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La casa negra
Horrific tragedy becomes disturbingly ordinary in The Black House, a collection of short stories, written during a particularly dark time in Patricia Highsmith's life. As readers will discover, the work eerily evokes the warm familiarities of suburban life: the manicured lawns, the white picket fences, and the local pubs, each providing the backbone for her chilling portraits. Seemingly small indiscretions and infidelities - along with love affairs and murder - consume the characters that commit them. Cycles of destructive jealousy overwhelm the cheating protagonists of "Blow It" and "When in Rome," and the title story explores small-town male camaraderie and the destructive secret it masks. This collection of eleven stories presents Highsmith at her finest: melancholy, suspenseful, and sizzling with a powerful awareness of human emotion.
312 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1981
116 people are currently reading
729 people want to read
About the author
Patricia Highsmith
487 books5,034 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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Displaying 1 - 30 of 103 reviews
April 6, 2025
We killed him, Lucienne thought. Everybody was thinking that, and no one had the guts to say it.
This collection is a fine testament to the misanthropy of Highsmith - but what is satisfying is the many different moods and textures in which she clothes her sweeping dislike of other people. Here we have the juxtaposition of suburban mundanity with something horrid ('Something the Cat Dragged In'), exposés of herd mentality and social persecution ('Not One of Us'), and sheer cold-blooded corruption and exploitation ('Under a Dark Angel's Eye').
But there are also stories told with a dark and cold humour: 'When in Rome' and 'Blow It'. 'Old Folks at Home' is a horribly telling story about self-satisfied philanthropy and brings out the inner monster in all of us (I hope that's not just me!).
For horror-adjacent, I'd be hard-pressed to offer up an example as elliptical and inexplicable as 'The Terrors of Basket Weaving', and the eponymous 'The Black House' gives us a fascinating twist on the conventional haunted house narrative mixing it up with ideas of masculinity.
Don't read this when you need some optimism and feel-good vibes - Highsmith pretty much thinks that humanity is a vile species, and uses these stories to show that vividly.
May 14, 2022
Nota promedio 3.5.
Los relatos que integran esta antología se pueden dividir en dos grupos: aquellos en los que hay crímenes, y aquellos en los que no los hay. Los primeros remiten a la Highsmith más clásica. Los segundos siguen impregnados de su humor negro y su gusto por lo macabro. En "Lo que trajo el gato" una familia pasa un día apacible cuando su gato aparece con dedos humanos en la boca. Le doy cuatro estrellas. En "Nunca fue uno de los nuestros", un grupo de amigos se confabula para arruinarle la vida a otro, simplemente porque lo encuentran molesto. Cinco estrellas, me pareció tremendo como Highsmith retrata la indiferencia y la falta de culpa en las personas. El tercer relato, "Los terrores de la cestería", ya no me parece tan bueno. Dos estrellas. En el cuarto "Bajo la mirada de un ángel oscuro", remonta y nos describe una suerte de venganza con tonos bíblicos ante la traición de un amigo (nuevamente Highsmith pone de resalto la falta de remordimiento de las personas por sus actos, algo que abunda en los relatos). Cinco estrellas. "Detesto tu vida" me pareció el peor de todos, una sola estrella. "El sueño del Emma C" tiene un planteo bastante lógico pero que se torna inverosímil por la rapidez con que los personajes se vuelven unos contra otros. Dos estrellas. "Ancianos en casa" mejora muchísimo: un matrimonio de cuarentones recibe a un matrimonio de ancianos en su casa, pensando que les van a a hacer un bien, pero en realidad los ancianos son descarados, explotadores y crueles. Cinco estrellas. "Donde fueres" puede parecer inverosímil a muchos lectores, ya que los personajes son personas acomodadas, pero precisamente lo que los mueve al delito es esa maldita monotonía de sus vidas donde nada falta. Tres estrellas. "A propósito" es un relato que padece de los mismos problemas que "Detesto tu vida": se supone que nos deben impresionar problemas absolutamente personales y auto infligidos de personajes con los cuales es muy difícil empatizar. Una estrella. Los dos últimos relatos, felizmente, vuelven a mejorar. En "La cometa", un chico que ha perdido recientemente a su hermana sufre la indiferencia, y en algunos casos, la burla, de sus padres, y se obsesiona con fabricar una cometa perfecta. Cinco estrellas. Por último, "La casa negra", el relato que da nombre al libro. Como yo mismo soy escritor de una novela con una casa embrujada, admito que soy parcial a este último. Un pequeño pueblo provincial siente miedo y reverencia por una casa vacía desde hace décadas, y el protagonista se propone desbancar el mito, con consecuencias trágicas. El relato, además, traza una buena descripción de los rednecks de USA. Cinco estrellas.
