make a few telephone calls, both on the road to and from Barton's home. Barton's behaviour switches between extreme violence and interludes of self-delusion. Billy finds his way into Barton's dungeon, his "black room", and discovers the remains of many other young boys. Billy's father beats the police to Billy's location, just barely preventing Barton from torturing and killing him.
Critical reception for Billy was mostly positive, [3] [4] with the Atlanta Journal praising the novel but the Chicago Sun-Times panning it, saying Streiber failed to "walk the fine tricky line between fiction about monsters and monstrous fiction.". [5] [6] Entertainment Weekly gave an ambivalent review, rating it a "C" and stating that "For those who like this sort of thing, this is the sort of thing they will like". [7] The Dallas Morning News called the book "chillingly real", [8] Newsday stated that Barton was "the most repulsive villain to appear in a popular novel in a long time". [9] The Sun Sentinel also praised Billy, citing the book's realism as a highlight. [10]
Slaughterhouse-Five, or, The Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death is a 1969 semi-autobiographic science fiction-infused anti-war novel by Kurt Vonnegut. It follows the life experiences of Billy Pilgrim, from his early years, to his time as an American soldier and chaplain's assistant during World War II, to the post-war years. Throughout the novel, Billy frequently travels back and forth through time. The protagonist deals with a temporal crisis as a result of his post-war psychological trauma. The text centers on Billy's capture by the German Army and his survival of the Allied firebombing of Dresden as a prisoner of war, an experience that Vonnegut endured as an American serviceman. The work has been called an example of "unmatched moral clarity" and "one of the most enduring anti-war novels of all time".
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