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Το γυάλινο κελί
[...] Βεβαιωνόταν όλο και περισσότερο ότι βάδιζε σε μια παγίδα της αστυνομίας. Κοιτούσε τόσο συχνά γύρω του για άνθρωπο με πολιτικά, ώστε ο κόσμος άρχισε να τον κοιτάζει κι αυτός. Αποφάσισε τότε να σταματήσει να γυρίζει το κεφάλι του.
Πήγε χωρίς δεύτερη σκέψη σ' έναν κινηματογράφο της 23ης οδού. Στις 10:15 δεν μπορούσε να καθίσει άλλο, βγήκε και περπάτησε νότια. [...] Έφθασε πέντε λεπτά νωρίτερα στη 10η οδό και Όγδοη Λεωφόρο.
Ο Ο' Μπράιαν έφτασε από το κέντρο, βαδίζοντας αδιάφορα με μια εφημερίδα στο αριστερό του χέρι.
«Δεν σε παρακολουθούσαν;» ρώτησε τον Κάρτερ [...]
«Το 1961 έλαβα ένα γράμμα από έναν έγκλειστο στις Μεσοδυτικές Πολιτείες της Αμερικής» γράφει η Πατρίσια Χάισμιθ. «Του είχε αρέσει ένα από τα βιβλία μου κι ήθελε να γίνει συγγραφέας. Αρχίσαμε αλληλογραφία και του ζήτησα να μου γράψει μια έκθεση με τίτλο «Μια μέρα στη φυλακή»... Την ίδια εποχή άρχισα να σχεδιάζω μια ιστορία. Ο ήρωάς μου, ο Φίλιπ Κάρτερ, θα βρισκόταν ήδη ενενήντα μέρες φυλακή, όταν θα ξεκινούσε το βιβλίο. Οραματιζόμουν το πρώτο μισό του να διαδραματίζεται στη φυλακή και το υπόλοιπο μισό να δείχνει τα αποτελέσματα που είχαν στον Κάρτερ τα έξι χρόνια εγκλεισμού του... Τα θεματικά στοιχεία ανάπτυξης της πλοκής θα ήταν: δικαστική πλάνη, απειλή συζυγικής απιστίας, απειλή εξάρτησης από μορφίνη και μετά τη φυλακή ο φόβος μήπως χάσει τη γυναίκα του και τη δουλειά του... Σκόπευα να βάλω τον Κάρτερ να διαπράττει ένα σοβαρό έγκλημα και...».
Το Γυάλινο κελί είναι ολόκληρο ένα χιτσκοκικό μυθιστόρημα αγωνιώδους προσμονής και η Χάισμιθ με το βιβλίο αυτό αποδεικνύεται η καλύτερη εκπρόσωπος του σασπένς, καθώς από την αρχή μέχρι το τέλος ο αναγνώστης βρίσκεται στο χείλος της αμφιβολίας για την επόμενη κίνηση του πρωταγωνιστή, αλλά και για την αφηγηματική εξέλιξη της ιστορίας.
Πήγε χωρίς δεύτερη σκέψη σ' έναν κινηματογράφο της 23ης οδού. Στις 10:15 δεν μπορούσε να καθίσει άλλο, βγήκε και περπάτησε νότια. [...] Έφθασε πέντε λεπτά νωρίτερα στη 10η οδό και Όγδοη Λεωφόρο.
Ο Ο' Μπράιαν έφτασε από το κέντρο, βαδίζοντας αδιάφορα με μια εφημερίδα στο αριστερό του χέρι.
«Δεν σε παρακολουθούσαν;» ρώτησε τον Κάρτερ [...]
«Το 1961 έλαβα ένα γράμμα από έναν έγκλειστο στις Μεσοδυτικές Πολιτείες της Αμερικής» γράφει η Πατρίσια Χάισμιθ. «Του είχε αρέσει ένα από τα βιβλία μου κι ήθελε να γίνει συγγραφέας. Αρχίσαμε αλληλογραφία και του ζήτησα να μου γράψει μια έκθεση με τίτλο «Μια μέρα στη φυλακή»... Την ίδια εποχή άρχισα να σχεδιάζω μια ιστορία. Ο ήρωάς μου, ο Φίλιπ Κάρτερ, θα βρισκόταν ήδη ενενήντα μέρες φυλακή, όταν θα ξεκινούσε το βιβλίο. Οραματιζόμουν το πρώτο μισό του να διαδραματίζεται στη φυλακή και το υπόλοιπο μισό να δείχνει τα αποτελέσματα που είχαν στον Κάρτερ τα έξι χρόνια εγκλεισμού του... Τα θεματικά στοιχεία ανάπτυξης της πλοκής θα ήταν: δικαστική πλάνη, απειλή συζυγικής απιστίας, απειλή εξάρτησης από μορφίνη και μετά τη φυλακή ο φόβος μήπως χάσει τη γυναίκα του και τη δουλειά του... Σκόπευα να βάλω τον Κάρτερ να διαπράττει ένα σοβαρό έγκλημα και...».
Το Γυάλινο κελί είναι ολόκληρο ένα χιτσκοκικό μυθιστόρημα αγωνιώδους προσμονής και η Χάισμιθ με το βιβλίο αυτό αποδεικνύεται η καλύτερη εκπρόσωπος του σασπένς, καθώς από την αρχή μέχρι το τέλος ο αναγνώστης βρίσκεται στο χείλος της αμφιβολίας για την επόμενη κίνηση του πρωταγωνιστή, αλλά και για την αφηγηματική εξέλιξη της ιστορίας.
384 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1964
71 people are currently reading
1587 people want to read
About the author
Patricia Highsmith
489 books5,067 followersPatricia 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
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
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September 27, 2022
"I'm thinking the whole world is like one big prison, and prisons are just an exaggerated form of it."
Ah, this is the stuff. The whole time I was reading this, I was thinking she's so good. She's just so damn good.
Patricia Highsmith was inspired to write this book after she received a fan letter from a prison inmate who loved Deep Water. She was to remark later, in her book about writing, that prisons probably shouldn't stock her novels. A good point. Anyway, she started a correspondence with the inmate, asking him to tell her everything about prison.
It's clear from the first half of the book that her pen-pal provided plenty of details, because Pat gives us a brutal and realistic view of incarcerated life. So brutal, in fact, I had to put the book down often, taking little breaks. She deeply ignited my empathy for Philip Carter, who, wrongly convicted, is a fish out of water in prison, and who, for no good reason whatsoever, is strung up for 48 hours by his THUMBS. Every time his thumbs are mentioned thereafter, I died inside a bit.