Los relatos que integran esta antología se pueden dividir en dos grupos: aquellos en los que hay crímenes, y aquellos en los que no los hay. Los primeros remiten a la Highsmith más clásica. Los segundos siguen impregnados de su humor negro y su gusto por lo macabro. En "Lo que trajo el gato" una familia pasa un día apacible cuando su gato aparece con dedos humanos en la boca. Le doy cuatro estrellas. En "Nunca fue uno de los nuestros", un grupo de amigos se confabula para arruinarle la vida a otro, simplemente porque lo encuentran molesto. Cinco estrellas, me pareció tremendo como Highsmith retrata la indiferencia y la falta de culpa en las personas. El tercer relato, "Los terrores de la cestería", ya no me parece tan bueno. Dos estrellas. En el cuarto "Bajo la mirada de un ángel oscuro", remonta y nos describe una suerte de venganza con tonos bíblicos ante la traición de un amigo (nuevamente Highsmith pone de resalto la falta de remordimiento de las personas por sus actos, algo que abunda en los relatos). Cinco estrellas. "Detesto tu vida" me pareció el peor de todos, una sola estrella. "El sueño del Emma C" tiene un planteo bastante lógico pero que se torna inverosímil por la rapidez con que los personajes se vuelven unos contra otros. Dos estrellas. "Ancianos en casa" mejora muchísimo: un matrimonio de cuarentones recibe a un matrimonio de ancianos en su casa, pensando que les van a a hacer un bien, pero en realidad los ancianos son descarados, explotadores y crueles. Cinco estrellas. "Donde fueres" puede parecer inverosímil a muchos lectores, ya que los personajes son personas acomodadas, pero precisamente lo que los mueve al delito es esa maldita monotonía de sus vidas donde nada falta. Tres estrellas. "A propósito" es un relato que padece de los mismos problemas que "Detesto tu vida": se supone que nos deben impresionar problemas absolutamente personales y auto infligidos de personajes con los cuales es muy difícil empatizar. Una estrella. Los dos últimos relatos, felizmente, vuelven a mejorar. En "La cometa", un chico que ha perdido recientemente a su hermana sufre la indiferencia, y en algunos casos, la burla, de sus padres, y se obsesiona con fabricar una cometa perfecta. Cinco estrellas. Por último, "La casa negra", el relato que da nombre al libro. Como yo mismo soy escritor de una novela con una casa embrujada, admito que soy parcial a este último. Un pequeño pueblo provincial siente miedo y reverencia por una casa vacía desde hace décadas, y el protagonista se propone desbancar el mito, con consecuencias trágicas. El relato, además, traza una buena descripción de los rednecks de USA. Cinco estrellas.
July 26, 2020
Siempre es interesante leer a Patricia Highsmith, aunque esta colección de relatos puede que no esté entre sus mejores obras, pero las atmósferas inquietantes que presenta tienen el sello inconfundible de la autora.
La avaricia, los celos, las pulsiones asesinas, todo el lado oscuro de la naturaleza humana aflora en estas historias que se desarrollan en los entornos seguros y anodinos de los barrios residenciales con sus jardines bien cuidados.
Una familia se distrae apaciblemente con un juego de mesa esperando la hora de tomar el té y el gato entra de la calle y trae… unos dedos humanos! Hechos repentinos como éste rompen la rutina y abren las puertas a lo desconocido.
En conjunto, una buena antología, sobre todo para aficionados al universo Highsmith.
3,5*
La avaricia, los celos, las pulsiones asesinas, todo el lado oscuro de la naturaleza humana aflora en estas historias que se desarrollan en los entornos seguros y anodinos de los barrios residenciales con sus jardines bien cuidados.
Una familia se distrae apaciblemente con un juego de mesa esperando la hora de tomar el té y el gato entra de la calle y trae… unos dedos humanos! Hechos repentinos como éste rompen la rutina y abren las puertas a lo desconocido.
En conjunto, una buena antología, sobre todo para aficionados al universo Highsmith.
3,5*
December 12, 2011
in keeping with how creepy patricia highsmith is, i could've sworn i'd already written a review of this book, and yet i can find nothing now to indicate that i had. well, i'll copy this into a word file, and if it disappears again, i'll imagine highsmith'll have sent her slugs to expunge my words, because even dead, i think highsmith is capable of doing such a creepy thing. i think it is true that while she was living, through her writing, she constantly held up a mirror to the face of humanity that showed all its ugliness, and the most effective of her stories underscore how bloodless and blind, how very selfish humanity can be.
in this collection, i think excellent expressions of the baseness of human experience highsmith observed are found in "something the cat dragged in", "not one of us", "under a dark angel's eye", and especially "the dream of the emma c" which made me yearn for the impossible to explain the cruelty of humanity at its most mundane. stories that also communicated some empathy are "i despise your life" and "the kite" which almost seems in bleak answer to salinger's "teddy".
highsmith never fails to shock me with her talent for humanity, of shaking it out, and reminding us that our finer instincts are touted because they are so rare, that empathy isn't always intrinsic in every human heart, and that we cannot rely on kindness in this life.
in this collection, i think excellent expressions of the baseness of human experience highsmith observed are found in "something the cat dragged in", "not one of us", "under a dark angel's eye", and especially "the dream of the emma c" which made me yearn for the impossible to explain the cruelty of humanity at its most mundane. stories that also communicated some empathy are "i despise your life" and "the kite" which almost seems in bleak answer to salinger's "teddy".
highsmith never fails to shock me with her talent for humanity, of shaking it out, and reminding us that our finer instincts are touted because they are so rare, that empathy isn't always intrinsic in every human heart, and that we cannot rely on kindness in this life.
November 10, 2022
The term yuppie was coined a year-or-so after Highsmith wrote these stories, but Pat was already roasting that demographic. I would classify 4 of the 11 as yuppie-hate stories:
NOT ONE OF US
THE TERRORS OF BASKET-WEAVING
UNDER A DARK ANGEL’S EYE
OLD FOLKS AT HOME -- This was by far my favorite story in the book. Pat crucifies a couple of do-gooders in suburban Connecticut. For the record, these young professionals were (1) a strategy analyst at a government-sponsored institution, and (2) a historian specializing in European history of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
What about the 7 other stories? For a book that is classified as "horror," there were no shivers, shudders, or gasps. Nevertheless, they were entertaining. The final two stories were exceptions: I didn't understand the punchline of the titular story and THE KITE was unbelievably stupid.
NOT ONE OF US
THE TERRORS OF BASKET-WEAVING
UNDER A DARK ANGEL’S EYE
OLD FOLKS AT HOME -- This was by far my favorite story in the book. Pat crucifies a couple of do-gooders in suburban Connecticut. For the record, these young professionals were (1) a strategy analyst at a government-sponsored institution, and (2) a historian specializing in European history of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
What about the 7 other stories? For a book that is classified as "horror," there were no shivers, shudders, or gasps. Nevertheless, they were entertaining. The final two stories were exceptions: I didn't understand the punchline of the titular story and THE KITE was unbelievably stupid.
