Synopses & Reviews
In a chilling literary hall of mirrors, Patricia Highsmith introduces Tom Ripley. Like a hero in a latter-day Henry James novel, is sent to Italy with a commission to coax a prodigal young American back to his wealthy father. But Ripley finds himself very fond of Dickie Greenleaf. He wants to be like him--exactly like him. Suave, agreeable, and utterly amoral, Ripley stops at nothing--certainly not only one murder--to accomplish his goal. Turning the mystery form inside out, Highsmith shows the terrifying abilities afforded to a man unhindered by the concept of evil.
Review:
"Patricia Highsmith's novels are peerlessly disturbing...bad dreams that keep us thrashing for the rest of the night." The New Yorker
Review:
"
The Talented Mr. Ripley not only demonstrates Highsmith's gift for using the genre conventions of the mystery novel to explore the existential ambiguities of identity, but it also attests to her keen gift for psychological insight. By chronicling the ordinary details of Ripley's life and the logical workings of his mind, she forces us to re-evaluate the lines between reason and madness, normal and abnormal, while goading us into sharing her treacherous hero's point of view."
The New York Times Book Review Review:
"For eliciting the menace that lurks in familiar surroundings, there's no one like Patricia Highsmith." Time Magazine
Review:
"[Highsmith] has created a world of her own — a world claustrophobic and irrational which we enter with a sense of personal danger." Graham Greene
Review:
"One of our greatest modernist writers." Gore Vidal
About the Author
Patricia Highsmith (1921-1995) published five Ripley novels between 1955 and 1991. Her novels include Strangers on a Train and The Price of Salt. She was born in Ft. Worth, Texas, in 1921. Not until after her death in 1995 did she begin to win considerable literary recognition in her native country. The first publication of one of her short stories in The New Yorker occurred posthumously in 2002.
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