[Below, the critic offers a negative review of People Who Knock on the Door.]

Even good novelists occasionally have a lapse, and Patricia Highsmith had a very bad lapse of several hundred pages when she wrote People Who Knock on the Door. It's the story of Arthur, 17, and the effects on him and his family when his father becomes a born-again Christian and tries to revise all their lives and impose his moral views on others.

Things come to a head when Arthur's girlfriend reveals that she is pregnant and opts for an abortion. Because Arthur approves the decision, he is put out of the house and denied funds for college. Meanwhile his younger brother Robbie becomes the father's faithful ally. Mom tries to keep peace by keeping everyone well-fed. In the end, inevitably, principles are challenged and hypocrisy revealed, and also inevitably, terrible violence ensues.

Alas, it's all thoroughly unconvincing. For one thing, Robbie is outlandish; when did you last see a normal 15-year-old playing horsey? And how many teen-agers casually drop by to have a cocktail with the old lady next door, or "smooch," or describe something as "kooky," or hang out with their buddies listening to the Beach Boys and Cole Porter? They certainly don't do that on my block. And, besides, has Highsmith never heard of Planned Parenthood? These characters act like nothing more than characters in a novel.