October 11, 2018
Most of these stories appear to have been revised treatments for film ideas or drafts of short stories that she had shelved and come back to. There were a few good ones that appealed personally: "Not One of Us", "Under a Dark Angel's Eye", "Blow It" and ranked after them-- "The Terrors of Basket-Weaving", "I Despise Your Life", and the titular story "The Black House".
I would not recommend Black House to newcomers to Highsmith--rather, later on after several of her novels, or you might be led to think that the rest of her work is not worth the trouble. This notion led me to check out "The Talented Miss Highsmith: the Secret Life and Serious Art of Patricia Highsmith" by Joan Schenkar.
And, I trust PH's novels more than I do her short stories.
I would not recommend Black House to newcomers to Highsmith--rather, later on after several of her novels, or you might be led to think that the rest of her work is not worth the trouble. This notion led me to check out "The Talented Miss Highsmith: the Secret Life and Serious Art of Patricia Highsmith" by Joan Schenkar.
And, I trust PH's novels more than I do her short stories.
February 16, 2019
Nos onze contos que formam a coletânea "A casa das sombras" há muito pouco espaço para o criminoso comum. Com doses variadas de melancolia, Patricia Highsmith revela nessas narrativas até onde pessoas ou grupos de pessoas são capazes de ir, levados por frustração, tristeza, desespero ou maldade. Cidadãos acima de qualquer suspeita, "gente de bem" que, sem empunhar uma faca ou puxar o gatilho de um revólver, e pelas razões mais fúteis, acaba sendo responsável pela morte de alguém.
Nem todos os contos envolvem crimes, o tema pelo qual a autora se tornou mais conhecida na literatura, adaptações para rádio, teatro e cinema. Há sugestões de fantástico, como em "Pavores da cestaria" e no comovente "A pipa". A fragilidade do ser humano é dissecada pela autora, que usa seu texto direto para levar o leitor a uma tensão crescente. Ainda que ninguém morra em alguns relatos, a leitura termina com um riso nervoso.
Nem todos os contos envolvem crimes, o tema pelo qual a autora se tornou mais conhecida na literatura, adaptações para rádio, teatro e cinema. Há sugestões de fantástico, como em "Pavores da cestaria" e no comovente "A pipa". A fragilidade do ser humano é dissecada pela autora, que usa seu texto direto para levar o leitor a uma tensão crescente. Ainda que ninguém morra em alguns relatos, a leitura termina com um riso nervoso.
August 29, 2021
Puzzling, eerie, disturbing short stories of my favourite Patricia.
May 20, 2021
She’s getting really good at short stories by this point!
Old Folks at Home was brilliant 🤣
Old Folks at Home was brilliant 🤣
February 4, 2011
Devoured this book in one day. My favourite stories, which I still think about every once in a while, were "Not One of Us," "The Terrors of Basket-Weaving," and "Old Folks at Home." Mostly I appreciated how alien such a social circle as the one in the first story is to me, identified with the creepy feeling of knowing something you didn't think you knew in the second, and got to feel self-righteous about not having kids in the last. I hadn't read any Highsmith before (just seen the Hitchcock movies, pretty much all of which, contrary to my nature, I saw before reading the book), but I will seek out her more famous works for sure.
---
“Diane felt that she had lost herself. Since repairing that basked, she wasn’t any longer Diane Clarke, not completely, anyway. Neither was she anybody else, of course. It wasn’t that she felt she had assumed the identity, even partially, of some remote ancestor. How remote, anyway? No. She felt rather that she was living with a great many people from the past, that they were in her brain or mind (Diane did not believe in a soul, and found the idea of a collective unconscious too vague to be of importance), and that people from human antecedents were bound up with her, influencing her, controlling her every bit as much as, up to now, she had been controlling herself.” (From “The Terrors of Basket-Weaving”)
---
“Diane felt that she had lost herself. Since repairing that basked, she wasn’t any longer Diane Clarke, not completely, anyway. Neither was she anybody else, of course. It wasn’t that she felt she had assumed the identity, even partially, of some remote ancestor. How remote, anyway? No. She felt rather that she was living with a great many people from the past, that they were in her brain or mind (Diane did not believe in a soul, and found the idea of a collective unconscious too vague to be of importance), and that people from human antecedents were bound up with her, influencing her, controlling her every bit as much as, up to now, she had been controlling herself.” (From “The Terrors of Basket-Weaving”)
May 21, 2019
Eh. If this collection wasn't Highsmith I'd be running it to dirt, but given that we're talking about the creator of Ripley and Strangers on a Train, and The Price of Salt and and and, so much and, let's just leave it at I Bet She Never Meant These to Be Published. Wish I could meet up with her at some grimy (now non-existent) bar in Paris and toast its demise. She was good at that, Patricia Highsmith, among a million other things, giving three cheers to death.
May 30, 2022
This is why I read
This was voted for May book reading. This is my first time reading this author and I must say she has a unique of writing. My favorite stories were; Under A dark angel's eye, old folks home , and blow it. After reading not one of us I have never been so upset after reading a story I have to say the author did a great job at writing this book. I recommend this book for anyone who wants to read something different.
This was voted for May book reading. This is my first time reading this author and I must say she has a unique of writing. My favorite stories were; Under A dark angel's eye, old folks home , and blow it. After reading not one of us I have never been so upset after reading a story I have to say the author did a great job at writing this book. I recommend this book for anyone who wants to read something different.
May 18, 2025
This is a collection of 11 short stories in a variety of settings such as Venice and Britain. What struck me though was the number of stories set in American east coast suburban and urban settings, the milieu of John Cheever, and how many of the emotions, personality traits , and social commentary also seemed more similar to John Cheever-type stories than the Patricia Highsmith of The Ripliad and Strangers on the Train fame. Some of these stories worked and some didn’t, but several of the ones that didn’t work were at least interesting looks at societal and human tendencies.