Poor Philip, sensitive, educated Philip, somewhat sexually ambiguous Philip. He's a prototypical Highsmith anti-hero: a good person who is twisted by the cruelty of fate. How will he survive six years behind bars? If he does, what will he be like on the other side? And, hmmm, what has his pretty wife been doing to occupy her lonely nights while he's been in the clink?
What I loved about this book is its psychological complexity. Its refusal to follow tropes or provide easy answers. Characters are dimensional and conflicted. Tension masterfully propels the plot forward, while the reader gropes in the noir-soaked darkness, and feels devastated when realization washes over that "the cell" isn't limited to prison walls. It raises a few questions. Where can freedom be found?
And, what does my cell look like, exactly?
4.5 stars
Ah, this is the stuff. The whole time I was reading this, I was thinking she's so good. She's just so damn good.
Patricia Highsmith was inspired to write this book after she received a fan letter from a prison inmate who loved Deep Water. She was to remark later, in her book about writing, that prisons probably shouldn't stock her novels. A good point. Anyway, she started a correspondence with the inmate, asking him to tell her everything about prison.
It's clear from the first half of the book that her pen-pal provided plenty of details, because Pat gives us a brutal and realistic view of incarcerated life. So brutal, in fact, I had to put the book down often, taking little breaks. She deeply ignited my empathy for Philip Carter, who, wrongly convicted, is a fish out of water in prison, and who, for no good reason whatsoever, is strung up for 48 hours by his THUMBS. Every time his thumbs are mentioned thereafter, I died inside a bit.
Poor Philip, sensitive, educated Philip, somewhat sexually ambiguous Philip. He's a prototypical Highsmith anti-hero: a good person who is twisted by the cruelty of fate. How will he survive six years behind bars? If he does, what will he be like on the other side? And, hmmm, what has his pretty wife been doing to occupy her lonely nights while he's been in the clink?
What I loved about this book is its psychological complexity. Its refusal to follow tropes or provide easy answers. Characters are dimensional and conflicted. Tension masterfully propels the plot forward, while the reader gropes in the noir-soaked darkness, and feels devastated when realization washes over that "the cell" isn't limited to prison walls. It raises a few questions. Where can freedom be found?
And, what does my cell look like, exactly?
4.5 stars
September 8, 2021
Ms Highsmith – you’ve done it again!
The Glass Cell, by Patricia Highsmith is great! Carter, a youngish Engineer is sentenced to 10-years in prison for fraud. We are told he is innocent (I believe him), but during the time he serves he must endure some terrible treatment from fellow inmates and guards alike. His wife, the totally stunning - Hazel, visits him weekly (at the beginning) and writes to him frequently. She is fighting for his release and trying to make ends meet and look after their baby boy. However, it seems Hazel is also galavanting around town with a family friend called Sullivan.
In one of Hazel’s letters to Carter she writes:
”….I didn’t feel like going home and fixing anything. I’m afraid I was pooped and not very good company. Absolutely too tired to dance (after dinner), so you can imagine”
This describing one of her many nights out with Sullivan. All openly being played out. Were they having an affair – it’s all a bit suss isn’t it? However, they only have 20 minutes for Carter to discuss his concerns with Hazel during prison visits and he doesn’t want to spoil such a short amount of time confronting her about it and arguing, not even for a precious 5 minutes. So how does he play it? Oh my GOD, it would be soul destroying.
Naturally, Carter is concerned something might be going on. I need to leave the details there for now, otherwise I will be venturing into spoiler territory. Suffice to say, the plot becomes more complicated, involving treachery, violence, drugs, murder and abject criminality. It all ends up in a very tense finale.
Typically for this author, we know she is playing with us, but we willingly participate – like drunk lab rats in a maze and we helplessly submit ourselves to her cunning trickery. There were times, I thought I was sure what was happening then suddenly, things changed up a gear and I was forced into another direction. I could not put this thing down. It was all a bit tense, totally mysterious and at times unpleasant. Highsmith also explores the fascinating area of love and infidelity (even imagined infidelity - jealousy).
There’s something about the intrigue surrounding prison stories (is this a male thing?) and this one doesn’t disappoint. I really felt like I was put inside the head of this prisoner called Carter. This mediocre, professional, a bit soft and decent dude – subject to a world of horrors. Perhaps, one of our greatest fears – certainly mine!!
4-Stars or (95.6 Stars – see letter below, regarding my proposed CSRS system)
Dear Mr and Mrs Goodreads – may I suggest we change the scoring system for these beloved pieces of work? How on earth are we expected to score in 20th percentile increments? For crying out loud, the points of differentiation between works of art is a very precise exercise. For example, I have read several of this author’s books and given them all 5-Stars. But they all can’t be 5-stars – and going to 4-stars is TOO MUCH of a drop. I think I speak for all Goodreads Members here and suggest we go to a 100-Star multiplex rating system. I am sure all of my GR colleagues would be happy to re-score, yes rescore all their previous reviews, an exercise which shouldn’t take any longer than 24 hours (per 100 reviews) for most of us. This new Centurion Star Rating System, would allow us to apply sufficient finesse, and expert judgement on these works, rather than the current sledgehammer 5-star approach we are required to endure. After all, we aren’t rating our favourite ice cream flavours here!! Some understanding of this most elaborate of tasks would be appreciated. Yours Literally, Mark P
The Glass Cell, by Patricia Highsmith is great! Carter, a youngish Engineer is sentenced to 10-years in prison for fraud. We are told he is innocent (I believe him), but during the time he serves he must endure some terrible treatment from fellow inmates and guards alike. His wife, the totally stunning - Hazel, visits him weekly (at the beginning) and writes to him frequently. She is fighting for his release and trying to make ends meet and look after their baby boy. However, it seems Hazel is also galavanting around town with a family friend called Sullivan.
In one of Hazel’s letters to Carter she writes:
”….I didn’t feel like going home and fixing anything. I’m afraid I was pooped and not very good company. Absolutely too tired to dance (after dinner), so you can imagine”
This describing one of her many nights out with Sullivan. All openly being played out. Were they having an affair – it’s all a bit suss isn’t it? However, they only have 20 minutes for Carter to discuss his concerns with Hazel during prison visits and he doesn’t want to spoil such a short amount of time confronting her about it and arguing, not even for a precious 5 minutes. So how does he play it? Oh my GOD, it would be soul destroying.
Naturally, Carter is concerned something might be going on. I need to leave the details there for now, otherwise I will be venturing into spoiler territory. Suffice to say, the plot becomes more complicated, involving treachery, violence, drugs, murder and abject criminality. It all ends up in a very tense finale.
