The Houseguest

Chuck Burgoyne is a perfect houseguest: deferential, pleasant, and the consummate omelet-maker. Chuck quickly becomes indispensable to the wealthy Graves family—until he becomes their tormenter. In The Houseguest (1988), American author Thomas Berger uses satire and dark humor to examine issues of family and privilege. Berger received wide acclaim for his novels The Feud (1983), which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, and Little Big Man (1964), which was made into a film starring Dustin Hoffman.

The Graves family spends summers in their well-appointed island home. With his grey sideburns and old money, the family patriarch Douglass, “Doug” Graves is “old school.” Doug has enjoyed a string of affairs with younger women and had sex with several of the girlfriends his son, Bobby, brought home—not all of which was consensual. Audrey Graves is a severe alcoholic. She knows all about her husband’s indiscretions. Their 22-year-old son, Bobby, is the product of an expensive university education. He has a passive personality and is generally rude to his parents. Bobby was molested as a child by schoolteachers and an older local island boy.

Joining the family for the summer is Lydia Graves née Di Salvo, Bobby’s college sweetheart, and now his wife of five weeks. Lydia comes from a lower-class background: Her father worked his way to wealth in the garbage business. Lydia finds it difficult to fit in with the unfailingly polite Graveses, thinking that their conversations, filled with banalities and without “personal substance,” will make it impossible to have a close relationship with them. Audrey privately thinks Lydia is a “vulgar tart,” and the product of an inferior bloodline. Lydia is the only one who is not sold on Chuck’s awesomeness; she thinks he is manipulating the Graveses.



Chuck Burgoyne is their houseguest, yet none of the family knows exactly who invited him; or if he was even invited. Bobby thinks Chuck is a friend of his parents, the elder Graveses think Lydia knew Chuck first, and Lydia assumes he is a friend of the family. Chuck has straight dark hair and a “ruddy” handsome face. He is good company, and Doug appreciates that Chuck’s theories exactly mirror his own. When Chuck does not appear as usual to make the family breakfast—he has “God’s hands” with eggs—the family is at a loss. Lydia goes to Chuck’s room to wake him and is appalled to find his door open and Chuck asleep, naked and sporting an erection. Lydia angrily thinks he is a scoundrel.

When Chuck does appear, his pleasant demeanor has changed. He does not affably serve eggs. Now he is arrogant and contemptuous. Chuck makes suggestive comments to Lydia and Audrey. Doug gets threatening messages for “Charlie” and “Chaz” on his private phone. The house phones stop working. The family cars suddenly break down. Chuck offers to handle one of Doug’s angry ex-mistresses for an indefinite sum of money and demands Doug give him a blank check. Doug sees that Chuck has a gun and wonders if Chuck is in league with the extensive Finch family, the “interbred” island folk who run everything on the cleaning service to the local garage.

When Lydia goes swimming in the ocean and is caught by a powerful undertow, Chuck rescues her from drowning. Unfortunately, Chuck says that since he saved her life, Lydia is now his. He rapes Lydia while she is half-asleep. Thinking Chuck is a menace, Doug plots with Lydia to get Chuck’s gun. Growing more sympathetic toward Chuck, Bobby does not believe he raped Lydia until Chuck demeans him and taunts him about what a “sweet piece of ass” Lydia is. Audrey blames Lydia for the whole situation.



When Bobby and Doug fail to kill Chuck with a kitchen knife at dinner, Lydia clubs him with a wine bottle. The four discuss various ways to dispose of Chuck’s body, until they realize he is not dead. Chuck regains control over the family.

Lyman Finch, the drunken island police chief arrives, and the family thinks they are saved, but Lyman is Chuck’s cousin. The family hears gunfire and barricades themselves into a bedroom, plotting ways to kill Chuck. Lydia sneaks out of the window and encounters Chuck who tells her a carload of his friends is coming and she faces a “gang-bang.” Doug surprises Chuck, and he and Bobby tie him to a chair.

Doug performs a sham trial, declares Chuck guilty, and orders his execution. Chuck is hurt that the Graveses are not honoring their social contract of hospitality. Lydia has no love for Chuck but does not want to see him murdered. She thwarts Doug’s plan by dousing the lights when Bobby and Doug throw Chuck into the pool. Chuck escapes. The Graveses turn on Lydia for supporting Chuck. Chuck returns with cars of drunken relatives and Lyman. They demand Lydia. Lydia offers to go outside, and no one protests. Lydia calls out Lyman, kicks him in the groin, and takes his gun while the family watches. Lydia tells the crowd to leave, explaining that she saved Chuck’s life, so now they are even. Chuck jumps at Lydia to get the gun. Lydia fires. The rowdy crowd departs.



Lydia tiredly tells the Graveses that she fired between Chuck’s legs and did not hit him, just scared him. The next morning, Lydia finds Chuck in the kitchen, cheerfully making muffins. The Graveses tell Lydia they have taken Chuck back. Now, however, Chuck is an employee, not a guest. That was the problem before, Doug tells Lydia, “the basic arrangement was wrong.” Lydia accepts this on the condition that she is now a houseguest with all the privileges the position entails. The family agrees, and Chuck assures her, “We’ll stop at nothing to please you.”