1. SOMETHING THE CAT DRAGGED IN
This story is about some British suburban residents - a married couple, their neighbor and his 19 year old-American nurse - whose neighborly Scrabble game is disturbed by what the cat dragged in. This is less suspense and more observation on when neighborly bonds, even tenuous ones, can be stronger than duties to society as a whole. While some of the characters’ reactions and attitudes stretch the plausible, they were at least somewhat plausible and interesting enough to support a decent story. Besides, one of Highsmith’s specialties is to present stories with normal people acting surprisingly when presented with abnormal situations.
I rate it as 3.7 stars
2. NOT ONE OF US
This is a more mild-toned tale of an upper-caste clique of friends and the events that spring as they increasingly decline to tolerate the behavior of one of the group and his new wife, largely because they are … boring. Highsmith deftly captures the passive back-stabbing dialogue among the clique. While some aspects of the story seemed like Highsmith, the overall tone was more in line of a John Cheever approach, which disappointed me, just because of my 'high' Highsmith expectations. I just need to readjust myself to expect a broader scope of Highsmith themes and I will enjoy these stories more.
I rate it as 3.3 stars.
3. THE TERRORS OF BASKET-WEAVING
Diane is a Manhattan PR Officer married to lawyer Reg. Reg and Diane are 38 and childless, happily living in Manhattan and spending weekends at their Massachusetts coastal cottage. One weekend Diane discovers an old-fashioned ‘Moses” basket on the beach and decides to try to repair it. The feelings Diane feels after repairing the basket, as the title suggests, form the story dynamics.
Having accepted the less macabre nature of some of these stories, I ended up liking this one because the concepts and ideas crossing through Diane’s brain were fresh and intriguing ones to me.
I rate it as 4.0 stars.
4. UNDER A DARK ANGEL’S EYE
This story is about a 55-year old bachelor owner of a Chicago antique shop who is paying for his detested mother’s nursing home care, on a trip back to his hometown to sign the papers to sell his family home to help pay for her care. It seems like a nice-set up and then a twist comes in at the ½ way point that adds some Highsmith tension to the story. This tension is increased by some ominous events. While I really enjoyed the shift in tone the story had, the finale still felt a bit anticlimactic. A better written ending would have helped.
I rate it as 4.0 stars.
5. I DESPISE YOUR LIFE
This story involves a free-spirited young man named Ralph living with fellow band members in a sort of hippie arrangement in New York. Ralph had been raised by his parents in Long Island luxury before taking up with these musician friends. His parents had recently divorced with his mom moving back to California after the end of her marriage-breaking affair. Ralph is trying to sponge some rent money from his usually soft-touch and currently morose Dad.
The story is about Ralph’s attitudes and his relations with his roommates, including a female roomie named Cassie, during his attempts to convince his Dad to lend him money. This is a story that’s more of a commentary on lifestyles and parent-adult child relations than the usual Highsmith themes. Somewhat intriguing for that reason.
I rate it as 3.3 stars.
6. THE DREAM OF THEEMMA C
The story involves the interactions of a crew on a fishing boat called the Emma C. mackerel fishing in Cape Cod Bay and their interactions and conflicts after they discover a young woman exhausted and floating in the Bay. This was a different setting and group of characters than I have encountered with Highsmith. While I did appreciate the different-than-usual characters, motivations and themes Highsmith uses in this story, it resulted in an only moderately satisfying story.
I rate it as 3.0 stars.
7. OLD FOLKS AT HOME
This is about an upper-middle class childless couple in Connecticut ‘adopting’ an aged couple from a local nursing home to provide them a home rather than institutional living arrangement. As expected in a Highsmith story, the aged couple soon reveal themselves to be fairly ungracious guests.
The story had some interesting events and tension but, probably due to present day awareness, the whole setup was a bit implausible, and the ending foreseeable.
I rate it as 3.3 stars.
8. WHEN IN ROME
Isabella is the childless wife of Fillipo, an Italian government official constantly dealing with foreign government officials. The couple is based in Rome and Isabella dutifully performs her supporting role at dinner parties and other such functions. Isabella is beset by a Peeping Tom who like to view her showering. Isabella is also beset by a philandering husband. Isabella comes up with a fairly devious plan of how to deal with both of these problems. The story’s tension comes in how well Isabella’s plan is carried out.
I enjoyed the return to a Rome setting - reminding me of the first Ripley - and also in the return to the Highsmith theme of the capacity for evil existing in seemingly ordinary people. I enjoyed the way the story and plan developed but, as with many of these stories, the ending is not a strong one.
I rate it as 4.0 stars.
9. BLOW IT
This was definitely a non-macabre story yet I liked it very much. It is about 35 year old Manhattan attorney/accountant Harry who is contemplating whether to marry one of the two beautiful 23 year old women he has been dating for the past six months; Lesley an upbeat fashion model and Connie, an editor in a publishing house. While Lesley has the easier personality, Connie has the more interesting one. Both women are in love with Harry and interested in marriage. Harry spends the story wavering between the two women and finally comes up with a method of determining who to marry.
The story climax is in the execution of Harry’s method, which of course, does not go smoothly. While not at all a typical Highsmith, I enjoyed Harry’s thoughts about his dilemma. And while the women are underwritten characters, their reactions in the latter part of the story partly redeem Highsmith’s prior underwriting of their characters. I liked it. It felt fresh if not overly realistic.
I rate it as 4.3 stars.
10. THE KITE
Another odd little story about a little boy grieving the death of his little sister and how he chooses to honor her memory. It starts as a basic slice of life story of how grief affects the little girl’s parents and son, coming from the son’s perspective, and then gets both surreal and macabre. I don’t think it all worked but I appreciate the effort in creating something odd.
I rate it as 3.3
11. THE BLACK HOUSE
We end on another story that presents a different type of Highsmith group and setting: male residents of a small upstate New York town that routinely meet in a local bar. They often get to talking about the titled house, an abandoned old house that they all have memories of engaging in youthful sexual and other such exploits in. These memories are variously real, imagined or substantially enhanced but are a source of prideful bar stories. Tim, one of the group decides to enter the Black House to see what it’s all about as he has no such memories or tales to share. Dramatic tension comes from the group of men’s reaction to Tim’s attempt to seek out the story of the Black House.
