El temblor de la falsificación

by Patricia Highsmith

Howard Ingham llega a Tunicia con la intención de preparar el guión de una película. Desconectado de su ambiente habitual, inmerso en un medio extraño, en una cultura regida por una escala de valores totalmente ajena, Ingham sufre una crisis de identidad.

Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Crime, Africa, Thriller, American, Novels

346 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1969

About the author

Patricia Highsmith was an American novelist who is known mainly for her psychological crime thrillers which have led to more than two dozen film adaptations over the years.

She lived with her grandmother, mother and later step-father (her mother divorced her natural father six months before 'Patsy' was born and married Stanley Highsmith) in Fort Worth before moving with her parents to New York in 1927 but returned to live with her grandmother for a year in 1933. Returning to her parents in New York, she attended public schools in New York City and later graduated from Barnard College in 1942.

Shortly after graduation her short story 'The Heroine' was published in the Harper's Bazaar magazine and it was selected as one of the 22 best stories that appeared in American magazines in 1945 and it won the O Henry award for short stories in 1946. She continued to write short stories, many of them comic book stories, and regularly earned herself a weekly $55 pay-check. During this period of her life she lived variously in New York and Mexico.

Her first suspense novel 'Strangers on a Train' published in 1950 was an immediate success with public and critics alike. The novel has been adapted for the screen three times, most notably by Alfred Hitchcock in 1951.

In 1955 her anti-hero Tom Ripley appeared in the splendid 'The Talented Mr Ripley', a book that was awarded the Grand Prix de Litterature Policiere as the best foreign mystery novel translated into French in 1957. This book, too, has been the subject of a number of film versions. Ripley appeared again in 'Ripley Under Ground' in 1970, in 'Ripley's Game' in 1974, 'The boy who Followed Ripley' in 1980 and in 'Ripley Under Water' in 1991.

Along with her acclaimed series about Ripley, she wrote 22 novels and eight short story collections plus many other short stories, often macabre, satirical or tinged with black humour. She also wrote one novel, non-mystery, under the name Claire Morgan , plus a work of non-fiction 'Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction' and a co-written book of children's verse, 'Miranda the Panda Is on the Veranda'.

She latterly lived in England and France and was more popular in England than in her native United States. Her novel 'Deep Water', 1957, was called by the Sunday Times one of the "most brilliant analyses of psychosis in America" and Julian Symons once wrote of her "Miss Highsmith is the writer who fuses character and plot most successfully ... the most important crime novelist at present in practice." In addition, Michael Dirda observed "Europeans honoured her as a psychological novelist, part of an existentialist tradition represented by her own favorite writers, in particular Dostoevsky, Conrad, Kafka, Gide, and Camus."

She died of leukemia in Locarno, Switzerland on 4 February 1995 and her last novel, 'Small g: a Summer Idyll', was published posthumously a month later.

Gerry Wolstenholme
July 2010

Reviews

[BlackOxford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Our Way of Life

The affluent feeling of Mediterranean sexual tension is Highsmith’s trademark. Who will end up with whom is a sort of background radiation in her books. Her characters are always 1950’s Americans but they could easily be mistaken for the 1930’s English of Agatha Christie - with more libido and less confidence. The Tremor of Forgery is no exception.

In this story, though, she plays an interesting dialectic between two Americans in Tunisia - one a coastal liberal, the other a right-winger from the heartland. The first, Ingham, lives his smug, petty life as if the rest of the world would eventually catch up to the standard set by America, and meanwhile could be enjoyably exploited. The latter, Adams, is afraid the world just might catch up to America, and in the process inflict great harm on “our way of life.”

The context of the action is the Six Day War between Israel and Egypt, which also happens to be the point of highest intensity of the American War in VietNam. Highsmith uses this context to provoke a judgment on her characters. The ‘conservative’ Adams is, of course, in favour of the country’s ever increasing engagement in VietNam and predicts inevitable victory in light of vastly superior technology. The Arab-Israeli conflict he is less sanguine about, primarily because he doesn’t like Semites - Arabs or Jews. His theory of the world is that America is being persecuted and must defend itself from these and other inferiors.

But Highsmith’s real target is the liberal Ingham who has no theory of the world whatsoever, except that he’s doing fine. His concerns are trivial, as are his emotional attachments. He is repulsed by Adams’s views but doesn’t contradict him for reasons of politesse. He’s writing a novel (with the same title as Highsmith’s) in which the main character is a rationalised version of himself, a conman who feels no guilt about his massive embezzlement. He has no tremor whatsoever as he forges cheques from his employer. His self-delusion is complete.

By the time The Tremor of Forgery was published in 1969, Highsmith’s references to casual sex and homosexuality had become passé. American society had moved on from its overwhelming Puritanism of the 1950’s. Nevertheless she could read that society very well. What she saw then is the birth of what we have now grown to maturity in American politics - a religiously grounded, xenophobic, violent, faction describing themselves as anti-communist; and a self-absorbed, commercially successful, apparently sophisticated and worldly faction with no social conscience whatsoever. I think she foresaw the development clearly.

[Glenn Russell]

Patricia Highsmith's The Tremor of Forgery serves as an indictment of modern society every bit as penetrating as Greene's The Quiet American and Camus' The Stranger. I see there is a study guide for the novel, and for good reason: the story, the four main characters, and the political and cultural elements are all worthy of in-depth analysis.

However, for the purposes of my review, I'll focus on the one character I found to be among the most detestable I've encountered: Francis J. Adams.

We first meet Adams, a short, balding, paunchy, fifty-something American from Connecticut, when he approaches the beach chair of the main character, a writer by the name of Howard Ingham. Adams asks Ingham in a loud, brassy voice if he's an American. When Ingham says, "Yes," he proudly proclaims, in turn, "My name's Adams. Francis J. Adams." Following some chitchat, Adams invites Ingham to stop by his bungalow sometime for a drink.

The prime location for the novel is a hotel with bungalows along the coast of Tunisia. With a few quick strokes, Patricia Highsmith provides us with key information: Adams is loud, brash, and intrusive, a man with a grandiose sense of superiority because, after all, he's an American.

When Ingham accepts Adam's offer to join him in his bungalow, he takes a look around – among the contents: a much used writing table with stacks of papers, on open dictionary, a Reader's Digest, and a Bible. Adams walks out of his kitchen holding a scotch and soda, bouncing on his toes. Ingham observes, “Adams had high arches, high insteps and rather small feet. There was something disgusting about Adams' feet, and having looked at them once, Ingham did not look again.”

Adams' feet are a telling detail, such a revealer of character (or, more to the point, lack of character). In traditional societies, one's feet serve as grounding to the earth, a sense of solidity, just the opposite of bouncing on one's toes while walking. Likewise, in the world of dance and physical theater – to walk, to move, it is important to be grounded in order to establish balance and equilibrium, and one's feet serve as the all-important anchor. I speak from direct experience in these arts.