Typically for this author, we know she is playing with us, but we willingly participate – like drunk lab rats in a maze and we helplessly submit ourselves to her cunning trickery. There were times, I thought I was sure what was happening then suddenly, things changed up a gear and I was forced into another direction. I could not put this thing down. It was all a bit tense, totally mysterious and at times unpleasant. Highsmith also explores the fascinating area of love and infidelity (even imagined infidelity - jealousy).
There’s something about the intrigue surrounding prison stories (is this a male thing?) and this one doesn’t disappoint. I really felt like I was put inside the head of this prisoner called Carter. This mediocre, professional, a bit soft and decent dude – subject to a world of horrors. Perhaps, one of our greatest fears – certainly mine!!
4-Stars or (95.6 Stars – see letter below, regarding my proposed CSRS system)
Dear Mr and Mrs Goodreads – may I suggest we change the scoring system for these beloved pieces of work? How on earth are we expected to score in 20th percentile increments? For crying out loud, the points of differentiation between works of art is a very precise exercise. For example, I have read several of this author’s books and given them all 5-Stars. But they all can’t be 5-stars – and going to 4-stars is TOO MUCH of a drop. I think I speak for all Goodreads Members here and suggest we go to a 100-Star multiplex rating system. I am sure all of my GR colleagues would be happy to re-score, yes rescore all their previous reviews, an exercise which shouldn’t take any longer than 24 hours (per 100 reviews) for most of us. This new Centurion Star Rating System, would allow us to apply sufficient finesse, and expert judgement on these works, rather than the current sledgehammer 5-star approach we are required to endure. After all, we aren’t rating our favourite ice cream flavours here!! Some understanding of this most elaborate of tasks would be appreciated. Yours Literally, Mark P
May 24, 2022
Another very good Highsmith, close for me on the heels of Deep Water, and both deal with jealousy, though this one is for me more anguished, darker. Again, not quite the level of The Talented Mr. Ripley, but here she is still the Queen of the Suspense Thriller. Highsmith was a misanthrope, revealing how "good" and "ordinary" people have evil sides that certain circumstances can bring out. You think criminals are different than you are? You think murderers are insane and since you are not insane, this temptation to kill could never happen to you? Most literature taps into emotional states, and the best ones get their hooks in you and don't let you go. Highsmith is one of the best suspense thriller authors, tapping into your deepest darkest passionate places here with respect to the bad emotional spaces of jealousy, and vengeance.
In this one you (again) have a seemingly "ordinary" white guy, but when you put certain kinds of pressure to bear on him, we see how he does (not) hold up, with his life step-by-step spinning out of control, into the maelstrom. Phillip Carter is a sweet-natured engineer, married to an equally sweet wife, Hazel, with an adorable young son, Timmy. Life is grand, as it is for you, dear reader! How can anything go wrong?
There but the grace of God, my mother would say about some people, such as the homeless. But Highsmith doesn't believe in God.
Spoiler alert, though I won't tell you many important details or the ending, promise.
Carter gets falsely imprisoned for fraud and spends 6 years in prison before he is released. The opening scene is gruesome, as Carter is hung for several hours by his thumbs for some prison infraction, causing him excruciating pain, injuring him probably permanently, requiring narcotics to cut the pain (and you can see the trajectory there, spinning into a struggle with addiction). Release from the cage happens with the help of a lawyer who (spoiler alert) falls in love with Hazel, has an affair with her, and thus the release process goes not surprisingly more slowly. Someone tells Carter of this affair, he doesn't believe it--his love for her sustains him in his darkest hours, until he begins to see it is true--and your blood pressure goes up now, right? What would you do, faced with this, when you get out?! (No, of course you wouldn't! Not you!).
As with other Highsmith books, Carter is an urbane nice guy who reads literature, loves classical music, plays. . . he is us! And Highsmith forces us to see that criminals are human beings who are not intrinsically evil but succumb to pressures in unfortunate ways, but ways she makes us feel are uncomfortably reasonable. Hazel, too, a young woman, lonely, her husband in prison, a handsome lawyer cares for her, takes her out. . . can Carter and "his" Haze reverse this spiraling out of control?
I loved this book, though it did make me uncomfortable. Here I am in a perfectly happy relationship, and Highsmith has to dredge up an old buried moment of jealousy, which I swear I am going to bury again! But ultimately this book is an indictment of the American prison system, that she researched in part through letter exchanges with prisoners. She also features a prison riot that is in part based on a book she read about a Michigan prison riot. Is it possible for anyone who is in prison to be an "upstanding" member of society, afterwards? Highsmith thinks maybe not, and uses this "ideal" American family as a model for our consideration. But in some books she would seem to place the blame on the individuals, but here at least part of the blame is on the broken American justice system.
In this one you (again) have a seemingly "ordinary" white guy, but when you put certain kinds of pressure to bear on him, we see how he does (not) hold up, with his life step-by-step spinning out of control, into the maelstrom. Phillip Carter is a sweet-natured engineer, married to an equally sweet wife, Hazel, with an adorable young son, Timmy. Life is grand, as it is for you, dear reader! How can anything go wrong?
There but the grace of God, my mother would say about some people, such as the homeless. But Highsmith doesn't believe in God.
Spoiler alert, though I won't tell you many important details or the ending, promise.
Carter gets falsely imprisoned for fraud and spends 6 years in prison before he is released. The opening scene is gruesome, as Carter is hung for several hours by his thumbs for some prison infraction, causing him excruciating pain, injuring him probably permanently, requiring narcotics to cut the pain (and you can see the trajectory there, spinning into a struggle with addiction). Release from the cage happens with the help of a lawyer who (spoiler alert) falls in love with Hazel, has an affair with her, and thus the release process goes not surprisingly more slowly. Someone tells Carter of this affair, he doesn't believe it--his love for her sustains him in his darkest hours, until he begins to see it is true--and your blood pressure goes up now, right? What would you do, faced with this, when you get out?! (No, of course you wouldn't! Not you!).
As with other Highsmith books, Carter is an urbane nice guy who reads literature, loves classical music, plays. . . he is us! And Highsmith forces us to see that criminals are human beings who are not intrinsically evil but succumb to pressures in unfortunate ways, but ways she makes us feel are uncomfortably reasonable. Hazel, too, a young woman, lonely, her husband in prison, a handsome lawyer cares for her, takes her out. . . can Carter and "his" Haze reverse this spiraling out of control?
I loved this book, though it did make me uncomfortable. Here I am in a perfectly happy relationship, and Highsmith has to dredge up an old buried moment of jealousy, which I swear I am going to bury again! But ultimately this book is an indictment of the American prison system, that she researched in part through letter exchanges with prisoners. She also features a prison riot that is in part based on a book she read about a Michigan prison riot. Is it possible for anyone who is in prison to be an "upstanding" member of society, afterwards? Highsmith thinks maybe not, and uses this "ideal" American family as a model for our consideration. But in some books she would seem to place the blame on the individuals, but here at least part of the blame is on the broken American justice system.
