Sliver door Ira Levin

Experience Report

Where the story is about
Sliver is an exciting book about Kay Norris, who moves to an apppartment building where conspicious many people have died. She gets a relationship with Pete Henderson and she experiences his other love, watching. He has placed many cameras in all the appartments and Kay starts to enjoy watching too. When she finds out that the people who have died all found out about the cameras, Pete tries to kill him too, but her cat Felice scratches into the face of Pete and made him never be able to watch again. I have chosen this book, because I was a little disapointed after seeing the movie. My brother read the book too, and he said the book was much better than the movie, and it certainly was. From Ira Levin I have read before Rosemary's Baby and A kiss before dying and I am reading now The boys from Brazil. I just love his style of wring and his subjects.

Characters
The main character is Kay Norris. She is an attractive, smart, middle-aged woman who works as an editor and she loves to read. She is very sincere and curioius.

Pete Henderson is de secret owner of the building, who designs software. In the first part of the book the reader gets very little to know about him. Important is his love for watching. He has installed different cameras in all the appartments, which he can few in a tv-room with huge screens. He follows the life of people as a soap. In the next parts of the book the reader gets to know his history. His mother, a very known actress was pushed of the stairs and killed by his father, a famous director, while Pete was watching at the top of the stairs. He has a relation with Kay, inspite of the age difference.

Sam Yale is a retired director, who thinks he is living in the appartment supported by some kind of fund. In reality, he is funded by Pete Henderson. The reason that Thea, Pete's mother left her husband was that she was going to Sam, her lover. That's why Pete secretively blamed Sam of the dead of his mother and he had taken him into his appartment building to kill him. Sam Yale is old, but very sporty. He likes jogging with Kay.
Felice is Kay's cat, who plays an important role in the final of the book. Kay adores her. Just like Kay I am very curious too, and I would have tried to find out why all these people had died in the building too.

Time
The story takes place in the second half of the 20th century. That's important for the story, because the whole story is build on what happened in the early time of the movies and television. If Thea, her husband and Sam weren't had been important in the early days of the television, They would probably have never met, Thea wouldn't have been killed and Pete would not have become a psycho. Sliver is fiction, so I cannot say I have learned something about it, next to I already knew about that time.

Place
The story takes place in an appartment building in New York. I know it's a huge, pretty city with many inhabitants. Violence and criminality isn't rare in New York, allthough it is the center of the United States' economy. That the story takes place in New York isn't very important for the story, just that there are many appartment buildings there, the story would not have been able to take in Hoorn… All people in the appartment building are socialy different. Pete only wanted it that way. In that way the watching would be more interesting. It is winter and it's cold in New York, but that isn't very important for the story.

Perspective
The perspective is changing all the time in the story, what's making it exciting. Most of the time it is told through the eyes of the writer, but than it suddanly changes into the eyes of Pete, the watcher. From the beginning it's exciting when the story changes from perspective. When the reader knows the story is suddenly told through the eyes of the watcher, you will read faster (at least I did), because the reader knows something is going to happen, he is planning something, but you don't know yet what.

What the writer wants to tell with the story
The book is pure fiction, I don't think the writer really wants to bring a message to the reader. The only message I can think of he wants to give to his readers is: Watch out or being watched.

Would I like to read a book from the same writer
As I already told, I am reading The boys from Brazil now. After that I perhaps want to read The Stepford Wives and This Perfect Day, because than I have read all of his (famous) books.
I would not like to read a book again about the same subject, it could only be a weak tincture of Sliver.

Experience Report

Describe the reason/reasons for Pete Hendersons' behaviour during the story. Are these beyond your magination or can you understand his actions? Explain.

Motivation
With my theme I want to discover why murders are what they are. With this assignment I hope to know Pete's intentions and reasons for killing people. I have read several books and have seen many, many movies about "ordinary" killers, but the murderer in Sliver is different from those, and I am intent to find out why.

Watching joins the family Hendersons. Pete's mother, Thea Marshall was a famous actress and his father was a famous director. Pete's disturbness finds its origin in his youth. Pete hardly ever saw his parents, only on TV. When Pete's parents were having an argument, because Thea wants to move to her lover, Sam Yale in California, Pete's father pushes her off the stairs and she dies. Pete saw the whole thing happen. When his father dies too, he has just become an adult and he inherits a fortune. He buys an appartment building in New York and it's worth him millions of dollars to know everything, really everything of the people in the appartment building. He wires the phones and places several cameras in every appartment of the building. In one big TV room he follows onto many and some huge screens the daily life of the people in the building, kind like a soap.

I can't have any respect for these actions of Pete Henderson. The only excuse I can think of were his traumatic experiences in his youth, as written above. But ofcourse his actions are against all laws. Allthough this was just the beginning.

Pete found out that Sam Yale, Thea's lover, was living in New York and via a (fake) fund for retired directors (Sam was one) he made him live in his own appartment building. Pete blamed Sam for the dead of his mother and he was planned to kill him.

Pete father ordered to kill Sam Yale after his wife died. I can imagine Pete blamed Sam for his mother's dead too, if Sam wouldn't have been her lover, his mother would not have been died. Ofcourse, that's nonsense, because it is his father who killed her and it was her mother fault too of having a second lover. I think the idea of bringing someone you want to kill to your own appartment building , is not stupid I think. In that way Pete knows every step Sam makes and, with his fund, he can make sure he stays into his building, waiting for a good moment to kill him.

From that time Pete became more sloppy. The first man Pete killed was Billy Webber, who found out about the tapped phonelines. He was a dealer in cocaine and he started to blackmail Pete for more and more money. The only thing Pete could do was kill him and make looking it as an accident.
After that there was Rafel, the porter. He wanted to know what happened in room 13B, Pete's TV room. He once opened the door when Pete wasn't there and he enjoyed looking. He kept looking, he got addicted too and Pete killed him.
Next was Naomi Singer. She was his girl-friend and because of some mistakes of Pete she knew too about his 'other love'. She wanted too go to the cops, and Pete pushed her out of the window.
After Naomi it was Huber Sheer's turn. He found out about the installation too and Pete drowned him in his own badroom.

All off these murders were necissety for Pete's life. If he wouldn't have killed them, he would have lost all the control over his life. He thought. I don't agree with that. Nobody knew he was the owner of the building, just one firm. If it was just about his life, he would have been able to just fly to another part of the world to build up a new life, he still was very rich. I think he just didn't want to give up his toy his love, his everything. The screens.

Next victim should have been Kay Norris. She found out about the toy too, but she got real fascinated. She wanted to watch more and more, and she wanted Pete to get rid of it. A big difference in other occasions for Pete was that he really loved her, he even showed the installation to Kay. But Kay got curious and she found out Pete was a murder and became a prisonor in her own appartment. Pete invited Sam to come to 'a party' at Kay's appartement, so he could push Kay out of the windows and blame Sam for it. At the moment Kay had almost felt out of the window, Felice scratched into Pete's face and took out his eyeballs. Kay and Sam both survived.

The only error Pete made with Kay was her letting be able to watch were he hide his recorded tapes, wherefrom she could she that Pete drowned Hubert Sheer. His next step was quite brilljant, weren't there Felice. It's a perfect end, the watcher could not see anymore and he didn't die. That's more cruel for him.

Evaluation
From this assignment I have learned to understand the story better. I forget much when I read. Next to that I have learned that the two reasons Pete Henderson had to murder people were Revenge and Protection. Revenge on Sam Yale for the dead of his mother, Thea Marshall and protection of his toy, his life, the soap. I would like to do an assignment like this again, to find out more motives of murderers.