The novel takes place in 1967, the year of the Arab-Israeli Six-Day War. Since Adams is in his fifties, most of his adult life has been spent in the 1930s to the 1950s, a period when it was a common practice for men and women to frequently drink liquor. In nearly every scene, like the one cited here, Adams is drinking and pushing booze on Ingham and others. Living alone, isolated in a foreign land, I think it's safe to infer that Adams is an alcoholic.

Adams is described as having “a squirrel-like smile.” Indeed, there is an undeniable sense of restlessness and nervousness about this loutish man, including his frequent, nervous way of laughing, ha-ha. When Ingham asks Adams what he does to fill his time, Adams replies, “I consider myself an unofficial ambassador for America. I spread goodwill – and the American way of life. Our way of life.” This is a very revealing statement – Adams assumes anyone who is a true blue American will share his thinking and values. This “our way of life” is so fundamental to Adams that Ingham thinks of him as OWL.

Deeper into the conversation, when Adams, aka OWL, discovers that Ingham is a novelist, he states, “I don't read much fiction. Now and then, something that's condensed. Like in the Reader's Digest, you know.” This admission is entirely predictable. Fiction requires a reader to shift perspectives, to see the world the way the characters (and author) see the world. For the likes of Adams, with his small, self-centered vision of himself and “our way of life,” such a shift is nearly impossible. The Reader's Digest. Ha! I can imagine Patricia Highsmith cringing when she typed out this scene.

Several chapters on, Ingham and Adams are dining out at a restaurant. Adams launches into a monologue on the virtues of democracy and Christian morals for everyone, which has a tincture of irony since he's been living among Arabs in Tunisia for the past year. Adams drones on, “You can see it in their faces, the men who have turned their back on God....Drug addicts, alcoholics, homosexuals, criminals – and even the ordinary man in the street, if he's forgotten the Right Way – they're all wretched. But they can be shown the Right Way . . .” Of course, the tacit statement is Adams knows the right way, the American way, the Christian way, and he's among the chosen ones to correct anyone who dares hold views and opinions contrary to his own. And note how Adams includes alcoholics in his list. Again, predictable – Adams is obviously in a state of denial.

I need not continue, as I think you can surmise where Adams stands on everything touching on politics and religion, on communism and the Vietnam War, and on Ingham's moral responsibility when he's eventually involved in a crime. I read Patricia Highsmith's modern classic, reflecting on Adams and his blessed “our way of life,” with an eye to how the wise author accurately predicted the current cultural crisis we face in the United States.


American author Patricia Highsmith, 1921- 1995

[Candi · Rating 3 out of 5]

“His book was about a man with a double life, a man unaware of the amorality of the way he lived, and therefore he was mentally deranged, or unbalanced, to say the least.”

The protagonist of this story, Howard Ingham, has gone to Tunisia in 1967 to work on a film script. While waiting for the filmmaker who has hired him to arrive, he works on his own novel about a man leading a double life – a novel he later considers titling The Tremor of Forgery. He loses contact with a girlfriend he has left behind in New York. He begins spending time with two different men, one rather grudgingly and the other with a feeling of affection. Under the heat of the Tunisian sun and with the Six-Day War in the Middle East and the Vietnam War in the Far East in the background, Ingham undergoes a test of morality. Patricia Highsmith has cleverly given her own book the same title as the one Ingham is crafting. To what extent are our own morals affected by the culture and the people surrounding us?

“It seemed to be OWL’s point that one carried around a set of morals one had been brought up to believe in. But was it true? To what extent did they remain, to what extent could one act on them, if they were not the morals of the people by whom one was surrounded?”

Ingham becomes embroiled in the intrigue of his surroundings and finds himself smack in the middle of a mysterious disappearance of a local Arab man. The reader can see the parallels between the character Ingham has developed for his novel and the character of Ingham himself. I thought that between the setting, the mystery and the question of morals, this would be the sort of book I would happily gulp down. Not that I didn’t like it – I found it adequately entertaining. Unfortunately, I didn’t find it as complex as I would have liked. After having read and greatly admired Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley, I expected a similar experience. One where I might become so wrapped up in a character that I would question my own set of values! That didn’t happen here at all. I kept Ingham at arm’s length and didn’t find it all that impactful. I doubt I’ll remember Ingham a year from now. Tom Ripley, on the other hand, hasn’t left my mind for very long at all in nearly a decade. What I’ll remember most about The Tremor of Forgery is the heat of the Tunisian sun.

“This was the true sun, the ancient fire that seemed to reduce one’s lifespan to a second and one’s personal problems to a minuscule absurdity.”

[Anastasia Fitzgerald-Beaumont · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Tremor of Forgery is the first novel by Patricia Highsmith that I have ever read. It was this year’s main ‘holiday book’, taken with me to Tunisia for no better reason than it is set in Tunisia. I chose it, in other words, for precisely the same reason that I took Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile to Egypt last year.

Setting out on a review here is beset with uncertainty, a little like going on safari without a guide, a map or a compass. I simply have no landmarks, no basis for comparison. I certainly know of Highsmith’s work, her reputation as a writer of thrillers and crime stories, through film adaptations of novels like Strangers on a Train and The Talented Mr Ripley, but as commendable as these may be they are little better than palimpsests.

The Tremor of Forgery is a simple, subtle and altogether deceptive piece of work, a trap for the unwary, for those beguiled by surfaces. As I read it the impressions crowded in. I had no Highsmith to compare with Highsmith. What I had instead was Albert Camus’ The Stranger and Paul Bowles' Let it Come Down, novels that also happen to be set in North Africa, the latter in Morocco and the former in Algeria, Tunisia’s neighbours in the Maghreb. But there is more than mere geography here. All of these books deal with displacement, alienation and moral ambiguity; all, if you like, are about Strangers on a Plain!

I simply loved The Tremor of Forgery, loved the author’s limpid prose style, loved the way she handled her themes, loved the psychological insight. This is no mere writer of crime fiction; this is an author on a far higher plain than poor old, dear old Agatha Christie.

Her sense of place and time is perfect. She seems to understand Tunisia, though I have no idea if she has ever been there. She certainly understands the experience of living in an alien culture, the challenges this presents to the moral lumber and sense of certainty that the outsider brings along with the luggage.

The main outsider here, the narrator, is Howard Ingham, an American writer who comes to Tunisia to work on a screenplay. His story unravels against the background of the Six Day War between the Arabs and Israelis. Though this has no direct impact on Ingham, it creates an underlying mood of anti-Western hostility that may or may not have had an impact on Anders Jensen, a Danish artist and homosexual that Ingham befriends.

Incidentally, as a small aside here, Highsmith, in Ingham’s correspondence, preserves the rather quaint antique dating convention whereby the last two numbers of the year are substituted with a dash. So we have June 8, 19 – Hey, but we already know this is 1967!

