Any Patricia Highsmith fans?

[BurtWorm]

I just finished A Dog's Ransom , not one of her most famous books, but a pretty damn good one. Interestingly, the back cover copy that drew me in turned out to be one of the least accurate bits of cover copy I've read in a long time, making me think it was written by an intern who didn't read the book. It purported to be about a "high-minded" psycho who kidnaps a bourgeois couple's poodle, and how this incident spins their middle class existence out of control. Well the kidnapper is not at all what I would call high-minded, though another character in the book, not even alluded to on the cover, is. And the bourgeois couple, who seem so central in the opening chapters of the book, recede into the background as an idealist rookie on the police force takes it on himself to solve the crime.

What an amazing book! It really sneaks up on you. I was actually bored by the dog kidnapping, but the story keeps taking left turns, and more left turns, and more, and more, and before you know it, you're hooked, wondering what the hell is going to happen to these people. Her voice is so steady and calm. She keeps you focused on the choices the characters make, the actions they decide to take and how the consequences of those actions take unexpected turns.

It's an apparent light read that gets you thinking more than you bargained for. Well worth having a look at, but ignore the back cover copy.

[Cha]

1. Yes! I've really liked some of "Patricia Highsmith's" books

in my past! "Strangers on a Train" & "The Talented Mr Ripley"

Thanks for the review of "A Dog's Ransom". I'll have to check it out if I can ever stop with the politics.

[BurtWorm]

2. You'll like it, zidzi

It takes place on the Upper West Side (my 'hood) and the Village. In the 1970s, just before everything went all to hell.

[RainDog]

3. there's a new biography about her, too.

Her work is really powerful. Her writing is deceptive, in a way, because it can seem so flat and affectless...but this is how she achieves such amazing characters...the ho-hum of amorality.

She's like a bookend to Jim Thompson, another Texan who was also writing at the same time, but about a totally different milieu.

but they both have that flat Texas landscape in their language.

[BurtWorm]

4. Pop 1280 is one of my favorite books

Prezackly.

[mitchum]

7. That's a very interesting comparison of the two...

they do share that

[NJCher]

5. this might interest you

Terry Gross did an interview with her former partner/lover but I forgot her name. Also a suspense writer. Mary Jane something or other. Maybe you can locate the interview by entering "Patricia Highsmith" at Terry Gross's Web site.



Cher

[BurtWorm]

13. Thanks, Cher!

Sounds interesting.

[Gingersnap]

6. yeah

I have read a lot of her books but not the one you mention. A trip to the library is due. A friend turned me on to her writing a couple of years ago when I was looking to read more American women's writing (I know she moved to Europe). There's no one like her. I'll check the other poster's rec of the Texan writer. Anyone else got recommendations for intelligent "crime" or "mystery" novels?

[mitchum]

8. Charles Willeford (started off as a contemporary of Thompson in the 50s...

and continued to put out top-quality work until his death in the 80s)
David Goodis
James Ellroy (the best today- as he will tell you!)

[Gingersnap]

9. thanks for the recommendations

I'm at a point right now of having read almost all of the works of all my favorite authors and discovering new ones is hard!

There are so many dull or completely trite books out there. I'm spoiled, in addition to Highsmith I like John Hawkes, Edmund White, Mary Lee Settle, Dostoevsky (sp?, don't have it handy), Marguerite Duras etc.

[amazona]

12. Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine

She has many good titles, although you would likely prefer to avoid the "Wexford" (series) books in favor of the many excellent stand alone titles.

Grasshopper by Barbara Vine might be a good one to start with.

[BurtWorm]

15. I'm not a big crime fiction reader

or any kind of fiction reader anymore, but I could definitely see getting hooked on Highsmith. She reminds me of a nastier American Iris Murdoch, whose philosophical novels I used to devour. You might like Murdoch, especially "A Fairly Honourable Defeat," "A Severed Head" and "The Sea, The Sea." They're not really crime stories; they're more like twisted love stories. Very twisted.

[RainDog]

10. I assume you've read Chandler

If not, you should absolutely read him.

One of my favorite Jim Thompson novels is _A Swell-Looking Babe._

You can't really categorize Jonathan Lethem as a "crime" writer at all, but if you haven't read _Motherless Brooklyn_ that's another wonderful writer/story.

I haven't read his work, but I got a copy of Dennis LaHane's _Mystic River_ and the opening paragraphs are good... :)
It's in mass market paperback so it's a good one to carry around for those times when you're wishing you had something to read.

He has a new book out called _Shutter Island_, too.

Have you ever read Walter Mosley? He has a character called Easy Rawlins, writes about L.A. after WW II. I recommend him.

[amazona]

11. "Hamsters vs. Websters"

excellent shorter story of hers

[Aristus]

14. I've read all the 'Ripley' books. They were terrific.

I enjoyed the film "The Talented Mr. Ripley" and wish they would make films of the rest. I know they made an art-house film of "Ripley's Game" with John Malkovich as Ripley, but it just wouldn't be the same. You expect weird things of a character played by Malkovich, but not quite so of a character played by Matt Damon.

[BurtWorm]

16. Did you ever see the 1960's French version of that: "Purple Noon"

or "Plein Soleil" (which I would have translated as "Broad Daylight"), with a young Matt Damon-like Alain Delon as Ripley. I saw that on a big screen a few weeks ago. That's what got me going on this Highsmith kick.

[Aristus]

17. Naw, never did. But it would be interesting to take a look at it.

It makes sense that someone would have tried to film a Ripley story before just acouple of years ago. But I had never heard of any. Cool.

I think our societal frame of reference has changed so much since the novels were first published. What with Ted Bundy and all, we can expect that a handsome, intelligent and personable man could be a monster inside, in a way that people of Highsmith's day could not. Still, the novels did have some impact on me.

[BurtWorm]

18. Wim Wender's "The American Friend"

is another adaptation. Dennis Hopper and Bruno Ganz are in it. I've never seen it but have always wanted to.

[Aristus]

19. Hmm. Dennis Hopper and Bruno Ganz. Which one played Ripley?

They both have reps for playing crazies.