February 5, 2021
از لحاظ توصیفات روانشناختی شخصیتها و زندگی زندانیها و خانوادهشون خیلی خوب بود که البته نقطهی قوت پاتریشیا هایاسمیت هم همین توجه به ظرایف روانشناختیه. ترجمه و ویرایش خیلی خوبی هم داشت کتاب
May 22, 2022
I usually read 3 or 4 books at one time until one finally grabs me and forcefully pushes me into my chair, sitting passionately, insistently on my lap, threatening me in a rasping voice, "Take only me and only me, now!"
A history of Rome, Andrew Jackson, and Damon Runyon among others retreated into the corners of my bed stand and I had to finally finish Patricia Highsmith's "The Glass Cell". I gave it 4 stars, not that it was so compelling, but I've been reading her now for nigh on 20 years and use her as a balance in my reading life. ("Engage me and stay with me a little, while I read more serious, demanding books of all genres".)
Each reader may need a companion writer like this who can make the reader feel settled as they go forward into unchartered intellectual territory, not that Jackson and ancient Rome were that to me, but kind of like having a scotch and soda to sip (you can do that, too, and have two reading companions.) Now, that I've finished "The Glass Cell" I will go to my bookshelves and choose another book as I continue--one of the non-intrinsic rewards for finishing a book in the first place.
Highsmith had spent sometime researching prison life, perhaps not for this book, but her details do ring true based on non-fiction accounts that I have read. John Grisham is also very good with this, and her account of the treatment of Carter, the protagonist, in the jail setting seems just as authentic as Grisham's. Carter's time in prison, his wife's visits, and legal developments involving his case and release slowly simmer into an undramatic boil.
Any of Highsmith's work is normally a fairly easy page-turner, but with her apparent method of applying daubs of suspense like a pointillist, I sometimes felt I had not read a sentence or overlooked a paragraph, so I went back over the pages I thought I had carefully read--a chore I hate doing, skimming for a clue--but no, all was intact, nothing missed.
So, in this way I may have stumbled upon Patricia's enticing style: hinting at information that should have been fact as expected by the reader, but then sliding off that point, leaving it exposed, and daubing further away in a whorl instances similar to that one being focused on and perhaps revealing pieces of missing parts and only when you stand away from the panoply of all these moving but settling fragments will you see the whole...but maybe not.
With Highsmith you never know from where the surprise will come. Somehow, she reminds me not only of Georges Seurat, but also of Albert Camus.
A history of Rome, Andrew Jackson, and Damon Runyon among others retreated into the corners of my bed stand and I had to finally finish Patricia Highsmith's "The Glass Cell". I gave it 4 stars, not that it was so compelling, but I've been reading her now for nigh on 20 years and use her as a balance in my reading life. ("Engage me and stay with me a little, while I read more serious, demanding books of all genres".)
Each reader may need a companion writer like this who can make the reader feel settled as they go forward into unchartered intellectual territory, not that Jackson and ancient Rome were that to me, but kind of like having a scotch and soda to sip (you can do that, too, and have two reading companions.) Now, that I've finished "The Glass Cell" I will go to my bookshelves and choose another book as I continue--one of the non-intrinsic rewards for finishing a book in the first place.
Highsmith had spent sometime researching prison life, perhaps not for this book, but her details do ring true based on non-fiction accounts that I have read. John Grisham is also very good with this, and her account of the treatment of Carter, the protagonist, in the jail setting seems just as authentic as Grisham's. Carter's time in prison, his wife's visits, and legal developments involving his case and release slowly simmer into an undramatic boil.
Any of Highsmith's work is normally a fairly easy page-turner, but with her apparent method of applying daubs of suspense like a pointillist, I sometimes felt I had not read a sentence or overlooked a paragraph, so I went back over the pages I thought I had carefully read--a chore I hate doing, skimming for a clue--but no, all was intact, nothing missed.
So, in this way I may have stumbled upon Patricia's enticing style: hinting at information that should have been fact as expected by the reader, but then sliding off that point, leaving it exposed, and daubing further away in a whorl instances similar to that one being focused on and perhaps revealing pieces of missing parts and only when you stand away from the panoply of all these moving but settling fragments will you see the whole...but maybe not.
With Highsmith you never know from where the surprise will come. Somehow, she reminds me not only of Georges Seurat, but also of Albert Camus.
December 11, 2015
Description: Philip Carter has spent six years in prison for a crime he didn't commit. On his release his beautiful wife is waiting for him. He has never had any reason to doubt her. Nor their friend, Sullivan. Carter has never been suspicious, or violent. But prison can change a man.
Opening: It was 3.35pm, Tuesday afternoon, in the State Penitentiary, and the inmates were returning from the workshops.
When Highsmith started communicating with a prisoner she was drawn into his story and this is the fictionalised account.
3* The Glass Cell
5* The Cry of the Owl
3* The Price of Salt
3* Strangers on a Train
3* The Two Faces of January
2* small g
5* Ripley #1
5* Ripley #2
4* Ripley #3
3* Ripley #4
3* Ripley #5
Opening: It was 3.35pm, Tuesday afternoon, in the State Penitentiary, and the inmates were returning from the workshops.
When Highsmith started communicating with a prisoner she was drawn into his story and this is the fictionalised account.3* The Glass Cell
5* The Cry of the Owl
3* The Price of Salt
3* Strangers on a Train
3* The Two Faces of January
2* small g
5* Ripley #1
5* Ripley #2
4* Ripley #3
3* Ripley #4
3* Ripley #5
March 5, 2023
Enjoying my foray into lesser known Highsmith. This certainly isn't predictable and doesn't follow any set of predetermined beats of a crime novel. The crime itself comes so late in the story you may start thinking it's a social novel instead. That's not a bad thing.
As you'd expect from the time, Highsmith is examining social systems but is only able to take them so far. (In a story about prison, we not only have a white man, but an innocent one and a white collar crime.) Still, she paints a surprisingly full picture of life in prison and she certainly understands the inherent violence in a system between guards and prisoners. (The beginning has a torture scene that is relatively brief.) You can see how much this interests her, and even after the protagonist's release she shows us the impact of it.
The last third may actually be the weakest part of the book, it does seem to dilute the themes a bit, but it is extremely Highsmithian, that's for sure.
As you'd expect from the time, Highsmith is examining social systems but is only able to take them so far. (In a story about prison, we not only have a white man, but an innocent one and a white collar crime.) Still, she paints a surprisingly full picture of life in prison and she certainly understands the inherent violence in a system between guards and prisoners. (The beginning has a torture scene that is relatively brief.) You can see how much this interests her, and even after the protagonist's release she shows us the impact of it.