The Tremor of Forgery creates a tremulous mood right from the outset. Ingham is alone in a strange land. There is no word from home, either from John Castlewood, the film director who is supposed to be joining him in Tunisia, or from Ina, his girlfriend and possible future wife, in New York. Increasingly apprehensive, he decides to work on a new novel, which concerns a morally ambiguous banker. The ambiguity here is heightened by the fact that Ingham selects The Tremor of Forgery as a working title, only to discard it!

As time passes – still no word from the States despite increasingly desperate pleas – he makes friends with two wholly contrasting fellow expats – Jensen, whom I have already mentioned, and Francis Adams, another American. Jensen hates the Arabs, though paradoxically he has gone native, living in a seedy Arab neighbourhood in the seaside town of Hammamet. More than that, in going native he has taken on the moral ambiguity of his surroundings, where life and death are matters of indifference.

Adams is a contrast in every way. A rather absurd character, he is a Rock of Gibraltar so far as Western and American standards of morality are concerned. Pompous and possibly delusional, he broadcasts a weekly talk show to the Soviet Union, a secret he confides to his new friend. The content is so laughably self-righteous that Ingham accords him the nickname of OWL – Our Way of Life.

Bit by bit Ingham’s own standards are corrupted, a reflection in real life of the action in his evolving novel, the elliptical story within the story. He grows closer to Jensen, his most important confidante, more important than the distant Ina, who remains distant even when she eventually appears on the scene.

The heart of the mystery is a death, or is not a death – we simply never know! Ingham absorbs a lot of Jensen’s distrust of the Arabs, one Arab in particular, a notorious thief. This Arab may, or may not, have attempted to break into Ingham’s hotel bungalow in the dark. In guarding against the intruder Ingham reaches for the only weapon to hand, his typewriter, which he throws, hitting his target, possibly killing him, or possibly not killing him. All we know, all Ingham ever knows, is that after a scream, a fall and a scuffle in the dark, there is nobody and no body. The Arab in question simply disappears, no questions asked.

This is the core of this clever little book, as intense as a medieval morality tale, with modern existential and psychological overtones, made all the more intriguing by an ever present sense of threat. Ingham tells Jensen. What does it matter?, he responds; nobody cares. It matters, says Adams. He suspects that Ingham has had a part in the Arab’s fate, or is failing to tell the whole story. Drawn between the one pole and the other, Ingham begins to question who and what he is, who and what he has become.

Do not look for resolutions here: there are none. When Ina appears, briefed by Adams, she puts pressure on Ingham to confess the whole truth, though there is really no whole truth to confess. She comes draped in conventional religious morality, though there are clear overtones of hypocrisy here, particularly in the relationship she may have had with the movie director, who has since committed suicide, a relationship that is never fully revealed.

I was so impressed by The Tremor of Forgery, not at all what I expected, far more than a simple crime thriller. I was all the more impressed reading it in situ, aware of the ambiguity of my surroundings, aware that this was a place where certainties may be no more solid than the mirages I saw in the great salt lake of Chott el Jerid.

This is a beautifully unsettling story, that, if properly read, may very well lead you to question what Ingham questions; to question who and what we are. Unlike Strangers on a Train or The Talented Mr Ripley, this is a book that is unlikely ever to be made into a movie. It’s far too realistic for that.

[Hanneke · Rating 2 out of 5]

The only interesting thing about this novel was for me its location in Tunesia. I did not care for all those frustrating musings and conversations, guilt feelings and denials. Well, I concluded that I better stop reading Patricia Highsmith because I lack the necessary patience.

[Roman Clodia · Rating 4 out of 5]

'In view of the atrocities going on in some parts of Africa,' Ingham said, 'Arabs massacring blacks south of Cairo, murders as casual as fly-swatting, I dunno why we make so much over this. I didn't murder the fellow.'

This is a fascinating little tale from Highsmith, stuffed full of her trademark unease and pregnant spaces, but with an unusual politicised overlay.

Set in Tunisia, in some ways this gestures to the 'Eastern / African-set alienation of Western visitors' genre (think The Sheltering Sky though I'm not claiming this has the same spiritual profundity as Bowles): set adrift and unmoored from so-called American/Western values (coded, satirically, as Our Way of Life or OWL in the text), three men, two American, one Danish, are in a kind of limbo from their past and have to construct a moral and ethical system from scratch.

Adams, also known as OWL, makes explicit anti-communist broadcasts into Russia - though there are intimations that something more shady might be going on; the Danish artist, Jensen, sleeps with Arab boys and adheres to an existentialist position, claiming that nothing matters. And our protagonist, Ingham, scuttles between the two, unsure of who he is or what he believes even while he writes a book called, dizzyingly, 'The Tremor of Forgery' in which his amoral hero embezzles huge sums from his insurance company employer without a qualm, and gives it to the poor and needy, a kind of modern Robin Hood. And, in the background, the Vietnam War plays out, as does the Arab-Israeli Six Day War.

Fans of the Ripliad may be a little disappointed at the lack of plot: days are filled with conversations, showering from a bucket, drinks in rooms, and cheap dinners of couscous. But, for me, this is an engrossing and subtle exploration of a kind of low-key and unacknowledged identity crisis as Ingham almost unconsciously struggles to identify who he is and what he might believe in. There is probably a death - this is Highsmith, after all - and much of the psychological energy revolves around it though readers shouldn't expect any kind of investigatory narrative.

And Highsmith peppers the textual landscape with muted moments of horror which shape the troubled psyche of the book: a death, what we would now call sex tourism, a body on the streets with its throat cut, dogs with broken tails, a suicide... The subtext of homoeroticism was probably transgressive at the time of first publishing but doesn't have that kind of frisson today, of course - all the same, this is a wonderfully subversive book in a recognisably Highsmith way.

[Tony · Rating 4 out of 5]

My third Highsmith, and nowhere near my last.

Blurbs call her "a practitioner of the murder mystery genre" and The Times named her "the greatest crime writer of all time." But no crime - other than a few thefts - occurred in this book. Still, yes, there was suspense, although it just hung there, unspecified, and without need of resolution.

The protagonist is an American writer, in Tunisia on a kind of assignment, but nevermind that. He's also working on his next novel, about a man, engaged in fraud, who is leading a kind of double life. There are inexorable echoes of his own life, of course. Of his novel, our protagonist writes, it's about:

whether a person makes his own personality and his own standards from within himself, or whether he and his standards are the creation of the society around him.

Like in Tunisia, a reader might ask. As does our protagonist: He had the feeling that in the months he'd been here, his own character or principles had collapsed, or disappeared. What was he?

There are love interests, infidelities, Vietnam, the Six-Day War. There's a bit of sex, but as always with Highsmith, we are spared the details. There's homosexuality, treated well, again as always with Highsmith.

