Reading the 20th Century discussion

It's official.


Patricia Highsmith is now a firm favourite.

Thanks to Roman Clodia for nominating Strangers on a Train for our November 2019 group read which kicks off in a couple of days.

Strangers on a Train (1950) was the third book by Patricia Highsmith I've read, having previously enjoyed the first two Ripley books

I've just finished Strangers on a Train (1950) by Patricia Highsmith

Here’s my review

I look forward to more Highsmith. Thankfully she published eight short-story collections and 22 novels, so there's plenty left to investigate. I hope that, like Strangers on a Train, the rest have strong plots and a compelling exploration of the psychology of her misfit characters.

I've got Carol on my shelf so that will probably be my next book by Patricia Highsmith. I'll be interested to read a non-crime book by her.

So far it appears that her characters tend to be dark, unpredictable and not very likeable.

From what I can glean, Carol is one of the first mainstream novels to feature a lesbian relationship. It sold nearly a million copies when it was first published in 1952 (as The Price of Salt). Although not sexually explicit Carol was considered so shocking that it was released under the pseudonym Claire Morgan.

Anyone read it?

I should look at a collection or two. I'm not wild about her, but there is also something compelling. She's not as dark as Simenon, but perhaps they would fall into the same group.

EDIT: My library has The Black House, and I have added it to my over-burdened wish list. I just wish I were a faster reader, so that I could get to all these titles I wish for!

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "She's not as dark as Simenon, but perhaps they would fall into the same group."


Interesting. I would say, based on what I've read of her so far, and the Simenon roman durs, they are very similar.

Having looked a few other reviews of Strangers on a Train it seems that many readers are not so impressed by the psychogical aspects of her work. For me it's what elevates her work and makes it so powerful.

Graham Greene, on the back cover of my edition of Strangers on a Train, sums it up beautifully...

A writer who created a world of her own - a world claustrophobic and irrational which we enter each time with a sense of personal danger.

I recently finished her The Tremor of Forgery and I was disappointed to find that tension lacking in that one. I note (with amusement) that my review of Strangers suggests I wouldn't be interested in more by her, but I also note that I said that might be written in disappearing ink. I liked her The Talented Mr. Ripley more. I think I have come to appreciate noir more than I did when I was reading Strangers.

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "I think I have come to appreciate noir more than I did when I was reading Strangers"

That could well be a factor. Noir is often about much more than the plot - and the pleasure, for those that like it, is from other aspects of the storytelling.

Timing can often play a part too. I am convinced that I enjoy some books more because of the mood I am in when I read them, which results in being more receptive and appreciative. And vice versa, of course.

A friend earlier, for whom PH is a favourite, and who has read all her work, particularly recommended....


The Cry of the Owl

and

Deep Water


...anyone familiar with either?

To what extent would you endorse those recommendations?

Nigeyb wrote: "Timing can often play a part too. I am convinced that I enjoy some books more because of the mood I am in when I read them, which results in being more receptive and appreciative. And vice versa, of course."

And I think it can be more than mood, too, as one's tastes change just as they do in other areas of life.

I enjoyed Strangers but felt it was still a bit unpolished as a debut - but I read all the five Ripley books on the back of it and loved them. She's very clever the way she re-works and twists her themes so even if we think we know where she's going, she always manages to surprise us.

Thanks Roman Clodia. I must get back to the Ripley books. Ripley is such a beguiling character.

Roman Clodia wrote: "Patricia Highsmith is very clever the way she re-works and twists her themes so even if we think we know where she's going, she always manages to surprise us."

Indeed so. Very clever.

Have you read any of her non-crime books?

I've read her collection of short stories Little Tales of Misogyny - some are no more than a page, maybe more thought pieces than stories really. But yes, I love Ripley!

Great title for a short story collection

Clare wrote: "I see there’s a Backlisted episode coming up in the next few weeks. The featured novel is Edith's Diary"

Today's latest Backlisted Podcast is Edith's Diary and I've now listened to it. Here's more info...