The last third may actually be the weakest part of the book, it does seem to dilute the themes a bit, but it is extremely Highsmithian, that's for sure.
July 22, 2024
This novel was the result of a fan letter. Someone read Highsmith's 'Deep Water', admired it, and sent her a letter telling her so. He was in prison at the time.
One might think that, for someone like Highsmith, getting a rave review from someone in prison might not have been all that rare an occurrence. But let's say it was. And let's say that such a letter thrilled Highsmith - a writer whose characters tended to get away with murder. Let's say it piqued her curiosity and then put a real fire under her.
It might be fascinating to know more about the exchange between reader and writer, but what we do know is that Pat had many questions about being in prison and she put them forth. What eventually came of that is a skillful dissection of life behind bars - and all of that makes up the first half of this novel.
It makes for Highsmith With A Difference, as the whole tone of the gripping first half of 'The Glass Cell' is unlike anything that can be found elsewhere in the author's work. Not only does it have something of a documentary feel but it's mixed with a marked sense of compassion (no doubt tied to the fact that the protagonist has been wrongfully imprisoned). While Highsmith showing compassion isn't exactly rare, her use of it here points us in a direction not ultimately followed.
In the book's second half, Philip Carter once again (after six years) gains his freedom - but, this being a Highsmith story, something twisty and twisted awaits him.
Just as the reader is settling into a plot that sees the author in something of a more congenial mood, Highsmith returns to familiar territory. Carter begins taking on the kind of self-assurance that Highsmith fans have witnessed before.
Some might think the novel's last quarter or so is a bit rushed but I think what we're made to feel as we approach the finish line is the reminder that, after all, the whole thing has just been a story. A diversion. A bit of a mind-fuck perhaps but nothing near as harrowing as a real trip to prison.
One might think that, for someone like Highsmith, getting a rave review from someone in prison might not have been all that rare an occurrence. But let's say it was. And let's say that such a letter thrilled Highsmith - a writer whose characters tended to get away with murder. Let's say it piqued her curiosity and then put a real fire under her.
It might be fascinating to know more about the exchange between reader and writer, but what we do know is that Pat had many questions about being in prison and she put them forth. What eventually came of that is a skillful dissection of life behind bars - and all of that makes up the first half of this novel.
It makes for Highsmith With A Difference, as the whole tone of the gripping first half of 'The Glass Cell' is unlike anything that can be found elsewhere in the author's work. Not only does it have something of a documentary feel but it's mixed with a marked sense of compassion (no doubt tied to the fact that the protagonist has been wrongfully imprisoned). While Highsmith showing compassion isn't exactly rare, her use of it here points us in a direction not ultimately followed.
In the book's second half, Philip Carter once again (after six years) gains his freedom - but, this being a Highsmith story, something twisty and twisted awaits him.
Just as the reader is settling into a plot that sees the author in something of a more congenial mood, Highsmith returns to familiar territory. Carter begins taking on the kind of self-assurance that Highsmith fans have witnessed before.
Some might think the novel's last quarter or so is a bit rushed but I think what we're made to feel as we approach the finish line is the reminder that, after all, the whole thing has just been a story. A diversion. A bit of a mind-fuck perhaps but nothing near as harrowing as a real trip to prison.
March 1, 2016
I didn't like this nearly as much as the other books I've read by Highsmith. Apparently based at least partly on truth, from letters she exchanged with a convict in 1961. Quite naturally, then this is also the story of a convict who serves six years in prison for a crime he didn't commit and then gets released and reunited with his wife and son.
The book is mainly about relationships the convict forms, both with other inmates while in prison, and with his family and friends after he gets out. Unfortunately, I didn't really find this to be compelling reading, and the suspense that Highsmith is famous for just isn't there.
Also, pretty much all of the characters have so many flaws that they are really impossible to like, at least for me. There is a fair amount of action in the novel, but I still didn't find the book gripping at all, or really all that interesting. I will try others of her books however, as I have really enjoyed the other ones that I have read so far.
The book is mainly about relationships the convict forms, both with other inmates while in prison, and with his family and friends after he gets out. Unfortunately, I didn't really find this to be compelling reading, and the suspense that Highsmith is famous for just isn't there.
Also, pretty much all of the characters have so many flaws that they are really impossible to like, at least for me. There is a fair amount of action in the novel, but I still didn't find the book gripping at all, or really all that interesting. I will try others of her books however, as I have really enjoyed the other ones that I have read so far.
August 4, 2022
مشکلی نداشت ولی کشش هم نداشت و این به نظرم عنصریه که هر اثر جنایی خوبی باید داشته باشه.
June 22, 2017
Carter is an innocent man convicted of financial chicanery. While in prison for six years, he suspects that his wife is having an affair with his lawyer. While this book has a twisty plot and the moral ambiguity that I expect from Highsmith, I was bored by this book. Too much time was spent in the prison setting with its predictable violence and general unpleasantness. I liked the book a little more after Carter was released, but that still didn't redeem the book for me. This was just adequate Highsmith.
May 6, 2014
I begin this post with a warning to the many devoted Goldfinch fans who evidently put the latest Tartt magnum opus on a par with the Bible. You won’t like this, not one little bit. You see, I put down The Goldfinch smack bang in the middle of it and picked up The Glass Cell, which I didn’t stop reading until I finished it. ‘OMG, How COULD you? The greatest book in the whole history of books ever and you did THAT????’ I can hear them all, as I write. Well, I did, so there.
I needed to take something to an afternoon of film noir and the only goldfinch in existence which weighs two ton was not what I was going to take with me. For a start, what if it pooed in the cinema? That alone would weigh more than this petite offering from Highsmith.
Rest here:
http://alittleteaalittlechat.wordpres...
I needed to take something to an afternoon of film noir and the only goldfinch in existence which weighs two ton was not what I was going to take with me. For a start, what if it pooed in the cinema? That alone would weigh more than this petite offering from Highsmith.
Rest here:
http://alittleteaalittlechat.wordpres...
February 2, 2021
A middling Highsmith novel, which is to say that it's still better than almost anything by any other author in the genre. It doesn't reach the vertiginous highs of, say, the Ripley books – but then, what does?
One reason why this one packs less of a punch than some other Highsmiths is that it is set entirely in the US, and consequently lacks the unsettled, dislocated atmosphere of the European novels. The protagonist's life is certainly upended, but in this case the feeling of alienation is more brutal and less seductive. I'm deliberately refraining from saying any more about that so as not to give away any spoilers, even though the back jacket blurb of my edition gave away the midpoint climax in the first sentence, goddammit.