And there's a character, again recurrent with Highsmith, a character who is unlikeable, intrusive, but who can gather the threads of circumstantial evidence, and surmise the truth. We wish he wouldn't. We want our protagonist not to be caught. But the unlikeable character will not go away.

This was not insubstantial, page-turner though it may be. I kind of grew to love it maybe. There would be no whodunit ending and I didn't expect that. Still, I felt the novel portended some message at the end, maybe even some wisdom. So, as I will, ponder this:

There is nothing . . . nothing so blissful in the world as falling back into the arms of a woman who is---possibly bad for you.

[Paul Ataua · Rating 3 out of 5]

Writer Howard Ingham has been commissioned to write a screenplay for a movie that is to take place in Tunisia and moves there to write it. The project, however, is soon abandoned when the director dies, but he decides to stay on to write a book which he provisionally titles ‘The Tremor of Forgery’.
Graham Greene claimed it was Highsmith’s finest novel, but I am still not sure what I feel about it. It’s a story in which not a lot happens. There is mention of a lot of petty thefts and burglaries, a dog is attacked, and Ingham does come across a dead body, but none of these events hold center stage. The ‘murder’, one that may or may not have happened, is at the center of the story, but even this doesn’t seem central. While nothing much is going on, however, themes do emerge. A treatise on love covering the whole range from friendship to erotic sexual desire is somewhere in there, as is a discussion of the relational nature of morality as people are transplanted long term into a different culture. All in all, I was underwhelmed as I read it and yet mildly fascinated as I now try to piece my thoughts together. It might be worth reading for followers of Highsmith.

[Alan (the Lone Librarian) Teder · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Night in Tunisia*
Review of the Grove Press Kindle eBook edition (2011) with an Introduction by Francine Prose of the Heinemann (UK) & Doubleday & Co. (USA) hardcover original (1969).

Last night, oddly enough after his disturbing conversation with Adams, Ingham had thought of a title for his book, The Tremor of Forgery. It was much better than the two other ideas he had had. He had read somewhere, before he left America, that forgers’ hands usually trembled very slightly at the beginning and end of their false signatures, sometimes so slightly the tremor could be seen only under a microscope.

There are some aspects to this noirish tale, set in Tunisia, where it crosses over with Highsmith's more famous portrayals of sociopathic characters such as Tom Ripley in The Ripliad Pentalogy (1955-1991) and Charles Anthony Bruno in Strangers on a Train (1950). Howard Ingham is an innocent writer character who is drawn into a morally ambiguous world in his environment and his own fiction. There are 2 deaths during the book, one found by Ingham and one likely caused by him, but neither are reported on. The impression is given that the local tourist industry and bureaucracy would prefer that crime not be publicized even if it resulted in murder.

Ingham is on a working vacation to the seaside town of Hammamet in Tunisia. He is there to work on a film script in advance of the arrival of the film's director. The latter never writes and never arrives, and eventually Ingham learns that he has committed suicide back in New York City. Ingham's own girlfriend Ina also does not write and Ingham suspects an involvement with the director. Ingham stays on in Hammamet to work on a new novel, a Robin Hood-like tale of a character who embezzles from his business in order to aid disadvantaged people. He forms friendships with two other local visitors, an American propagandist Francis Adams and a Danish artist Anders Jensen. One night while walking home from Jensen's apartment, Ingham stumbles over a dead body in the street, the victim of an apparent cutthroat robbery. Ingham doesn't call the police and doesn't mention the murder.


The dust jacket for the original UK edition published by Heinemann in 1969. Image sourced from Existential Ennui (see link below).

Ingham has items stolen during his stay and especially resents an old local thief named Abdullah whom he had seen in the act. One evening there is a break-in at Ingham's rented bungalow and in the dark he throws his typewriter at the head of the thief who collapses outside. Ingham locks his door and ignores further outside sounds. In the morning there is no body outside, but Abdullah is also no longer seen in the vicinity. The houseboys deny that any body was found. Ingham believes that he probably killed Abdullah, but decides to keep quiet about it. Eventually he confesses to Jensen. The latter, who is also resentful about the locals who have apparently stolen his beloved dog, tells him to forget it. Adams however is suspicious and then Ina arrives from the USA as well. Ingham is lost in a moral quandary of whether to confess all or to keep silent.

I found the tension and moral ambiguity of The Tremor of Forgery to be very compelling and the evasiveness and self-justification of Ingham made for a suspenseful character study. The atmosphere of the Tunisian setting was also well crafted and definitely gave the impression that Highsmith must have spent time in the area.

Footnote and Soundtrack
* I couldn’t resist using this title for my lede, having recently come across film director Neil Jordan’s first book of short stories Night in Tunisia (1993) and being reminded of the Dizzy Gillespie bebop jazz tune, first called “Interlude,” and which later had lyrics added and was first sung by Sarah Vaughn in 1944, which you can listen to here.

Other Reviews
Not a full review, but author Graham Greene said: "Miss Highsmith's finest novel to my mind is The Tremor of Forgery, and if I were to be asked what it is about I would reply, 'Apprehension'."

Not an original review from 1969, but this later 2011 review does include photos of both the original UK and USA covers at Existential Ennui: The Tremor of Forgery by Patricia Highsmith.

Trivia and Links
The Tremor of Forgery has not been adapted for film unlike many other Highsmith novels (e.g. Strangers on a Train, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Carol (aka The Price of Salt), The Two Faces of January, etc.). A recent biographical film documentary was released in 2022 called “Loving Highsmith” directed by Eva Vitija for which you can see the trailer here.

[J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

People on vacation, or on a working vacation, or on a vacation that turns to work occasionally-- are slightly different than ordinary people. Their connection to the world is shifted, their spending, dining, recreating, interacting habits-- are all slightly different in the vacation or travel mode.

Either their guard is up, or down, or the general components of what comprises their "guard" has shifted a little, subtly changed. The talented Miss Highsmith sympathizes, taking genuine interest and fairly bloodthirsty delight in the crossed signals and misplaced allegiances that can result.

Written in 1968, The Tremor Of Forgery is Highsmith at the top of her game, or even maybe just past it, enough that her usual ingredients are stirred, shaken, and mixed-up a fair amount. Without doing a summary of the plot, it's enough to say that her usual Innocent gets himself entangled in traps of moral, sexual, criminal and cultural dimension, all while trying to navigate a self-appraising re-inventory of his life and oh, yes, happens to be writing a novel.

The best of it is in the early going, when an imminent, unnerving 'something' is swirling in the air of the Tunisian resort where our protagonist has set up camp. As usual in Highsmith, something inevitable is happening, forming in dark clouds just around the bend-- but for the moment, we only feel the foreboding. The North African setting offers something we don't usually get in this author's books, which is a drastic, horizontal plane of action, the desert and sea of the location; it is somehow even more dizzying to watch the usual bad-to-worse spiral take place in this land of deep-focus and undefined context. (..and yes of course, Messrs Camus and Bowles are standing in the shadows..)