This episode is dedicated to the writer and journalist Deborah Orr. Deborah chose the book for us to discuss but died before we were able to record. Her powerful and widely acclaimed memoir, Motherwell: A Girlhood is published by Weidenfeld in January 2020

In Deborah’s place, John and Andy are joined by two writers: John Grindrod, author of Concretopia: A Journey Around the Rebuilding of Postwar Britain, and Outskirts: Living Life on the Edge of the Green Belt which the FT described as ‘a lucid, evocative book, suffused with sadness and anger’. He has also co-written and edited a book about TV, Shouting at the Telly, and contributed to a book on music, Hang the DJ, and most recently a book for Batsford called How to Love Brutalism . He runs the website dirtymodernscoundrel.com and his previous appearance of Backlisted was back in 2016 when he joined us to talk about Memento Mori by Muriel Spark. John is joined by the novelist and performer, Karen McLeod. Karen is the author of In Search of the Missing Eyelash published in 2008 by Vintage and which won a Betty Trask award. She is the creator of comedy character Barbara Brownskirt ‘the worst living lesbian poet alive and performing today’ and has written for the Guardian, The Letters Page and the Independent, but most importantly she is writer-in-residence at Bookseller Crow in Crystal Palace, host of tonight’s live recording.

The book that Deborah chose is Edith's Diary by Patricia Highsmith, first published by Heinemann in the UK in 1977 and then Simon & Schuster in the US later that year. It was the seventeenth of her 22 novels.

https://www.backlisted.fm/episodes/10...

It's a great listen - really interesting, entertaining and informative. I should also add it's spoilertastic if you are thinking about reading Edith's Diary. I don't mind that but some might. Edith's Diary is clearly a very unusual book but, and this they all agreed on, and like all of Patricia Highsmith's work, it's very compelling.

I'm keen to read it. There was quite a bit of general discussion about Patricia Highsmith. I am even keener to read all her work and, also, this biography...

Beautiful Shadow: A Life of Patricia Highsmith by Andrew Wilson

Thanks for this, Nigeyb - I've just put that Highsmith biog on hold at the library. 'Beautiful shadow' = Belle Ombre, Ripley's house in France - nice!

Was Highsmith channeling Ripley as her alter ego, I wonder? I don't know anything about her life.

That's great intel Roman Clodia


My library service have a copy of Beautiful Shadow: A Life of Patricia Highsmith so I will be reading it too. The reviews are very positive, and the Backlisted Podcast participants were very fulsome in their praise too.

Roman Clodia wrote: "Was Highsmith channeling Ripley as her alter ego, I wonder? I don't know anything about her life."

I odn't know either. Hopefully the biog will shed some light on the matter. It certainly appears she was a complicated person who didn't have many friends, which prevailing attitudes to her sexuality would have done little to help.

Andrew Wilson writes a series of mysteries with Agatha Christie as the main character. I have read, and enjoyed, the first. I find I also have the biography, on my kindle, and will try to find time to read it soon, as it sounds interesting and I would be interesting in reading more about Highsmith.

I thought his name sounded familiar - I've also read the first of his Agatha Christie books. I'll let you know when this comes in from the library in case we want to roughly co-ordinate our reading - it sounds like there will be lots to say about it.

Roman Clodia wrote: "I'll let you know when this comes in from the library in case we want to roughly co-ordinate our reading - it sounds like there will be lots to say about it."

Sounds good RC.

I've finished the Highsmith biography: review here

It's a quick read but interesting so perfect for anyone like me who didn't know anything about Highsmith and her life. Just be careful as when Wilson discusses her novels he gives masses of spoilers!

Interestingly, Highsmith does channel Ripley signing off letters using his name!

Edith's Diary is waiting for me at the library. I think I’ll wait to tackle the biography until I’ve read some more of the novels.

Edith's Diary sounds interesting as Wilson discusses it: I look forward to hearing what you make of it, Clare.

I can't believe how quickly you got hold of, and then read, that biog Roman Clodia. Amazing.

Having read your review, I am now even more keen to read it too.

I had it on digital and hardcopy hold, and the ebook came through yesterday, just in time for me to read while having a few days off work :)

I think it was a fluke as I've been waiting for the 1984 audiobook for weeks now...

