Murder, motive, multiple clues...Ripley Under Ground has all the stuff of a mystery, but it is not a whodunit. It is rather a mystery turned inside out. The last person you want to see succeed in this suspenseful novel is the detective.The protagonist, Tom Ripley, is a very likable, very intellig...
In many ways I enjoyed this book more than "The Talented Mr Ripley". I guess it's because Highsmith is more accomplished as a writer but I suspect it's because it's set in France and Ripley spends a wonderfully privileged life gardening, eating, and reading. It's true escapism married with murder...
I've been dying to read a Ripley book since I saw the Matt Damon film in the movie theater, some years ago. I decided to read "Ripley's Game" because I knew there was a film adaptation, and for once John Malkovich seemed perfect for the part. I had read a profile on Highsmith -- about her insane ...
This is a stunning book, and (for a change) an equally stunning movie. Ripley is chilling in his attitudes to those around him, and yet one has a curious empathy with him. It's fascinating to read; the explosive moments of violence, mixed with quiet moments of introspection. It's as though he has...
[7/10] I can do a number of things – valeting, baby-sitting, accounting – I’ve got an unfortunate talent for figures. No matter how drunk I get, I can always tell when a waiter’s cheating me on a bill. I can forge a signature, fly a helicopter, handle dice, impersonate practically anybody, cook –...
Damn, is the word that comes to mind for this book. Not, DAMN! or Dayyum! but just … damn. I wanted to like Ripley Under Water so much more than I did. This series of books really has been a bumpy rollercoaster ride. Let me show you.The First Book (Talented Mr Ripley) – Impeccably paced, with hon...
As Michael Dirda assured me in his reviews of Patricia Highsmith books, I really enjoyed Edith's Diary and whipped through it quickly. Like watching a train wreck, I could not keep from reading about Edith’s devastating emotional and mental decline. She seems to operate well creatively (writing...
What genre is Deep Water? It teeters between thriller and crime, has Poe flavours and a Hitchcock air, but altogether it seems to be something quite unique. What is certain is that I will be reading more Patricia Highsmith. Deep Water has all the qualities of a good novel and great thriller, but ...
Nonostante il libro sia una lettura di certo godibile e scorrevole, è un po' spiacevole constatare che Ripley da cinque anni a questa parte (letteraria) s'è un po' ammosciato. Forse i soldi in tasca, la nuova moglie a letto e la bella villa con tanto di domestica fidata hanno un po' oscurato la s...
This is probably one of the most difficult books I've ever had to review. The book itself wasn't difficult, I don't mean that but it was, well, really different. The book is about an average American family, the Aldermans, who are changed for the worse when Richard, the father, believes a miracle...
Oh, no. The Boy Who Followed Ripley, judged based on its own merits, is a boring book that has almost no tension or excitement in it whatsoever. I feel blasphemous writing that, especially from just previously finishing the superb Ripley’s Game. This, in fact, is the first Highsmith novel I have ...
The last time I posted about Patricia Highsmith's The Two Faces of January, I was just over halfway through the book and loving it. I found it suspenseful and full of sexual tension and told you that I could hardly wait for the thriller to be adapted for the screen. I've now finished the novel an...
"E o que está certo e errado, supunha Ingham, é aquilo que as pessoas que nos rodeiam dizem que é.(...) as pessoas vivem segundo um código moral, no qual lhes tinha sido ensinado a acreditar desde pequenos. (...) Até que ponto se manterá, até que ponto se poderá actuar segundo ele, se não for o m...
Χμ... Είναι αλήθεια πως το υποτιμάς λίγο στην αρχή. Κάτι από την απλότητα της γραφής της συγγραφεως, κάτι από την ευθύτητα και την ειλικρίνειά συνωμοτουν στο να μην την παίρνεις και πολύ στα σοβαρά ή και ( ακόμη χειρότερα ) να ολίσθησεις στο ατόπημα να την θεωρήσεις προβλέψιμη. Χα! Μέγα λάθος!!! ...
I think my last Highsmith review accurately described my ambivalence toward her work: With Highsmith, I generally feel that I haven't been left with very much. People are brought together by random circumstances; their weaknesses are their downfall, or the downfall of others; innocence is corrupt...
Move over Ripley.If you read suspense and have not read Patricia Highsmith yet, first of all, shame on you and second, you have some weird and wonderful (and terrifying) books ahead. No one wrote like Highsmith did, and at the time she did. Her novels deliver in the classic thriller/mystery/suspe...
Right off the bat, I will admit that this is not one of my favorite Highsmith novels. It's a departure from her usual stuff, which is okay, but she really wasn't all that terrific at putting together an existential whodunit novel which, when all is said and done, describes what I think she was a...
I first encountered the work of Patricia Highsmith, in the shape of the novel The Glass Cell, when I was in my mid-teens. I got perhaps fifty pages into the book, loathing every moment of it. A few years later I tried one of her Ripley novels (Ripley Under Ground, I think); this time, though abho...
Jack Sutherland perde a carteira ao sair do táxi, mas a história só começa verdadeiramente quando Ralph Linderman lha devolve, uma hora mais tarde. Um acontecimento curioso e inesperado, na cidade de Nova Iorque.Jack Sutherland é ilustrador de profissão. Apesar de não ser famoso, tem bastante suc...
As I posted in a status update yesterday afternoon on goodreads (at page 209),"I just love Patricia Highsmith's work. I'm sitting here reading this today, and my tension level has been ratcheted up more than a few times throughout this story. I so want to peek at the end to make sure everything c...
About a year ago, I discovered the "Most Read Authors" feature on GoodReads. I discovered two things that bothered me: 1) James Patterson was in my top 10 most read authors & 2) the first female author appeared in the 25th spot (J.K. Rowling and only because there were 7 Harry Potter books). ...
"Talvez a identidade, como o inferno, estivesse somente nos outros."É muito difícil atribuir um género literário às obras da Patricia Highsmith, porque a autora vai além dos géneros conhecidos e estabelece as suas próprias regras. Não é mistério ou suspense. Não se foca no crime ou nas relações h...
Disomogenei, mancando un fil rouge come in "Piccoli racconti di misoginia", questi racconti sono imbibiti di inquietudine.Sottile come tela di ragno in "Un altro ponte da attraversare", macroscopica ne "La tartaruga", claustrofobica ne "Il guardalumache".L'accento, apparentemente posto sul plot d...
I really have a love/hate relationship with Patricia Highsmith. And I feel like it's mostly hate, but sometimes I am drawn to her work. Writing about something usually makes me like it better, and that's what happened for me with "The Mysterious Cemetery," which is a really cool short story. That...