Once the gears and cogs begin to rotate, we're on firmer ground, but the unmentioned, the between-the-lines dread of the situation are what has hooked the reader by this point. When I say she's past the top of her game, it is because there is something simple, maybe like chamber music, that is being played here; every action and counter-action prompts an overtone or an undertone... each duly appears, in-time and on-cue. Highsmith is composing her weirdo music here, tapping the keys that will set the mood for the entrance of the theme that sets up the questions, blithely knowing, hearing the ripples and answering tones, just like the musician aiming at that final, puzzle-solving end-chord.

Cat and mouse, but a lot of fun.

[Nigeyb · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Tremor of Forgery (1969) is a classic Patricia Highsmith slow burn, morality tale set in Tunis in 1967 during the time of the Six-Day War.

The focus is primarily on two Americans: Howard Ingham, a complacent NYC liberal, and Francis Adams (aka OWL), an unwavering pro-American right winger. This being Highsmith, her sights are set firmly on Ingham who has no theory underpinning his world view. A third character, Jensen, is a homosexual Dane with a penchant for underage sex which, here, is completely unremarkable probably reflecting Highsmith’s own views.

Highsmith has an uncanny knack for writing stories in which characters make terrible life decisions thereby snatching disaster from the jaws of comfort. The minor characters are as convincing as the two protagonists and friendships are a mass of unexpressed resentment and disdain.

Ingham is writing a novel in which the protagonist is a conman who feels no guilt. Is there a “tremor of forgery” when someone does something they know to be wrong? Or does the wrongdoer's hand remain still and tremor-free?

I was captivated by the discombobulating, apprehensive atmosphere of Tunisia. This vibe is accentuated by significant events happening elsewhere but with only slivers of information arriving.

The Tremor of Forgery is an engrossing, subtle and unsettling story which was heading for five stars however my conviction that this was heading for a more dramatic denouement proved wide of the mark. There are no neat resolutions, instead just ambiguity and hypocrisy.

4/5

Howard Ingham finds it strange that no one has written to him since he arrived in Tunisia - neither the film director that he is supposed to be meeting in Tunis, nor his lover in New York who is, he hopes, missing him. While he waits around at a beach resort, unable to get going on the film script he is there to write, he starts work on a new novel, about a man living an amoral double life. Howard also befriends a fellow American who has a taste for Scotch and a suspicious interest in the Soviet Union, and a Dane who appears to distrust Arabs intensely. When bad news finally arrives from home, Howard thinks he may as well stay and continue writing, despite the tremors in the air of violence, tensions and ambiguous morals.

[Tosh · Rating 4 out of 5]

There has always been traces of Paul Bowles in Highsmith's fiction - and this book is almost a love letter of sorts to Bowles' world. Without moral overtones one falls into the spell of evil or at least except it on a face value. Very disturbing, even creepy like.

[Filipe · Rating 2 out of 5]

Writer arrives in Tunisia. Time passes. Poor judgement in the depiction of Tunisians. Some letters are written. More time passes. Slowly. A conservative character with strong views is introduced. More letters are written. Hurray, somebody gets killed. Oh, but we find out in a letter. More characters who treat Tunisians like animals are introduced. Time passes. It’s hot. There’s an “accident.” Consequences are inexistent. Guess what— letters. It’s really hot and the writer complains. He extends his trip. He starts writing his new book. Rinse and repeat for a long time. Girlfriend arrives. It’s hot. No more letters. More time passes. Weird judgements are made. There’s talk about marriage. Nope, scratch that. Girlfriend leaves. Yay, one more letter. Wait, is our hero actually gay? Also nope. He leaves. The End.

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mary Patricia Plangman, born in Texas in 1921, moved to NYC to attend Barnard, and became a successful writer (comics folks: Her first writing gig was in comics, as a writer for the comic book series Black Terror!), changing her name to Patricia Highsmith (though she also wrote one “lesbian” novel called The Price of Salt/Carol initially under a pseudonym). She moved to Europe permanently in her forties after having published several books, where she was more critically acclaimed and popular than in in her native US. Highsmith’s first novel, Strangers on a Train was first published in 1950, and in 1951 Alfred Hitchcock adapted the work for the screen, so she was a sensation almost from the first.

Highsmith wrote many great books but may be best known for her series of four Ripley novels (as in The Talented Mr. Ripley). I read this book because Black Oxford wrote a strong review of it, and because I saw Graham Greene said: "Miss Highsmith's finest novel to my mind is The Tremor of Forgery, and if I were to be asked what it is about I would reply, 'Apprehension'."

I’m a Greene fan, and as I read Tremor I thought of him and several of his books that take a grim view of Ugly Americans (cf., a novel by Burdick and Lederer, 1958). Set in Tunisia in the sixties, The Tremor of Forgery focuses on a successful writer named Howard Ingham, who goes there to write a screenplay. There he meets an American propagandist, Howard Adams, who speaks on a Voice of America-type radio show, and a gay painter named Anders Jeffries. Early on, Ingham’s writing to his girlfriend in NYC, but initially she is not writing back. Later we find out why (SPOILER); she was having an affair with Ingham's film producer, though she later rebuffs him, who then kills himself.
Ingham decides to write a novel instead of the screenplay.

Early on, there doesn’t seem to be much going on here except some "low level" anti-Arab racism on the part of all these men. Ingham’s novel is the story of a banker who forges documents to steal money he then gives to the poor. Ingham himself is robbed of many of his valuables, and then one night, he finds someone breaking into his apartment, throws his typewriter at the guy, hurting him, but he doesn’t follow up to see if the guy is killed, and doesn't tell anyone about it. Adams hears about the guy getting hurt, asks Ingham about it, who denies any knowledge. Adams doesn't believe Ingham, thinks this secrecy constitutes a moral problem, though Jensen, who hates most of the Tunisian Arabs even as he paints some of them, does not. As Ingham’s girlfriend shows up, we find she had had an affair with the producer, though she seems to come clean about it, and she sides with Adams on the moral position with respect to the possible killing.

The hallmark of Highsmith’s work seems to be this growing “apprehension” of which Greene speaks, and a sort of quietly building intensity as things spiral downhill. Another aspect of her work, including in Strangers on the Train and the Ripley books, is the presence of sexually ambiguous characters, sketched with psycho-socio realism. Ingham is one of these characters. That adds a layer of tension between Jensen and Ingham, and also Ingham's girlfriend, who thinks the two guys are nto each other.

Many people think Tremor is Highsmith’s best novel. In spite of how grim and uneventful it sounds, it focuses interestingly on the moral ambiguity of its four main character moving from the Colonialist West to Northern Africa even as the Vietnam War and civil rights demonstrations happen in the US. We see connections between white middle class views of the Vietnam war and racism in the US in parallel to the sort of casual colonialist behavior of white middle class folks visiting in Tunisia.