On the biog, I think Wilson pitches it just right for a general readership, and he discusses some of the points we picked up in our discussion of Strangers on a Train.

Serendipity eh?


It sounds perfect for the nascent Highsmith fan

Last night I read....


Little Tales of Misogyny

...which is a curious little collection of somewhat macabre short stories. Distilled esssence of Patricia Highsmith if you will.

Here’s my review

I thought misanthropy rather than misogyny but yes, good examples of Highsmith's macabre humour: my review

I like your idea of her essence distilled Nigeyb.

Great review Roman Clodia - thanks

I’ve now finished Edith's Diary. To be honest, I struggled with it. It is slow, very slow, and Highsmith is no great prose stylist. Having listened to the Backlisted discussion, I can see that this is deliberate. My main problem was Cliffie, who seemed totally unbelievable in the domestic setting of this book. He would probably work better in a thriller. I did wonder whether he might be a precursor to Lionel Shriver’s Kevin. His parents certainly don’t seem interested in him or show much care. Unfortunately this wasn’t explored. It’s not put me off wanting to read the Ripley novels.

Interesting. Thanks Clare. I am suitably forewarned

Dropped back in on this thread. Today there was a Highsmith available on the cheap and I was wondering if it was mentioned here. Those Who Walk Away and I have no business picking it up, but I think that won't stop me. EDIT: Yay! I see it is free with my prime membership. No guilt for getting this one ! :-)))

I find my library has a copy of the biography, and I've added it to my wish list.

There's an intriguing-sounding new biography coming out on Patricia Highsmith: Devils, Lusts and Strange Desires: The Life of Patricia Highsmith - and it's available on NetGalley here: https://www.netgalley.co.uk/catalog/b...

She's a pretty horrible human being in many ways but absolutely fascinating for precisely that reason. I'll be reading this - anyone else?

Thanks RC - I've requested it

Roman Clodia wrote: "There's an intriguing-sounding new biography coming out on Patricia Highsmith: Devils, Lusts and Strange Desires: The Life of Patricia Highsmith - and it's available on NetGalley"

I've been given the green light to read...

Devils, Lusts and Strange Desires: The Life of Patricia Highsmith

Thanks RC

I'm looking forward to it

The timing is not great as I was poised to dive straight into the Valancourt Ghost Stories mod choice. Ah well, I can do both.

I suspect it's a good thing that I do not need to like or approve of the writers whose work I admire. I'll keep you posted.


'My New Year's Eve Toast: to all the devils, lusts, passions, greeds, envies, loves, hates, strange desires, enemies ghostly and real, the army of memories, with which I do battle - may they never give me peace'
PATRICIA HIGHSMITH (New Year's Eve, 1947)

Made famous by the great success of her psychological thrillers, The Talented Mr Ripley and Strangers on a Train, Patricia Highsmith is lauded as one of the most influential and celebrated modern writers. However, there has never been a clear picture of the woman behind the books.

The relationship between Highsmith's lesbianism, her fraught personality – by parts self-destructive and malicious – and her fiction, has been largely avoided by biographers. She was openly homosexual and wrote the seminal lesbian love story, Carol. In modern times, she would be venerated as a radical exponent of the LGBT community. However, her status as an LGBT icon is undermined by the fact that she was excessively cruel and exploitative of her friends and lovers.

In this new biography, Richard Bradford brings his sharp, incisive style to one of the great and most controversial writers of the twentieth century. He considers Highsmith's bestsellers in the context of her troubled personal life; her alcoholism, licentious sex life, racism, anti-Semitism, misogyny and abundant self-loathing.

Good to hear you've been approved for this - I'm engrossed in Obama's memoirs (brilliant!) and a new biography of Sylvia Plath so it may be a while.

My feeling is that Highsmith was a misanthrope and generally spiteful about pretty much everyone - I think she used herself as the basis for Ripley, always the outsider and iconoclast. All of which makes her a fascinating character to me, no matter how unlikeable she might have been in real life.