I rate it as 3.3 stars.
OVERALL
The average rating of the stories is 3.56 stars, which rounds up to 3.6 and 4 stars, but barely so.
My ranking/rating of the Highsmith books I’ve read:
The Tremor of Forgery - 4.5
The Cry of the Owl - 4.4
Deep Water - 4.3
Ripley Under Ground – 4.3
Ripley’s Game – 4.3
The Price of Salt - 4.1
The Boy Who Followed Ripley – 4.0
Strangers on a Train - 4.0
The Talented Mr. Ripley – 4.0
The Two Faces of January – 3.8
Those Who Walk Away – 3.8
Found in the Street – 3.7
The Black House – 3.6
This Sweet Sickness - 3.6
Little Tales of Misogyny - 3.4
1. SOMETHING THE CAT DRAGGED IN
This story is about some British suburban residents - a married couple, their neighbor and his 19 year old-American nurse - whose neighborly Scrabble game is disturbed by what the cat dragged in. This is less suspense and more observation on when neighborly bonds, even tenuous ones, can be stronger than duties to society as a whole. While some of the characters’ reactions and attitudes stretch the plausible, they were at least somewhat plausible and interesting enough to support a decent story. Besides, one of Highsmith’s specialties is to present stories with normal people acting surprisingly when presented with abnormal situations.
I rate it as 3.7 stars
2. NOT ONE OF US
This is a more mild-toned tale of an upper-caste clique of friends and the events that spring as they increasingly decline to tolerate the behavior of one of the group and his new wife, largely because they are … boring. Highsmith deftly captures the passive back-stabbing dialogue among the clique. While some aspects of the story seemed like Highsmith, the overall tone was more in line of a John Cheever approach, which disappointed me, just because of my 'high' Highsmith expectations. I just need to readjust myself to expect a broader scope of Highsmith themes and I will enjoy these stories more.
I rate it as 3.3 stars.
3. THE TERRORS OF BASKET-WEAVING
Diane is a Manhattan PR Officer married to lawyer Reg. Reg and Diane are 38 and childless, happily living in Manhattan and spending weekends at their Massachusetts coastal cottage. One weekend Diane discovers an old-fashioned ‘Moses” basket on the beach and decides to try to repair it. The feelings Diane feels after repairing the basket, as the title suggests, form the story dynamics.
Having accepted the less macabre nature of some of these stories, I ended up liking this one because the concepts and ideas crossing through Diane’s brain were fresh and intriguing ones to me.
I rate it as 4.0 stars.
4. UNDER A DARK ANGEL’S EYE
This story is about a 55-year old bachelor owner of a Chicago antique shop who is paying for his detested mother’s nursing home care, on a trip back to his hometown to sign the papers to sell his family home to help pay for her care. It seems like a nice-set up and then a twist comes in at the ½ way point that adds some Highsmith tension to the story. This tension is increased by some ominous events. While I really enjoyed the shift in tone the story had, the finale still felt a bit anticlimactic. A better written ending would have helped.
I rate it as 4.0 stars.
5. I DESPISE YOUR LIFE
This story involves a free-spirited young man named Ralph living with fellow band members in a sort of hippie arrangement in New York. Ralph had been raised by his parents in Long Island luxury before taking up with these musician friends. His parents had recently divorced with his mom moving back to California after the end of her marriage-breaking affair. Ralph is trying to sponge some rent money from his usually soft-touch and currently morose Dad.
The story is about Ralph’s attitudes and his relations with his roommates, including a female roomie named Cassie, during his attempts to convince his Dad to lend him money. This is a story that’s more of a commentary on lifestyles and parent-adult child relations than the usual Highsmith themes. Somewhat intriguing for that reason.
I rate it as 3.3 stars.
6. THE DREAM OF THEEMMA C
The story involves the interactions of a crew on a fishing boat called the Emma C. mackerel fishing in Cape Cod Bay and their interactions and conflicts after they discover a young woman exhausted and floating in the Bay. This was a different setting and group of characters than I have encountered with Highsmith. While I did appreciate the different-than-usual characters, motivations and themes Highsmith uses in this story, it resulted in an only moderately satisfying story.
I rate it as 3.0 stars.
7. OLD FOLKS AT HOME
This is about an upper-middle class childless couple in Connecticut ‘adopting’ an aged couple from a local nursing home to provide them a home rather than institutional living arrangement. As expected in a Highsmith story, the aged couple soon reveal themselves to be fairly ungracious guests.
The story had some interesting events and tension but, probably due to present day awareness, the whole setup was a bit implausible, and the ending foreseeable.
I rate it as 3.3 stars.
8. WHEN IN ROME
Isabella is the childless wife of Fillipo, an Italian government official constantly dealing with foreign government officials. The couple is based in Rome and Isabella dutifully performs her supporting role at dinner parties and other such functions. Isabella is beset by a Peeping Tom who like to view her showering. Isabella is also beset by a philandering husband. Isabella comes up with a fairly devious plan of how to deal with both of these problems. The story’s tension comes in how well Isabella’s plan is carried out.
I enjoyed the return to a Rome setting - reminding me of the first Ripley - and also in the return to the Highsmith theme of the capacity for evil existing in seemingly ordinary people. I enjoyed the way the story and plan developed but, as with many of these stories, the ending is not a strong one.
I rate it as 4.0 stars.
9. BLOW IT
This was definitely a non-macabre story yet I liked it very much. It is about 35 year old Manhattan attorney/accountant Harry who is contemplating whether to marry one of the two beautiful 23 year old women he has been dating for the past six months; Lesley an upbeat fashion model and Connie, an editor in a publishing house. While Lesley has the easier personality, Connie has the more interesting one. Both women are in love with Harry and interested in marriage. Harry spends the story wavering between the two women and finally comes up with a method of determining who to marry.