I liked it, as it has this sense of growing dread about it, as these folks all seem headed to moral ruin, as much of America seemed to be in the sixties. It could be paired with Greene's Quiet Americans or Our Man in Havana.

[Joy D · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in the mid-1960s, American protagonist Howard Ingham, an author, has traveled to Tunisia to work on a screenplay with a director, who has not yet arrived. While waiting, Ingham decides to begin his next novel. Howard is anxious that he has not heard from his fiancé, Ina. He meets two other men and strikes up an acquaintance. Francis Adams is an American broadcasting anticommunist messages to Russia. Anders Jensen is a Danish artist. Howard finds himself embroiled in a mysterious disappearance and possible death of an Arab man.

The theme of this novel parallels the theme of the book Ingham is writing. As Ingham states, “Essentially, it’s whether a person makes his own personality and his own standards from within himself, or whether he and the standards are the creation of the society around him.” The plot follows Ingham’s ethical decisions, where he is at times influenced by his current environment as opposed to what he would have done if he were still living in the United States. This book is too slow-paced to be described as a thriller. It is more a psychological study of behavior.

Though it may not pack a lot of action, the character development makes up for it. Ingham is often alone with his thoughts, or in conversation with Adams and Jensen. Their interactions, along with the thread of mystery, kept my attention. This is my first book by Highsmith. Her writing style reminds me a bit of Graham Greene, sans religion.

[Caterina · Rating 2 out of 5]

So, this is how a liberal author would write in a pre-politically correct era: full of ethnic stereotypes, but given with the well-meant curiosity of the Westerner, who is not actually appalled by an encounter with a completely different culture, but instead judges everything by western measures. The moral issue of the story was quite inadequate for me, my personal view is that one has to do his/her duty and live by a certain moral code in any culture anywhere in this world. Reason is the basis of ethics, please read your Aristoteles!
I still don't understand most of the protagonist's decisions and I actually don't care anymore!
Not my best Highsmith.

[Darwin8u · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not the usual crime novel. Perhaps a bit of a subversion (or at least an exploration) of both the Quiet American and The Stranger. A morality tale for sure, but like Highsmith is always want to do, the tale eats its own tail a bit. This is not a page turner. It is a meditation on morality; an West meets East, or West is consumed by East, with great characters and a book within a book that serves as another lens to explore the dynamics of the characters and the protagonist's journey.

[Sketchbook · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sweaty Tunisia in the blistering sun. PaHi, suspense writer of "sheer dread," keeps you uncomfortable in a labyrinth of amorality, ethics and ambiguous relationships. That said, I don't think you can kill someone by hurling your typewriter at 'em in the dark. The basic flaw here is the oopsy "murder." ~~ Consider the damage an inked eraser might cause if it hit the heart !

[Magnus Stanke · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've almost made my way through all of Highsmith's novels now, but this is a great one, and I can't believe I read it this late in the game. It's easily her most overtly political book (the Six Day War is raging for a while and the fall out is felt throughout - the book is set in Tunesia) and also the one where homosexualilty is an acknowledged focal point. And I assume the figure of one character (you'll know which one I mean when you read it) expresses pretty faithfully what she felt about her Americanness from her European exile.
Certainly a roman de clef, and a very entertaining one too.

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

COUNTDOWN: Mid-20th Century North American Crime
BOOK 37 (of 250)
This is my second reading. In my first review below I state this is the most unusual Highsmith I've read (that remains true) and that I'd have ended the book 20 pages earlier with "Ingham lit a cigaratte" (and there I was wrong, perhaps). And still, there are 3 Highsmith novels I think better. (Right now, that is, as Highsmith novels are just so re-readable).
HOOK - 4 stars: "You're sure there's no letter for me," Ingham asked. "Howard Ingham. I-n-g-h-a-m." He spelt it, a little uncertainly, in French, though he had spoken in English. The plump Arab clerk in the bright red uniform glanced through the letters in the cubbyhold marked I-J, and shook his head. "Non, m'sieur."
This 2-paragraph opening tells us Howard Ingham is waiting on a letter, that he is unsure the clerk understands him, that he's somewhere, geographically, that consists of mixed cultures, that Howard himself is apparently well-traveled and well-educated as far as languages but still he is unsure of his own communication capabilities. What's in the letter? Who is it from? Where is Ingham, anyway? (Tunisia) You might, like me, want to pronounce his name as Ingraham as you read. But it's i-n-g-h-a-m. It's off a bit, and perfect for a Highsmith novel.
PACE - 3: Steady character development and continual tension after an early murder takes place. But Highsmith doesn't rush things, she never does. She isn't Spillane, she doesn't write pure action thrillers.
PLOT -4: Ingham is hired to write a screenplay set in Tunisia and to be filmed there. The producer, John Castlewood, has sent Ingham ahead to get a feel for the area, to perhaps get a first draft in place. Ingham is also writing a follow-up novel to his very successful "The Game of If." After weeks of not hearing from John, nor from his girlfriend, Ina, he finally gets a letter. His world is turned upside down by the contents of said letter. Then, someone breaks into his bungalow and things go bad. Our 'hero' is alone in a foreign country, no one is coming for him, he has only his mind and the novel he is writing to deal with issues. When Highsmith nails a certain coffin shut, one can hear and feel it. (And you'll be surprised.)
CHARACTERS - 4: Ingham decides not to name his new novel "The Tremor of Forgery" because, perhaps, that's too close to all that's happening. Then there is the problem of a missing body. Dead or alive? There are no cops investigating the crime. Hotel management refuses to discuss the issue. The employees say nary a word. And is Ingham turning into the character in his new book? Is this the way he writes himself out of his predicament? Howard makes a few friends and when Jensen puts the move on Howard, he says no, but they become best friends. We're told early (page 2) in the book that "Homosexual relationships had no stigma here," which puts an early spin on several relationships. A missing dog plays a large part in friendships, as does the never-met ex-wife of Ingham, Charlotte.
ATMOSPHERE - 5: Tunisia is an area of mixed cultures, Highsmith makes that clear. And she does it beautifully: it's a place I'd love to visit. I could never quite picture it, physically, I couldn't grab onto the look which makes this place even more intriguing. The politics of the world seem just right, and presented, really, for Ingham to ignore the rest of the universe. And Ingraham's frustration and confusion comes through clear as day: we, as readers, are alone but with him. We, as readers, don't know what to do, where to go. If you've become enthralled in a horror movie, say, and you scream at the screen, "No, don't go that way," you know something. Here, you just don't know what to yell at the character. And he can't settle down: there's a good reason he moves from his very nice bungalow to a mid-to-low level hotel with no indoor plumbing: he is...I think this is something each reader has to decide. He can't access Tunisia either, he just doesn't fit it. This is a case where the author had to place the story in a location unfamiliar to most readers. A place where culture boundaries are iffy.
SUMMARY: This book is very good, better than I remembered. Overall, my rating is 4.0, so my original 3 star rating increases to 4. In 1987, the New Yorker declared this to be "her best work." It's definitely the one that placed Highsmith solidly in literary territory. But still, this is not one of my favorite Highsmith novels. As I'm making a few final touches to this review, I'm placing this book back on my 'to-read' shelf for 2019.
ORIGINAL REVIEW -January 19th, 2016
This is the tenth Highsmith work I've read and for me it's her most unusual. The title is perfect as there are tremors of forgeries everywhere: signed/unsigned artwork; a man who might be dead; even romantic preferences that aren't resolved. It's been said that great artists know when to stop. I would have stopped twenty pages earlier with: "Ingham lit a cigarette." But I've never been called a "great artist".