One reason why this one packs less of a punch than some other Highsmiths is that it is set entirely in the US, and consequently lacks the unsettled, dislocated atmosphere of the European novels. The protagonist's life is certainly upended, but in this case the feeling of alienation is more brutal and less seductive. I'm deliberately refraining from saying any more about that so as not to give away any spoilers, even though the back jacket blurb of my edition gave away the midpoint climax in the first sentence, goddammit.
January 6, 2019
"Life is funny. It is necessary both to see oneself in perspective and not to see oneself in perspective, yet either one can lead to madness. The two things must be done at the same time."
- Patricia Highsmith, The Glass Cell
An innocent man is sent to prison for six years and once let out, addicted to Morphine, he attempts to reconnect with his son, his wife, and her lover. Highsmith is the master of motivations and psychological thrillers. She knows what makes people tick and what it takes to break the clock. In 1961 she received a fan letter from a fan in prison. Soon they started writing back and forth. She became fascinated with the psychological trauma incarceration can inflict upon a man. There is, underlying almost all of Highsmith's stories, the image that within all men (and women) a bit of the sadist, the criminal, the psychopath. Most of us, however, are never twisted into a position where our own personal monster emerges. Highsmith loves looking at what makes the monster and is amazing in her ability ot describe the mental state of those caught in the dark machine that lurks just under the surfance of our own brain.
This isn't her best, but for fans of Highsmith, don't overlook it.
- Patricia Highsmith, The Glass Cell
An innocent man is sent to prison for six years and once let out, addicted to Morphine, he attempts to reconnect with his son, his wife, and her lover. Highsmith is the master of motivations and psychological thrillers. She knows what makes people tick and what it takes to break the clock. In 1961 she received a fan letter from a fan in prison. Soon they started writing back and forth. She became fascinated with the psychological trauma incarceration can inflict upon a man. There is, underlying almost all of Highsmith's stories, the image that within all men (and women) a bit of the sadist, the criminal, the psychopath. Most of us, however, are never twisted into a position where our own personal monster emerges. Highsmith loves looking at what makes the monster and is amazing in her ability ot describe the mental state of those caught in the dark machine that lurks just under the surfance of our own brain.
This isn't her best, but for fans of Highsmith, don't overlook it.
September 13, 2018
Εξαιρετικό βιβλίο.
October 23, 2018
Highsmith's often disturbing story concerns Philip Carter, a 30 year old engineer, who, due to a combination of bad luck and foolishness, finds himself serving a lengthy prison sentence in the American south in the 1950s. The first half of the novel, with Carter incarcerated, is especially dark, with a strong undercurrent of the author's dissatisfaction with the state of the US prison system.
Though Carter returns to his wife and child after release, he is far from the naive and amicable man he was.
As well as a harrowing condemnation of the effects of the prison system the story explores the destructive effects of suspicion and guilt.
It is a dark story with such strong imagery that it will linger long in the memory.
Though Carter returns to his wife and child after release, he is far from the naive and amicable man he was.
As well as a harrowing condemnation of the effects of the prison system the story explores the destructive effects of suspicion and guilt.
It is a dark story with such strong imagery that it will linger long in the memory.
November 22, 2021
Crippling carelessness netted Carter six years in prison and a ticket to the Hole. Highsmith likes to create men of weak character and then give them the works.
This story is cold and stony like the prison floor. Highsmith doesn't give any of the characters humorous eccentricities like snail farming. I think Pat must have been in a particularly mean-spirited mood when she wrote this.
This story is cold and stony like the prison floor. Highsmith doesn't give any of the characters humorous eccentricities like snail farming. I think Pat must have been in a particularly mean-spirited mood when she wrote this.
December 18, 2018
I have now read six novels by Patricia Highsmith. She was truly a unique and excellent writer. Unique because of her unabashed look at evil and psychological misfits; excellent because her books are shorn of frills while she puts her readers smack inside the heads of her protagonists, whether male or female.
Earlier this year I read Rachel Kushner's prison story The Mars Room. The Glass Cell is also a prison story but in this one a man goes to a State Penitentiary for a financial crime he did not commit. In fact, Philip Carter was framed. He is no hardened criminal. He was a naive guy, madly in love with his beautiful wife and toddler son, and in no way prepared for the brutality of prison.
The book opens in the early months of his six year sentence. Philip's naivete leads him into an incident of extreme prison guard violence, only exacerbating his victim hood. All through the first half of the story, Philip is hoping his lawyers can get a retrial while he tries to hold onto his marriage.
Some months ago I also read An American Marriage by Tayari Jones, another story of a wrongful incarceration, this time due to racism, impacting a young marriage. In The Glass Cell, Philip becomes suspicious that Hazel, his wife, is having an affair with one of his lawyers.
As gruesome as his time in prison is, Philip gets a lot more savvy about life. His easy-going personality goes through change after change. So the true excitement begins when he is finally released after serving the full six years and systematically goes after his enemies. He has learned much about how the criminal mind works and how to get away with criminal activity!
Highsmith came to write The Glass Cell after a fan letter from a prison inmate led to a correspondence between them. It is a perceptive fictional account of what she learned about the psychological trauma caused by imprisonment and an indictment of the failure in rehabilitation by the prison system. It is also a compelling read.
March 29, 2024
Es una novela magnífica, en la línea del resto de la obra de Patricia Highsmith. La historia, ya interesante en sí misma, esconde como trasfondo una de las cuestiones que más me han preocupado a lo largo de mi vida, las manifestaciones y propiedades del amor. No insistiré en detalles narrativos porque es un libro que es mejor leer (no como la mierda de literatura española del siglo XX donde no aplica el concepto de spoiler).
Pd: los cinco libros de la saga de Thomas Ripley de la misma autora son excelentes.
Pd: los cinco libros de la saga de Thomas Ripley de la misma autora son excelentes.
May 22, 2023
04/2014
The first half of this 1964 novel is about life in prison, anxious and violent but surprisingly readable. The second half is about life after prison, developing into a classic Highsmithian tale of murder, guilt and lack of guilt.
The first half of this 1964 novel is about life in prison, anxious and violent but surprisingly readable. The second half is about life after prison, developing into a classic Highsmithian tale of murder, guilt and lack of guilt.
December 21, 2023
No puedo creer que llevo app 1 año leyendo este libro! Culpo al internado.
La verdad es que al inicio pensé q iba a ser una historia piola sobre critica al sistema penitenciario estadounidense, pero las últimas 100 páginas son una locura.
MUY recomendado si te gusta Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl, Sharp Objects, Dark Places).
-4.5 !!!!
La verdad es que al inicio pensé q iba a ser una historia piola sobre critica al sistema penitenciario estadounidense, pero las últimas 100 páginas son una locura.
MUY recomendado si te gusta Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl, Sharp Objects, Dark Places).