The story climax is in the execution of Harry’s method, which of course, does not go smoothly. While not at all a typical Highsmith, I enjoyed Harry’s thoughts about his dilemma. And while the women are underwritten characters, their reactions in the latter part of the story partly redeem Highsmith’s prior underwriting of their characters. I liked it. It felt fresh if not overly realistic.
I rate it as 4.3 stars.
10. THE KITE
Another odd little story about a little boy grieving the death of his little sister and how he chooses to honor her memory. It starts as a basic slice of life story of how grief affects the little girl’s parents and son, coming from the son’s perspective, and then gets both surreal and macabre. I don’t think it all worked but I appreciate the effort in creating something odd.
I rate it as 3.3
11. THE BLACK HOUSE
We end on another story that presents a different type of Highsmith group and setting: male residents of a small upstate New York town that routinely meet in a local bar. They often get to talking about the titled house, an abandoned old house that they all have memories of engaging in youthful sexual and other such exploits in. These memories are variously real, imagined or substantially enhanced but are a source of prideful bar stories. Tim, one of the group decides to enter the Black House to see what it’s all about as he has no such memories or tales to share. Dramatic tension comes from the group of men’s reaction to Tim’s attempt to seek out the story of the Black House.
I rate it as 3.3 stars.
OVERALL
The average rating of the stories is 3.56 stars, which rounds up to 3.6 and 4 stars, but barely so.
My ranking/rating of the Highsmith books I’ve read:
The Tremor of Forgery - 4.5
The Cry of the Owl - 4.4
Deep Water - 4.3
Ripley Under Ground – 4.3
Ripley’s Game – 4.3
The Price of Salt - 4.1
The Boy Who Followed Ripley – 4.0
Strangers on a Train - 4.0
The Talented Mr. Ripley – 4.0
The Two Faces of January – 3.8
Those Who Walk Away – 3.8
Found in the Street – 3.7
The Black House – 3.6
This Sweet Sickness - 3.6
Little Tales of Misogyny - 3.4
February 2, 2016
Il talento di Miss Highsmith
Da una data lontana possedevo questo libro, recante il prezzo sull’ultima di copertina ancora espresso in Lire (L.8.500) visibile attraverso il cellophane trasparente che rivestiva da talmente tanto tempo il volumetto che quasi mi dispiaceva sconfezionarlo!
Quando pochi giorni fa mi sono deciso ad aprirlo ho provato delusione perché ignoravo che fosse una collection di racconti e ritengo il formato-racconto poco adatto al giallo/poliziesco che necessita (ma forse è un mio pregiudizio) di un respiro più ampio per avvolgere il lettore con una trama di sufficiente complessità, intrigo, mistero, eventi…
D’altronde si trattava qui di una scrittrice notevole, che ho adorato e divorato in almeno una quindicina di romanzi, e quindi ho respinto l’impulso di accantonare il libro per un altro quarto di secolo.
Per venire al dunque, il match è finito in parità: da un lato il talento di Miss Highsmith, in grado di generare anche in poche pagine la suspense e il disagio, l’imbarazzo e la curiosità per cui il suo stile è giustamente noto; dall’altro come temevo almeno alcuni racconti, compreso quello che dà il titolo alla raccolta, lasciano una sensazione tipo “embé?”, la sensazione che il significato e il nucleo della narrazione dovessero ancora manifestarsi, prima dell’improvvisa e frustrante parola “fine”.
Da una data lontana possedevo questo libro, recante il prezzo sull’ultima di copertina ancora espresso in Lire (L.8.500) visibile attraverso il cellophane trasparente che rivestiva da talmente tanto tempo il volumetto che quasi mi dispiaceva sconfezionarlo!
Quando pochi giorni fa mi sono deciso ad aprirlo ho provato delusione perché ignoravo che fosse una collection di racconti e ritengo il formato-racconto poco adatto al giallo/poliziesco che necessita (ma forse è un mio pregiudizio) di un respiro più ampio per avvolgere il lettore con una trama di sufficiente complessità, intrigo, mistero, eventi…
D’altronde si trattava qui di una scrittrice notevole, che ho adorato e divorato in almeno una quindicina di romanzi, e quindi ho respinto l’impulso di accantonare il libro per un altro quarto di secolo.
Per venire al dunque, il match è finito in parità: da un lato il talento di Miss Highsmith, in grado di generare anche in poche pagine la suspense e il disagio, l’imbarazzo e la curiosità per cui il suo stile è giustamente noto; dall’altro come temevo almeno alcuni racconti, compreso quello che dà il titolo alla raccolta, lasciano una sensazione tipo “embé?”, la sensazione che il significato e il nucleo della narrazione dovessero ancora manifestarsi, prima dell’improvvisa e frustrante parola “fine”.
February 4, 2020
3.5, really.
SPOILERS*****SPOILERS*****SPOILERS
SOMETHING THE CAT DRAGGED IN
Ehh.
NOT ONE OF US
Damn. That’s more like it.
THE TERRORS OF BASKET-WEAVING
Interesting, but it was hard for me to understand or relate to what she was feeling.
UNDER A DARK ANGEL’S EYE
Had potential but didn’t quite get there.
I DESPISE YOUR LIFE
I didn’t understand this one. Why would his father be so uncaring at the end?
THE DREAM OF THE EMMA C
Good story.
OLD FOLKS AT HOME
Made me a little uncomfortable. Basically, couple makes impulsive life-changing choice, can’t deal with consequences.
WHEN IN ROME
Not sure what to make of this one. Don’t get (or stay) trapped in a crappy marriage, I guess?
BLOW IT
Mediocre guy who thinks a lot of himself strings along two women (“girls” in the book, but whatever). They prove to be more mature than he is.
THE KITE
Damn.
THE BLACK HOUSE
It was their “castle.”
——————-
It was greater than the sum of its parts. I’m definitely interested in reading more of her work.
SPOILERS*****SPOILERS*****SPOILERS
SOMETHING THE CAT DRAGGED IN
Ehh.
NOT ONE OF US
Damn. That’s more like it.