[Elizabeth (Alaska) · Rating 3 out of 5]

In her Introduction (which I read as an Afterword), Francine Prose calls this Highsmith's best. Admittedly this is only my third by Highsmith, so I'm definitely no expert on the subject, but I didn't like this as much as The Talented Mr. Ripley. For me, there was no tension. There is an extraordinary event, for which I assume I am expected to be anxious about consequences. The main character didn't seem to be anxious and so I wasn't either. The main character, Howard Ingham, simply wasn't the hand-wringing type.

What I did like about this was there were two story-lines. Howard Ingham is an author, writing about an embezzler. His character, Dennison, has no guilty conscience. (Does he even have a tremor in the split second before his forgeries?) Ingham is not an embezzler, but his personality seems so very similar to that of his character. Perhaps others would find this clever.

Prose also calls Highsmith funny. That had never occurred to me. Is there supposed to be humor in psychological novels? I simply didn't see anything in that vein, but not everyone's sense of humor is the same. Ingham's previous book titles are ridiculous, but it never occurred to me to dwell on them long enough to crack a smile. I admit I don't see humor in as many places as others do.

I didn't hate this and it certainly doesn't put me off reading another Highsmith. But I could have skipped it and not missed anything.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this different from other Highsmith novels in that the characters are all fairly likeable and believable, not as extreme or as paranoid as I've come to expect. What isn't likeable is Howard Ingham's increasingly less than sympathetic view of Arabs. "Ingham imagined that Arabs were more or less always the same from one day to the next, that no external events could much affect them," for example. Highsmith does a good job of showing Ingham's shifting sense of self, of morality, in the heat, barrenness and otherness of the Tunisian landscape. She seems genuinely interested in exploring notions of morality and in following Ingham's search for an authentic self, less intent on taking us down the path of an inevitable downturn... Ingham missteps but he also "confesses", and still is able to follow his less conventional self to achieve a surprisingly--for Highsmith--"happy" turn of affairs by the novel's end. Highsmith's portrait of the Danish artist Jensen and his beloved dog, the growing friendship/love between the two men, their care for the animal, is completely believable. There is more tenderness in this novel, despite the harsh landscape (because of?), than I'm used to seeing in Highsmith territory. The American "OWL" provides comic moments but he too is taken seriously as a character.

note:
if you want to avoid spoilers, you'd best skip the comment section below.

[Oliver Clarke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not her best, but still a readable thriller and VERY Highsmith with its two central male characters, Americans abroad theme and a tonne of moral ambiguity. There’s also some interesting stuff about American anti-communist activity.

[Molinos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pocas cosas más "casa" y más seguras que la Highsmith. Acerté de lleno. El temblor de la falsificación transcurre en Tunez, un escritor de novelas con cierto éxito es contratado por un amigo para escribir el guión de una pelícua que transcurre en el país norteafricano, para documentarse y empaparse del ambiente se instala en un hotel a esperar a que su amigo vuele a encontrarse con él. No sé si Patricia estuvo en Tunez alguna vez pero digamos que la descripción del país está un poquito contaminada de tópicos pero eso importa poco. En unas pocas páginas consigue, como siempre, meterte en la historia y, en este caso, en el tempo y el calor africano. Howard, el protagonista, hace lo que todos los personajes de la Highsmith, se pasea, almuerza, toma una copa, escribe cartas, se pasea, abre el correo, toma una copa, se pasea, duerme un poquito, cena y se toma mil quinientas copas. Por supuesto conoce y traba cierta amistad con gente rara, con personajes que hacen lo mismo que él (sobre todo lo de beber y cenar) y que también se ven poco a poco inmersos en el tempo africano. ¿Pasa algo más en la novela? Alguna cosa que no quiero destripar pero es que, además, da igual. Las novelas de Patricia Highsmith atrapan desde el principio, absorben al lector entre sus páginas haciéndole vivir en los ambientes que retrata y mano a mano con sus persojanes que casi nunca son admirables ni casi respetables pero con los que el lector se identifica aunque no quiera.

Cuando puse una foto de este libro en Instagram algunos lectores me dijeron que nunca habían leído a Patricia Highsmith. No me déis disgustos. Hay que leerla siempre, todo. Si queréis empezar con ella, coged Extraños en un tren o El talento de Mrs Ripley. De nada.

[Isaac Clemente ríos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Estoy realmente impresionado.

El argumento es sencillo: un escritor neoyorkino es contratado para realizar el guion de una película y se va a Túnez para trabajar en él. Mientras espera al productor observa el ambiente, empieza a escribir y trata de aclimatarse. Se ve envuelto en un incidente que pone a prueba su personalidad, sus convicciones morales y su cultura.

Otros dos hombres occidentales que conoce en el lugar, y su novia son el resto de personajes sobre los que pivota la trama.

La profundidad de estos y la ambientación son espectaculares. La trama es realmente intrigante y entretenida. El final, que al principio me decepcionó ligeramente, mejora en mi cabeza conforme pasa el tiempo, tal vez por ser un poco abierto.

Nunca había leído una novela de suspense tan profunda y con tanta carga psicológica. Se acerca por momentos al existencialismo de Camus.

Una maravilla. Además, sirve como novela de vacaciones.

Mi nota: 9,3/10

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have purchased waaayyy too many books this year and decided to put myself on a book buying ban. But when I visited one of my favorite bookshops, I decided to ignore the ban and allowed myself to buy just one book. I was on the fence with what I wanted and finally decided to purchase this Highsmith, which on the front says "one of her best" from The New Yorker. No. No it isn't. Apparently the reviewer had never read "This Sweet Sickness" or "The Blunderer" or even Tom Ripley. There was no mystery in this book at all. Oh wait, I was mistaken. There was a missing dog for a majority of the pages. But he comes back! This was a real disappointment. And made me never want to visit Tunisia!