-4.5 !!!!
February 27, 2024
Patricia Highsmith's The Glass Cell is the story of an innocent man who is sentenced to six years in jail for a crime he didn't commit. The experience, however, has coarsened him somewhat. He commits three murders: of a fellow prisoner who threatens him during a prison riot, of the lawyer who carries on an affair with his wife, and of a hood who attempts to blackmail him.
Only Patricia Highsmith could succeed in having us view the world through the eyes of someone so lacking in moral compass; in fact, it is something of a specialty with her. So far, all her books I have read have been worth reading, but it is always -- morally speaking -- a bumpy ride.
Only Patricia Highsmith could succeed in having us view the world through the eyes of someone so lacking in moral compass; in fact, it is something of a specialty with her. So far, all her books I have read have been worth reading, but it is always -- morally speaking -- a bumpy ride.
March 8, 2016
As a Highsmith fan I wasn't disappointed by this book about a man who is changed both physically and mentally after spending six years in prison for a crime he didn't commit. It is very dark, psychologically disturbing and morally ambiguous. I daresay for some readers there may not be enough action in the book, but I loved the chilling way the story slowly unfolded. It's a book that stays with you and continues to resonate long after you've put it down.
January 31, 2016
An excellent dose of Patricia Highsmith, with plenty of suspense and violence. A book of two halves with the first based around Philip Carter's time in prison for a crime he didn't commit. The second his return to life outside back in New York. Great stuff again from Highsmith, her writing certainly has longevity, this is as relevant now as it was in the 1960s when she wrote it.
March 1, 2019
I listened to the audio version and was put off by the readers style of reading. Maybe i would have liked this book better, had i read it myself. It's a classical Patricia Highsmth novel. Phil Carter is an innocent man put to jail unjustly. Life in prison is not easy,Carter changes in and out as time goes by. He is longing to go back to his family but he remains in jail for 6 years. When he is released he is a totally new man. Violence has now rooted within his soul,a sheep that has become a wolf. What justice can prison do to an innocent man? It deteriorates his personality and turns him into a real monster. Carter from completely innocent becomes steadily a real criminal but will he pay for his dues?
July 27, 2014
"Sem o resto do mundo para dizer a um homem quando devia comer ou dormir, quando devia trabalhar e parar de o fazer, sem todas as outras pessoas a fazer coisas para imitar, um indivíduo podia ficar louco."
Ao aproximar-me do fim dos livros da Patricia Highsmith, penso que qualquer leitor apaixonado pelo género mistério devia ter vergonha, se ainda não conhece a autora. Por outro lado, esperam-lhe grandes estranhos, maravilhosos e assustadores livros! Ninguém escreve como Patricia Highsmith e as suas personagens são as mais estranhas, miseráveis e perturbadas. São as personagens mais reais que alguma vez conhecerão.
Philip Carter foi acusado e condenado a seis anos por um crime que não cometeu. Após o tempo na prisão, caracterizado por alguns momentos de violência, o nosso anti-herói de pouca sorte volta para a sua família. Física e mentalmente danificado, viciado em morfina, vê a sua vida complicar-se, ao contrário do esperado.
"A Cela de Vidro" é um retrato vivido e convincente da vida numa prisão, onde os guardas fecham os olhos em troca de alguma coisa e onde os prisioneiros constroem reputações na hierarquia do poder. A segunda metade do livro, foca-se na vida como ex-condenado, onde a adaptação é exigida e a cicatriz da prisão sempre visível.
Numa sociedade que defende um conjunto de valores para separar o Bem do Mal, não há ou haverá lugar para uma segunda oportunidade, porque o prazer do julgamento do outro é muito superior à satisfação pessoal de saber que se está a agir com o coração.
"Já imaginaste estar sentado numa prisão a ler Emily Bronte? As coisas não são assim tão más, pois não?"
Ao aproximar-me do fim dos livros da Patricia Highsmith, penso que qualquer leitor apaixonado pelo género mistério devia ter vergonha, se ainda não conhece a autora. Por outro lado, esperam-lhe grandes estranhos, maravilhosos e assustadores livros! Ninguém escreve como Patricia Highsmith e as suas personagens são as mais estranhas, miseráveis e perturbadas. São as personagens mais reais que alguma vez conhecerão.
Philip Carter foi acusado e condenado a seis anos por um crime que não cometeu. Após o tempo na prisão, caracterizado por alguns momentos de violência, o nosso anti-herói de pouca sorte volta para a sua família. Física e mentalmente danificado, viciado em morfina, vê a sua vida complicar-se, ao contrário do esperado.
"A Cela de Vidro" é um retrato vivido e convincente da vida numa prisão, onde os guardas fecham os olhos em troca de alguma coisa e onde os prisioneiros constroem reputações na hierarquia do poder. A segunda metade do livro, foca-se na vida como ex-condenado, onde a adaptação é exigida e a cicatriz da prisão sempre visível.
Numa sociedade que defende um conjunto de valores para separar o Bem do Mal, não há ou haverá lugar para uma segunda oportunidade, porque o prazer do julgamento do outro é muito superior à satisfação pessoal de saber que se está a agir com o coração.
"Já imaginaste estar sentado numa prisão a ler Emily Bronte? As coisas não são assim tão más, pois não?"
January 13, 2017
I bought a number of the latest Virago reprints of Highsmith recently. Why? She's not my usual sort of writer, largely because read at length, the flatness of her prose gets monotonous and frustrating. However, the themes of her work, and the fact that she has nothing but contempt for the notion of a providential universe, mean that there is no 'safety net' for her characters. 'The Glass Cell' is an oddly haunting book, one I liked far more than 'The Two Faces of January' or 'Those Who Walk Away'. However, it's also a book of two halves. It gets off to a fantastic start with the protagonist being tortured in prison (as if that would happen in the Land of the Free!) and acquiring a morphine addiction, and for about 150 pages it's pretty gripping. Once Carter leaves prison and becomes obsessed with the idea that his wife may be having an affair, Highsmith gives us an excellent portrayal of a jealous and disturbed man. What he does when he's jealous and disturbed is, unfortunately, rather less interesting, and the book drifts until a rather rushed (but still quite satisfying) double killing. The ending is beautifully ambivalent.
There's something about Highsmith - she definitely gets under your skin. However, there's nothing here as weird and threatening as the author herself, with the result that I think her best performance is in 'Beautiful Shadow', her biography: she has an ornament made from branding irons and thinks the people in the next apartment sound like pigs doused in boiling water when they have sex. I'd give the prison section of this novel 4 stars, but the second half pulls it down. We never really get to know Mrs Carter, though perhaps that's the point.