THE TERRORS OF BASKET-WEAVING
Interesting, but it was hard for me to understand or relate to what she was feeling.
UNDER A DARK ANGEL’S EYE
Had potential but didn’t quite get there.
I DESPISE YOUR LIFE
I didn’t understand this one. Why would his father be so uncaring at the end?
THE DREAM OF THE EMMA C
Good story.
OLD FOLKS AT HOME
Made me a little uncomfortable. Basically, couple makes impulsive life-changing choice, can’t deal with consequences.
WHEN IN ROME
Not sure what to make of this one. Don’t get (or stay) trapped in a crappy marriage, I guess?
BLOW IT
Mediocre guy who thinks a lot of himself strings along two women (“girls” in the book, but whatever). They prove to be more mature than he is.
THE KITE
Damn.
THE BLACK HOUSE
It was their “castle.”
——————-
It was greater than the sum of its parts. I’m definitely interested in reading more of her work.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 7, 2010
Finally, a break from the constant murderin’. Oh sure, people still die, but The Black House features fewer sudden blows to the head. Most of the time, the characters act with good intentions, only to have their situation spin out of control.
Unlike some of her other short story collections, The Black House is likely the one that’s most appealing to a wider audience — entirely compelling and complex, in an easy bite-size form.
(Full review can be found at Glorified Love Letters)
Unlike some of her other short story collections, The Black House is likely the one that’s most appealing to a wider audience — entirely compelling and complex, in an easy bite-size form.
(Full review can be found at Glorified Love Letters)
June 17, 2022
que libro mas genial, mis relatos favs fueron lo que trajo el gato, dónde fueres y la cometa :p
February 26, 2015
I agree with the reviewer who uses these stories to demonstrate that Highsmith was a misanthrope. Highsmith's Tremor of Forgery is one of my favorite books so I’m hard-pressed to say why this collection missed the mark with me. It could be the third person that makes the story walls so thin. There’s something empty about them. They are decidedly creepy and mean. The characters are soulless rather than motivated by passion or profit. I prefer the obsession of Price of Salt to these tales that are well-crafted but lacking a dimension I can’t quite name.
That said, the tales linger in the imagination. They are surreal exercises that Highsmith might have chuckled over, enjoying the satire clothed in creepiness. I can imagine her taking her propensity for obsessive love and weaving it into The Terror of Basket-Weaving, her desire for family approval and casting it as I Despise Your Life, her experience as a lesbian during a repressive time and discharging it in Not One of Us. Looking through works for disguised reflections of a writer’s life is routinely discouraged by the literary community, but my mind goes there as impulsively as her characters punch or kill.
That said, the tales linger in the imagination. They are surreal exercises that Highsmith might have chuckled over, enjoying the satire clothed in creepiness. I can imagine her taking her propensity for obsessive love and weaving it into The Terror of Basket-Weaving, her desire for family approval and casting it as I Despise Your Life, her experience as a lesbian during a repressive time and discharging it in Not One of Us. Looking through works for disguised reflections of a writer’s life is routinely discouraged by the literary community, but my mind goes there as impulsively as her characters punch or kill.
April 11, 2025
The Black House: A Virago Modern Classic (1981) is a short story collection by Patricia Highsmith.
It's a mixed bag. Highsmith's worldview here is unremittingly bleak, and many of the characters lack any redeeming qualities
Three of the 11 stories are excellent: Not One of Us, The Terrors of Basket-Weaving, & Old Folks at Home. All peak Highsmith. There's a few duds and the others are effective without being outstanding.
Worth a read for Highsmith fans but not the best introduction to her talents
3/5
The Black House eerily evokes the warm familiarities of suburban life: the manicured lawns, the white picket fences, and the local pubs, each providing the setting for Highsmith's chilling portraits.
Some neighbours are playing scrabble one evening when their cat drags into their house not a bird, or some other catch, but human fingers; a guest arrives at a dinner party where he is not welcome, and his hosts conspire to find and attack his Achilles heel; the crew of the Emma C rescue a beautiful girl floating unconscious in the sea and tension explodes between the men on board; a childless thirtysomething couple decide to invite two elderly folk to live with them, but have they been too generous?
In this collection of Patricia Highsmith's wonderfully unsettling short stories, people's motives are frequently twisted and no occurence is without a sinister underlying meaning.
It's a mixed bag. Highsmith's worldview here is unremittingly bleak, and many of the characters lack any redeeming qualities
Three of the 11 stories are excellent: Not One of Us, The Terrors of Basket-Weaving, & Old Folks at Home. All peak Highsmith. There's a few duds and the others are effective without being outstanding.
Worth a read for Highsmith fans but not the best introduction to her talents
3/5
The Black House eerily evokes the warm familiarities of suburban life: the manicured lawns, the white picket fences, and the local pubs, each providing the setting for Highsmith's chilling portraits.
Some neighbours are playing scrabble one evening when their cat drags into their house not a bird, or some other catch, but human fingers; a guest arrives at a dinner party where he is not welcome, and his hosts conspire to find and attack his Achilles heel; the crew of the Emma C rescue a beautiful girl floating unconscious in the sea and tension explodes between the men on board; a childless thirtysomething couple decide to invite two elderly folk to live with them, but have they been too generous?
In this collection of Patricia Highsmith's wonderfully unsettling short stories, people's motives are frequently twisted and no occurence is without a sinister underlying meaning.
March 21, 2021
If you want to revel in black humor, you can hardly do better than to read Patricia Highsmith's The Black House. I particularly enjoyed "Old Folks at Home," in which a well-to-do couple decide to adopt an elderly couple -- which turns out to be a spectacularly bad idea, until they find an interesting way of terminating the deal. Also good are "Under a Dark Angel's Eye," "The Dream of the Emma C," and "The Kite."
Patricia Highsmith is probably best known for writing her first novel, Strangers on a Train, which Alfred Hitchcock turned into a classic film starring Robert Walker and Farley Granger. But, sadly, her subsequent fiction is not as well known, except, perhaps, for the Ripley novels.