[Kristine Brancolini · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Tremor of Forgery defies description. I loved it and I'm at a loss to explain why. Patricia Highsmith must have been an utterly intriguing and mysterious woman. The only other books I have read by here are the first three Ripley books, which I devoured one after another in short succession. This book is neither a mystery nor a thriller. It is a morality tale. And even though nothing much happens, I can't stop thinking about the protagonist, Howard Ingham. He is the book's narrator and it's fascinating to follow his thinking as he tries to explain away an inexplicable lapse in morality. So, here are the three elements that I think combined to knock my socks off.

The setting. Tunisia, summer, 1967. Near the beginning of the book, the 6-Day Arab/Israeli War occurs. And for the rest of the book, Ingham and his friends discuss the war and its potential to impact them as they live and work in seaside Hammamet. This is so strange given the recent eruption of violence in the Gaza Strip. Could the situation be more different today? We take it for granted that the Israelis have superior military strength than Hamas. Still no ceasefire. Still no peace. In 1967,Tunisia was untouched by the war or the continuing conflict once it ended. Parts of the book read like a travelogue, as Ingham and a Danish artist named Jensen travel around the country. But Highsmith also establishes this atmosphere of unease from the first page and never lets it go.

The narrative structure. The reader is dropped almost in the middle of the action. Within a couple of pages, Highsmith has completely set up Ingham and his situation. Ingham has gone to Tunisia to meet a movie producer who wants him to write a screenplay set there. But John Castlewood has not arrived as expected and Ingham cannot reach him. They met through Ingham's girlfriend Ina, who works for CBS, but he can't reach her either. Since this is 1967, Ingham is writing letters and cabling. There's something about him being cut off from everyone back home that adds to the menacing atmosphere. Letters play an important role throughout the book. While waiting to hear from someone, Ingham begins writing a novel about a man named Dennison who embezzles money from the bank where he works. He lends it to people in need. Throughout the entire novel The Tremor of Forgery, Ingham is writing a novel that in the beginning had the same title. For Ingham, "[his] novel was more real and definite than Ina, John, or anything else. But that was to be expected, Ingham thought. Or was it?" (68)

The dilemma. Can't tell you, but suffice to say that Ingham creates a situation in which he should be experiencing his own crisis of morality. But, curiously, he isn't. Here's a quotation from near the end of the book: "It has to do with the book I'm writing. Essentially, it's whether a person makes his own personality and his own standards from within himself, or whether he and the standards are the creation of the society around him" (p.193). And since Ingham is in Tunisia and "the Arabs all around [him] had different standards, different ethics," well, under those circumstances Ingham thinks that we might begin to question our own morals, our own ethics.

Graham Greene thought this was Patricia Highsmith's best book and maybe it's not that, but she's a brilliant writer and it's definitely a compelling read. And although Camus covered similar ground in The Stranger, I'll take Highsmith any day.

[Jean-Luke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Set in Tunisia in 1967—so much and yet so little has changed. Israel is on the offensive when the novel opens and Francis Adams spouts the same racist and bigoted 'pro-America' (meaning pro-straight white Christian) bullshit as moralizing modern American conservatives. He has rather prescient views on Israel, here engaged in the Six-Day War, the result of which was Israel's seizing of the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, the Golan Heights and the Sinai Peninsula.

"Not content with mere triumph and the displacement of thousands of Arabs, the seizure of Arab territory, the Israelis now show signs of the arrogant nationalism which was the hallmark of Nazi Germany, and for which Nazi Germany at last went to her doom. I say, much as Israel was provoked by threats to her homeland, her womenfolk, and by border incidents - and there were and are incidents to the discredit of Israel that might be cited - it would be well for Israel to be magnanimous in her hour of victory, and above all - to guard against that overweening pride and chauvinism which has been the downfall of greater countries than she..."

Highsmith was an avid supporter of Palestinian rights (hell yeah!), but she was also an antisemite—and no, actually, one does not imply the other. And this doesn't stop her from disparaging the Arab people throughout the novel, even if the protagonist, novelist Howard Ingham, is more self-aware than most.

The book perfectly captures a captivating place at an unusual point in history, and is an exploration of morality—the moral ambiguity of murder, especially a murder without a corpse in region of the world where a human life is/was often perceived by Westerners as somehow being worth less—rather than a true thriller. I'm certainly not complaining. The life-imitating-art-imitating-art aspect is obvious even before Ingham points it out, and who doesn't love a bit with a dog? Tangential fact: I just recently learned that while writing this book Highsmith was reading Iris Murdoch's The Sandcastle and A Severed Head.

It is no secret that twentieth-century gays went to North Africa for the Arab boys, although their vices are much more disturbing in 2026 than they may have been in 1967—unless you're sitting in the White House, that is. It is nice to see Ingham so unbothered by Anders Jensen's sexuality, and at times Highsmith even intimates that he may be open to a bit exploration. How fun for us gay readers, even if nothing comes of it. I recently acquired a very heavy Hermes 3000 and I'm not sure I could effectively chuck it at an intrudent in the middle of the night.

[Merl Fluin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A man goes abroad and slowly falls apart. Does he lose himself, find himself, or discover he has no real self at all? Yes, the same old Highsmith theme, but somehow (how? how? how the hell does she do it?) it never gets stale.

I chanced upon this one in a second-hand bookshop and made the mistake of reading the first couple of pages on the bus home. I say mistake because once I'd started it the rest of my life was cancelled until I'd finished. Almost nothing happens for most of the book, and when something does happen you're not sure what it was... and it's mesmerising.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slow burn and subtle mystery of Americans living in Tunisia in the 1960s. World events and politics are discussed frequently (Six Day War, Vietnam, USSR/Cold War, and many cultural notes), yet it often feels far from the setting of the coastal Arab village.

Howard Ingham, our POV character, is a New York writer who comes to Tunisia for a screenwriting gig that never pans out, and decides to stay because he likes the simplicity, and he has found a good head space to work on his novel. He soon meets Francis, a widower expat who likes to spearfish everyday, is a war-hawk and believes himself to be an American ambassador for "Our Way of Life", later confiding in Howard that he records anti-communist propaganda radio shows for "behind the Iron Curtain". The two don't see eye to eye politically, but as the only Americans in this town, they end up spending a lot of time together.

Anders, a Danish painter, enters the frame and he and Howard become close friends. It is Howard's relationship with Anders that was the most intriguing part of the book to me. Anders immediately tells Howard that he is gay, and while Howard rejects one of his physical advances, interestingly, the two become much closer companions, eventually moving in to a ramshackle apartment together. Anders is a moody existentialist, but has a soft spot for his dog Halso, and then for Howard. Highsmith plays with Howard's sexuality in the way she does with her most famed creation, Tom Ripley - the "is he... or not? both/and?" that leaves readers questioning.

The plot meanders in unsettling yet inconsequential ways - I was expecting a kind of centralized crime to take place to focus the story - and while things happen, it is more amorphous and without resolution. The novel seemed to be a lot more about mood, setting, and feelings/thoughts than a cohesive timeline of events.

3.5/5* - Moody Mediterranean meanderings, but kept my interest nonetheless