Roman Clodia wrote:


"My feeling is that Highsmith was a misanthrope and generally spiteful about pretty much everyone - I think she used herself as the basis for Ripley, always the outsider and iconoclast. All of which makes her a fascinating character to me, no matter how unlikeable she might have been in real life"

I've read about a third of Devils, Lusts and Strange Desires: The Life of Patricia Highsmith and you're spot on RC

She is an unpleasant character however I am fascinated by how she used her life and experiences to inform her novels. Her sexuality is also fascinating in the context of the era in which she lived, and how her situation was eased by being part of a supportive milieu of other artists.

I'm so glad you're enjoying this, Nigeyb - I've got it too, but haven't started it yet with a couple of other non-fictions on the go.

Thanks RC. It would have passed me by if you hadn't alerted me to the fact that it was available on Netgalley. I was not expecting to find it so absorbing. Like all good literary biographies it makes me want to read all the novels ASAP

I might not get to it till Christmas but you've whetted my appetite nicely! We vaguely talked about a buddy read of her The Price of Salt/Carol - I'm up for it if you are?

Roman Clodia wrote: "We vaguely talked about a buddy read of her The Price of Salt/Carol - I'm up for it if you are?"

I'd like to read it too. It was her second novel after Strangers, though only published under her own name relatively recently. Maybe January or February?

Yes, either suits me. I was surprised to see it on here under her pseudonym.

Thanks RC - let's go mid-Jan 2021 then. We can always move it if necessary

Great, thanks for setting this up!

I'm reading Devils, Lusts and Strange Desires: The Life of Patricia Highsmith, the new biography of Highsmith and enjoying it hugely.

It feels like a quick read and I'm especially enjoying the dark humour that Bradford finds in PH, and the way her wayward fantasies inform her books.

I'll be curious to discover the extent to which it inspires you to want to read her novels RC

I ended up skimming a bit, Nigeyb, as this duplicates information I'd previously read - but my, what a character Highsmith was! Getting so drunk she fell into the candles and set her hair alight... at a posh dinner party! And letting all those snails loose on the dinner table - urgh!

You're right, though, it makes me want to reread all the Ripley books. I'm glad we've got Carol scheduled for next month.

What a character indeed


Roman Clodia wrote: "You're right, though, it makes me want to reread all the Ripley books. I'm glad we've got Carol scheduled for next month"

I thought Richard Bradford was incredibly dismissive of most of her work aside from Carol, Strangers on a Train, and The Talented Mr Ripley. He actually convinced me not to bother with any more of her work once I've read Carol. The primary interest seemed to be in how it was her life and the psychodramas she created that informed the work.

Yes, I thought the same, it's a single-note biography built around that one point. From what I'd read before, it seems true but he rather does it to death.

I'm not sure of Bradford's background but he seems a sort of professional biographer rather than a specialist in Highsmith. He quotes from the Wilson biography but doesn't give any end-notes or references so I don't think there's any new material here. Still, an entertaining, quick read.

If you haven't read all five Ripley books, I'd definitely recommend them.

Thanks RC. I’ve read the first two. I thought the first one was superb. The second one less so. Perhaps I should read the other three then?

The other three are based on the same premise as the second: that Ripley is married and living in his beautiful house in France (I wish we'd seen him meet and marry Heloise).

#3 Ripley's Game was my least favourite just because there's a large section at the start where Ripley disappears and we follow a different protagonist. It all picks up when Ripley is back.

#4 The Boy Who Follows Ripley is excellent as Tom becomes mentor to a troubled boy. Brilliant section set in Berlin.

#5 Ripley Under Water adds a further twist to the story overall and has even Ripley under pressure. Fabulous ending to the series.

I've seen the books read as an allegory of gay life with all that doubleness and deception but I think there's more going on - I find Ripley unique as a character and series: so cool, so dangerous - the plots are clever but it's Ripley himself who fascinates me.

Thanks RC - you certainly make them all seem very enticing. I'm quite tempted to go back to the beginning and read all five in relatively quick succession. I've seen them collectively referred to as the "Ripliad".