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first highsmith for you?

Yes. Amazing. I told a friend it was James + Nabokov + Cain all twisted together.

Plus Camus plus... : ) _Ripley's Game_ might be my fave...

I can turn
And swim away
Or I can raise up my oar
Staring at a boat
Staring far ashore
Whichever I chose
It amounts to the same
Absolutely nothing

I'm alive
I'm dead
I'm the stranger
Killing my Signor
a

I am assuming this book is better than its movie adaptation which I had ended up liking much!

Seemita wrote: "I am assuming this book is better than its movie adaptation which I had ended up liking much!"

The books (all four of the Riplad) are amazing. I did like the movie too, but the nuance of the books is hard to replicate.

@Seemita, you might also check out the earlier adaptation, Plein soleil (1960), with that paragon of Gallic manhood, Alain Delon, as Ripley...

Keith wrote: "@Seemita, you might also check out the earlier adaptation, Plein soleil (1960), with that paragon of Gallic manhood, Alain Delon, as Ripley..."

Keith, I'm still trying to recover from rabbit holes you sent me down 20 years ago.

Great review. This was perhaps the scariest book I've ever read. It is indeed classic literature!

This is one of those books which should be used as evidence to highlight the case that some of the best literature of the 20th Century came out of genre fiction.

I had a similar reaction last year when I got around to checking out some Simenon... you may also want to take a look.

Thanks. Will do.

Her patience resulted in bald head James Taylor.

Just finished it for the 2nd time. It's a crime masterpiece.

Greg wrote: "Just finished it for the 2nd time. It's a crime masterpiece."

I love EVERYTHING about Patricia Highsmith. She is the perfect amount of twisted with a dark, cold control that throws it all into another zone completely.

Love the whole series. Deliciously twisted!

Ilana wrote: "Love the whole series. Deliciously twisted!"

Yeah, I need to read more of her stuff. I've dabbled at the Highsmith non-Riplaid, but need to gorge instead. Perhaps in 2019.

Darwin8u wrote: "Greg wrote: "Just finished it for the 2nd time. It's a crime masterpiece."

I love EVERYTHING about Patricia Highsmith. She is the perfect amount of twisted with a dark, cold control that throws it..."

Darwin8u (interesting name, btw), I've read ten books by Highsmith and will read everything I can find by her eventually, from "strangers on a train" to "small g". She's one of a kind: it's easy to classify her in the "crime/mystery" genre, but she isn't a genre writer in my opinion. "Talented Ripley" is really about a man who wants to be someone else and the theme of the book is the destruction of Tom Ripley. And some of her short story work is also brilliant. And she knew full well, by the 1950s, that many people fall somehere along the line of a sexual spectrum that at the time very few people imagined, much less wrote about. She's not the tortured gay (I hate labels, though) writer represented by Cornell woolrich who hit his pulp-horror stride in the 1940s as she lightens up a bit but her stories are no less disturbing: no one is who you think they are.

Manny wrote: "This is one of those books which should be used as evidence to highlight the case that some of the best literature of the 20th Century came out of genre fiction.

I had a similar reaction last year..."

Ilana wrote: "Love the whole series. Deliciously twisted!"


Hi Manny, good to run into you here. Just for fun, I dedicated this year to mid-century N. American crime and after 50 authors I found myself down, very deep, into a rabbit hole of astonishing work. Cornell Woolrich, Kenneth Fearing, Jim Thompson, David Goodis, Chester Himes, Lou Cameron and many more. I'm now reading a 2nd work by as many of these 50 authors as I can find. Natch, I've also included the big names like Hammett, Chandler, Ross MacDonald, ES Gardner, Rex Stout, James Cain. I probably could have added another 25 authors easily. Next, I'll move on to non-English language crime authors like Simenon, Genelin (Slovakia), Diurrenmatt (Swiss), Kerr (Berlin) and many more. Agreed, as you say, some of the best (perhaps the most consistent in quality) of American fiction just might be mid-20th century crime.

Keith wrote: "Plus Camus plus... : ) _Ripley's Game_ might be my fave..."

Hi Keith, I've read the 2nd, 'Ripley Underground", have the 3rd here at home, "Game". Highsmith, to me, is always very good to great.

I didn't expect to be blown away by this book, but I was. Amazing ability to create a reprehensible character whom you can't take your eyes off of.

writegeist wrote: "I didn't expect to be blown away by this book, but I was. Amazing ability to create a reprehensible character whom you can't take your eyes off of."

writegeist, agreed. I've never read a better book about a person trying to shed their on persona and take on someone else's. The only thing that comes close is Anne Rice's "Tale of the Body Thief", in which a vampire and a human switch bodies. Highsmith really isn't a crime genre writer, but simply a great writer, one of America's best imo, far more readable, than, say, Faulkner or Hemingway, more entertaining. But just as brilliant.

Greg wrote: "writegeist wrote: "I didn't expect to be blown away by this book, but I was. Amazing ability to create a reprehensible character whom you can't take your eyes off of."

writegeist, agreed. I've nev..."

writegeist wrote: "I didn't expect to be blown away by this book, but I was. Amazing ability to create a reprehensible character whom you can't take your eyes off of."

I love her. HIghsmith is amazing. One of those slow burn writers that still doesn't QUITE get the attention she deserves. I've got a bunch of her non-Ripley novels on my bedside waiting for my attention.

Nailed it. The quote you’ve chosen encapsulates my feelings about this book near-perfectly.