Patricia Highsmith is probably best known for writing her first novel, Strangers on a Train, which Alfred Hitchcock turned into a classic film starring Robert Walker and Farley Granger. But, sadly, her subsequent fiction is not as well known, except, perhaps, for the Ripley novels.
June 6, 2023
This collection isn't as good as "Eleven," but it wasn't bad. Even though none of the stories really grabbed me, I was never bored. I don't think Highsmith could be boring even if she tried.
The best stories here are "The Terrors of Basket Weaving" and "The Kite." They were not exactly creepy but unsettling and sad. "Old Folks at Home" was actually pretty funny.
3.5 stars overall.
The best stories here are "The Terrors of Basket Weaving" and "The Kite." They were not exactly creepy but unsettling and sad. "Old Folks at Home" was actually pretty funny.
3.5 stars overall.
Read
December 8, 2020if you pretend "basket-weaving" isn't in here (or rationalize it as self-parody), this one's p solid as well. "old folks at home" lands w/ a bit of a thud but the buildup is worthy of anything in eleven, & "dream of the emma c" & "when in rome" oughta be movies. somebody get on that
October 10, 2022
Uno de los cuentos de este libro se llama Los terrores de la cestería. No es un cuento de terror ni nada parecido. Y, sin embargo, me dejó angustiado todo el día. ¿Qué hago con eso? No sé. Yo no dejo de pensar en ese cuento y en que este libro es genial como Patricia.
December 1, 2021
I liked these, Old Folks at Home is a must read.
July 26, 2022
Not the great lady at her best.
Some weaker stories which makes me wonder if there just fillers from publisher pressure.
Some weaker stories which makes me wonder if there just fillers from publisher pressure.
May 21, 2022
More notes here:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
August 27, 2014
"A Casa Negra" reúne um conjunto de contos que deixam muito a desejar, tendo em conta a autora e todo o seu trabalho. Como já li quase todos os romances e contos da Patricia Highsmith, foi com alguma dificuldade que aceitei estas histórias como suas. Por um lado, alguns contos parecem rascunhos inacabados e pouco trabalhados. Por outro lado, temos histórias que dão ares de serem uma preparação para um dos seus romances, com finais repentinos, como se Highsmith tive-se decidido que não valia a pena continuar, por falta de paciência ou interesse.
Como sempre, a sua escrita é intelectual, fria e sem rodeios, privilegiando sempre o lado psicológico das personagens, em vez do emocional. Desta forma é muito mais complicado deixar-nos envolver em contos desinteressantes, já que ela não nos engana com palavras bonitas. Agrada-me muito não haver a ilusão provocada pela linguagem, que esconde uma história feia, só não esperava alguma dia encontrar a Patricia Highsmith nesta fraqueza. O que não quer dizer que não a continue a ter como uma das melhores escritoras que alguma vez li.
Entre as histórias mais enfadonhas temos um homem que debate entre duas mulheres, acabando por ficar sozinho; um casal que me vez de adoptar uma criança, adopta um casal de idosos; um gato que encontra dedos humanos e que o dono não comunica à policia e um grupo de marinheiros que encontra uma jovem no mar e que, literalmente, se matam para ter a sua atenção.
O conto mais estranho e também o mais interessante deste livro, fala-nos sobre uma mulher que fica perturbada e mesmo assustada quando descobre que consegue consertar um cesto com muita facilidade e sem preparação prévia na actividade. Um pequeno feito torna a mulher sensível ao mundo que a rodeia, levando-a a pensar se não será superior ao presente, uma evolução da raça humana. Confusa e quase alienada da sociedade, queima o cesto para voltar a ser capaz de viver a sua vida.
Nestes contos as pessoas morrem, claro que sim, mas sem expor o crime e a mente do criminoso a Patricia Highsmith não é a mesma.
Como sempre, a sua escrita é intelectual, fria e sem rodeios, privilegiando sempre o lado psicológico das personagens, em vez do emocional. Desta forma é muito mais complicado deixar-nos envolver em contos desinteressantes, já que ela não nos engana com palavras bonitas. Agrada-me muito não haver a ilusão provocada pela linguagem, que esconde uma história feia, só não esperava alguma dia encontrar a Patricia Highsmith nesta fraqueza. O que não quer dizer que não a continue a ter como uma das melhores escritoras que alguma vez li.
Entre as histórias mais enfadonhas temos um homem que debate entre duas mulheres, acabando por ficar sozinho; um casal que me vez de adoptar uma criança, adopta um casal de idosos; um gato que encontra dedos humanos e que o dono não comunica à policia e um grupo de marinheiros que encontra uma jovem no mar e que, literalmente, se matam para ter a sua atenção.
O conto mais estranho e também o mais interessante deste livro, fala-nos sobre uma mulher que fica perturbada e mesmo assustada quando descobre que consegue consertar um cesto com muita facilidade e sem preparação prévia na actividade. Um pequeno feito torna a mulher sensível ao mundo que a rodeia, levando-a a pensar se não será superior ao presente, uma evolução da raça humana. Confusa e quase alienada da sociedade, queima o cesto para voltar a ser capaz de viver a sua vida.
Nestes contos as pessoas morrem, claro que sim, mas sem expor o crime e a mente do criminoso a Patricia Highsmith não é a mesma.
January 14, 2015
Read this collection back in the 80s. Just about the creepiest set of stories I'd ever read, and this came just a couple of years after King's NIGHT SHIFT. Been meaning to read more Highsmith ever since, and I've yet to do so. Very dark, very frightening stories. Loved this book. Might be one I'd re-read, though I can count on one hand the number of books I've re-read.
April 20, 2012
So crisply bleak, I want to neatly and stylishly slit my wrists.
You certainly don't read PH for sympathetic characters.
You certainly don't read PH for sympathetic characters.
October 11, 2015
"A esquizofrenia, tinha ouvido dizer, era um saco sem fundo onde cabia toda a espécia de perturbações que não eram diagnosticadas."
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