There's something about Highsmith - she definitely gets under your skin. However, there's nothing here as weird and threatening as the author herself, with the result that I think her best performance is in 'Beautiful Shadow', her biography: she has an ornament made from branding irons and thinks the people in the next apartment sound like pigs doused in boiling water when they have sex. I'd give the prison section of this novel 4 stars, but the second half pulls it down. We never really get to know Mrs Carter, though perhaps that's the point.
March 13, 2021
It's the 100th anniversary of Highsmith's birth this year, so a good time to read (or re-read) her.
Philip Carter is wrongly convicted of a crime and spends six years in prison. (If you can get past the first chapter, which describes some very harsh goings-on, the rest isn't bad) The first roughly half is about his life in prison, and the second half is about post-release, and we see how prison has altered him as he reacts to his wife's infidelity with a family friend, the distance that has grown between him and his adolescent son, and the seedy characters who caused his incarceration, and now seem to be drawing him into new troubles.
It was kind of a flabby book, because you don't really see where it's going or what you should pay attention to among the many incidents and characters and Scotch-fueled confrontations, set amid retro activities like making mimeographs and attending dinner parties and corresponding by mail and being able to rent an apartment in Manhattan with only a part-time job. When Philip develops an intense (homoerotic?) friendship with another prisoner, a forger, you think, well, forgery is going to play into the story, but then it doesn't.
Anyway, I suspect the great Ms. H wrote a lot of this book not knowing what was going to happen herself, and I felt I was watching her come around, rather late, to what the book was going to be. Very Highsmithian ending, which I really appreciated.
Philip Carter is wrongly convicted of a crime and spends six years in prison. (If you can get past the first chapter, which describes some very harsh goings-on, the rest isn't bad) The first roughly half is about his life in prison, and the second half is about post-release, and we see how prison has altered him as he reacts to his wife's infidelity with a family friend, the distance that has grown between him and his adolescent son, and the seedy characters who caused his incarceration, and now seem to be drawing him into new troubles.
It was kind of a flabby book, because you don't really see where it's going or what you should pay attention to among the many incidents and characters and Scotch-fueled confrontations, set amid retro activities like making mimeographs and attending dinner parties and corresponding by mail and being able to rent an apartment in Manhattan with only a part-time job. When Philip develops an intense (homoerotic?) friendship with another prisoner, a forger, you think, well, forgery is going to play into the story, but then it doesn't.
Anyway, I suspect the great Ms. H wrote a lot of this book not knowing what was going to happen herself, and I felt I was watching her come around, rather late, to what the book was going to be. Very Highsmithian ending, which I really appreciated.
June 8, 2016
In her treatise ‘Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction’ Patricia Highsmith explains how simple ideas come to be the ‘germs’ of her novels.
Having now read several of her non-Ripley works, I am really beginning to appreciate her ability in this regard.
‘The Glass Cell’ is about a guy who is incarcerated – probably unluckily – for his association with fraudsters. He becomes concerned that the diligence of his lawyer in filing continual appeals is because of the access it provides to his attractive wife. Worse, as the months behind bars become years, it seems his wife may succumb to such entreaties – though she denies there being a relationship.
Although he is eventually released from prison, and is reunited with his wife and their son, it seems the lawyer has infiltrated their social circle. Now, though the bars might be gone, the protagonist is forced to watch from inside his ‘glass’ cell – powerless to prevent what he suspects is the continuation of the affair.
That is the ‘germ’ – and all that is to be added is, “What will he do?”
On such a rudimentary skeleton of a plot hangs almost the entire the flesh of the novel – and what I find remarkable about these stories is how they remain constantly gripping without deviation. I ask myself what intangible skill is it that the author possessed to make so little go so far?
Having now read several of her non-Ripley works, I am really beginning to appreciate her ability in this regard.
‘The Glass Cell’ is about a guy who is incarcerated – probably unluckily – for his association with fraudsters. He becomes concerned that the diligence of his lawyer in filing continual appeals is because of the access it provides to his attractive wife. Worse, as the months behind bars become years, it seems his wife may succumb to such entreaties – though she denies there being a relationship.
Although he is eventually released from prison, and is reunited with his wife and their son, it seems the lawyer has infiltrated their social circle. Now, though the bars might be gone, the protagonist is forced to watch from inside his ‘glass’ cell – powerless to prevent what he suspects is the continuation of the affair.
That is the ‘germ’ – and all that is to be added is, “What will he do?”
On such a rudimentary skeleton of a plot hangs almost the entire the flesh of the novel – and what I find remarkable about these stories is how they remain constantly gripping without deviation. I ask myself what intangible skill is it that the author possessed to make so little go so far?
July 27, 2025
La novela de Patricia Highsmith es una mirada muy inquietante a la mente humana y nos muestra cómo la institución carcelaria puede pervertir más que redimir. Lo más impactante es la transformación de Carter: entra en prisión, quizá injustamente, y emerge como un asesino. La cárcel no solo amplifica su rencor, sino que lo moldea hasta convertirlo en un ser irreconocible, haciendo que sus acciones posteriores sean inseparables de su tiempo tras las rejas.
La relación con Max es un punto de contraste fascinante. En medio del aislamiento brutal, la amistad de Max parece un alivio genuino, aunque su naturaleza sea difícil de comprender desde fuera. Resulta inquietante la idea de que los presos que mejor se adaptan son aquellos sin lazos externos. Tener vínculos con el mundo de fuera puede convertirse en una tortura lenta, una constante recordatorio de una vida que sigue girando sin ti.
La dinámica entre Carter y Hazel, su pareja, está envuelta en una ambigüedad que más que ternura, deja una sensación de frustración. En el fondo, el libro habla mucho de eso: de lo que no se dice, de lo que se reprime hasta que estalla.
Highsmith escribe de forma directa, sin adornos, pero con una mirada muy afilada. Me atrapó desde las primeras páginas, arrastrándome a una tensión psicológica de la que es difícil escapar.
La relación con Max es un punto de contraste fascinante. En medio del aislamiento brutal, la amistad de Max parece un alivio genuino, aunque su naturaleza sea difícil de comprender desde fuera. Resulta inquietante la idea de que los presos que mejor se adaptan son aquellos sin lazos externos. Tener vínculos con el mundo de fuera puede convertirse en una tortura lenta, una constante recordatorio de una vida que sigue girando sin ti.
La dinámica entre Carter y Hazel, su pareja, está envuelta en una ambigüedad que más que ternura, deja una sensación de frustración. En el fondo, el libro habla mucho de eso: de lo que no se dice, de lo que se reprime hasta que estalla.
Highsmith escribe de forma directa, sin adornos, pero con una mirada muy afilada. Me atrapó desde las primeras páginas, arrastrándome a una tensión psicológica de la que es difícil escapar.
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