Tuesday 22 December 2015

2 BY PATRICIA HIGHSMITH

Patricia Highsmith – who is she? Never read her!

She's only "The No. 1 Greatest Crime Writer" according to The Times  

Well I did try a Ripley book a few years ago and gave up on it – probably a case of wrong book at the wrong time. So she is definitely someone I need to get back to.

Highsmith, an American author wrote 5 books in the Tom Ripley series and 17 other novels – possibly the most famous of which is Strangers on a Train (1950)




















I have 4 of the Ripley’s and the Strangers on the Train book in the library with possibly more to be discovered as I catalogue my tubs of books.

She died in 1995.





THE GLASS CELL (1964)


At last back in print, one of Patricia Highsmith's most disturbing works. Rife with overtones of Dostoyevsky, The Glass Cell, first published forty years ago, combines a quintessential Highsmith mystery with a penetrating critique of the psychological devastation wrought by the prison system. Falsely convicted of fraud, the easy going but naïve Philip Carter is sentenced to six lonely, drug-ravaged years in prison. Upon his release, Carter is a more suspicious and violent man. For those around him, earning back his trust can mean the difference between life and death. The Glass Cell's bleak and compelling portrait of daily prison life-and the consequences for those who live it-is, sadly, as relevant today as it was when the book was first published in 1964.


THOSE WHO WALK AWAY (1967)

The honeymoon is over; the bride dead by her own hand. Ray Garrett, the grieving husband, convinces the police in Rome of his innocence, but not his father-in-law, Ed Coleman, who shoots him at point-blank range and leaves him for dead. Ray survives and follows Coleman to Venice, where the two fall into an eerie game of cat-and-mouse - Coleman obsessed with vengeance and Ray determined to save his reputation, and himself. Each is at once the hunter and the hunted in a tense duel that, as each manages to walk away, draws them nearer to death.

16 comments:

  1. I really think Highsmith did a great job of building psychological tension, Col, and of telling a good story. But that's my opinion, of course. I'll be keen to know if you like these better than the Ripley.

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    1. I've yet to find anyone who has read her and didn't enjoy her. I think I wasn't in the right mood for her when I tried previously - though I didn't make it to the end of the film either and I do usually enjoy Matt Damon.

      Maybe one of these as a standalone will be the ticket! That said I have STRANGERS ON A TRAIN lined up for January. Rich @ Past Offences has pencilled in 1950 for his monthly meme.

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  2. I'm a big Highsmith fan and Those Who Walk Away is a favourite. I think you have to be in the mood for her misanthropy, so perfect Xmas reading!

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    1. Looking forward to giving her a proper go this time around! TWWA kind of edges it slightly for me over TGC based on the blurbs!

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  3. Funny, I remember dumping The Talented Mr. Ripley and read Rich's review of it and decided to give it another go and was hooked this time. Highsmith won't be to everybody's taste as she writes about criminals and manages to humanize and sympathize with them in their messed up psychology.

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    1. Sounds similar to my first effort. I will try again with it later, but I'll go with STRANGERS ON A TRAIN before that.

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    2. Smart choice, I look forward to your thoughts.

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    3. Cheers - first or second book up in January!

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  4. Never read her either, Col. But I do intend to change that in 2016.

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    1. Me too mate, which by my reckoning has me signed up to read about 400 books by 300 different authors next year!

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  5. Those two books do sound disturbing, Col. I definitely want to try the Ripley books and will follow with some others.

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    1. They do seem unsettling. I'm determined to get a couple of hers under my belt, before retrying the Ripley series. I hope I like them without becoming hooked, because I'll only want to buy up everything she ever wrote otherwise!

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  6. For some reason I read a lot of her books before deciding I REALLY didn't like them and should stop. I re-read Stranger on a Train to do a guest post for Rich a while back, and DID enjoy that somewhat. But in the end I find her too dark and depressing. Apparently the Queen felt the same about her - not often she and I share an opinion, I feel, but there you go. Republican and Monarch in agreement on something!

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    1. She's up in January, so I'll see how I go. Does the Queen like the Mitfords?

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