"Obsessions are the only things that matter."
During a notable bleak period, late 1990s, having tried to get used to giving up acting & feeling my first crush of the giant boot of depression, I threw myself into a marathon reading session of Patricia Highsmith’s 5 Tom Ripley Novels. I understand it seems like an odd choice for cheering oneself up, but the cruel bite & misanthropy of Highsmith’s books was just the dose I needed to find my groove again.
After her humble beginnings in Texas, Highsmith traveled to Europe from 1949 onwards, moving between England, France, Switzerland & Italy. This nomadic lifestyle seemed to become the inspiration for her Ripley stories.
The first book, published in 1955- The Talented Mr. Ripley, is about a debonair, homosexual, psychotic, habitual liar, who cheats & murders his way around Europe, adopting various identities & playing different personalities in order to elude authorities. My kind of guy. There would be 4 more: Ripley Underground (1970), Mr. Ripley's Game (1974), The Boy Who Followed Ripley (1980) & Ripley Under Water (1990).
Highsmith produced 22 novels & 7 collections of short stories by the time of her death from Leukemia, at the age of 74.
Several of her novels were also adapted as screenplays for successful films: Alfred Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train (1951), The Talented Mr. Ripley was made into a film- Plein Soleil (1960), starring Alain Delon, whom Highsmith thought was perfect for the role, & again in 2000. Mr. Ripley's Game was also made twice -The American Friend (1970), & again in 2002, as Ripley's Game.
Highsmith has been said to be mean spirited, misanthropic, cruel, racist & misogynistic. Those who knew her claim she was shy & unhappy in life. She was a lesbian with many lovers, none of these relationships lasted more than a few years.
Greatest Achievements: Her stereotype breaking portraits of homosexual people in 20th century literature, 7 awards, including the O. Henry Memorial Award, the Edgar Allan Poe Award, Le Grand Prix de Littérature Policière, & the Award of the Crime Writers Association of Great Britain.
Her uncomfortable novels of humiliation, delusion & futility dance around between serious literature, pulp fiction, comic books (which Highsmith actually wrote for) & psychiatric clinical case studies. Highsmith’s intimate life & literary life both bolted with an early rise & a slow painful decline. Her books take hostility, guilt, anxiety & resentment & throw them back at the reader, with situations & emotions we would rather not admit knowing.
She preferred women sexually, although she preferred men in all other ways. In 1949 she made an effort to analyze & ''cure'' herself with a fiancé- writer Marc Brandel. Her biographies name more than a dozen affairs with women. As it turned out, her private life was a sexual grand tour. Her love of women is reflected in The Price of Salt, her lesbian romance, published in 1952 under a pseudonym.
In her last years, Highsmith moved to unrequited crushes on movie stars including Tabea Blumenschein, a 25-year-old actress in German films, with whom Highsmith was obsessed after a brief fling in 1978. In the last 30 years of her life, she ate like a sparrow & drank epic amounts of Scotch. She was so stingy that she lugged a pile of firewood from home to home, & drove 60 miles to buy cheaper pasta.
If you are feeling dark, confused & put upon, as I was in the Seattle winter of 1998, I recommend the Ripley novels, read them in order, starting the next as the previous book is closed. They may have you getting in touch with your inner Tom Ripley, which could be just what is needed.
During a notable bleak period, late 1990s, having tried to get used to giving up acting & feeling my first crush of the giant boot of depression, I threw myself into a marathon reading session of Patricia Highsmith’s 5 Tom Ripley Novels. I understand it seems like an odd choice for cheering oneself up, but the cruel bite & misanthropy of Highsmith’s books was just the dose I needed to find my groove again.
After her humble beginnings in Texas, Highsmith traveled to Europe from 1949 onwards, moving between England, France, Switzerland & Italy. This nomadic lifestyle seemed to become the inspiration for her Ripley stories.
The first book, published in 1955- The Talented Mr. Ripley, is about a debonair, homosexual, psychotic, habitual liar, who cheats & murders his way around Europe, adopting various identities & playing different personalities in order to elude authorities. My kind of guy. There would be 4 more: Ripley Underground (1970), Mr. Ripley's Game (1974), The Boy Who Followed Ripley (1980) & Ripley Under Water (1990).
Highsmith produced 22 novels & 7 collections of short stories by the time of her death from Leukemia, at the age of 74.
Several of her novels were also adapted as screenplays for successful films: Alfred Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train (1951), The Talented Mr. Ripley was made into a film- Plein Soleil (1960), starring Alain Delon, whom Highsmith thought was perfect for the role, & again in 2000. Mr. Ripley's Game was also made twice -The American Friend (1970), & again in 2002, as Ripley's Game.
Highsmith has been said to be mean spirited, misanthropic, cruel, racist & misogynistic. Those who knew her claim she was shy & unhappy in life. She was a lesbian with many lovers, none of these relationships lasted more than a few years.
Greatest Achievements: Her stereotype breaking portraits of homosexual people in 20th century literature, 7 awards, including the O. Henry Memorial Award, the Edgar Allan Poe Award, Le Grand Prix de Littérature Policière, & the Award of the Crime Writers Association of Great Britain.
Her uncomfortable novels of humiliation, delusion & futility dance around between serious literature, pulp fiction, comic books (which Highsmith actually wrote for) & psychiatric clinical case studies. Highsmith’s intimate life & literary life both bolted with an early rise & a slow painful decline. Her books take hostility, guilt, anxiety & resentment & throw them back at the reader, with situations & emotions we would rather not admit knowing.
She preferred women sexually, although she preferred men in all other ways. In 1949 she made an effort to analyze & ''cure'' herself with a fiancé- writer Marc Brandel. Her biographies name more than a dozen affairs with women. As it turned out, her private life was a sexual grand tour. Her love of women is reflected in The Price of Salt, her lesbian romance, published in 1952 under a pseudonym.
In her last years, Highsmith moved to unrequited crushes on movie stars including Tabea Blumenschein, a 25-year-old actress in German films, with whom Highsmith was obsessed after a brief fling in 1978. In the last 30 years of her life, she ate like a sparrow & drank epic amounts of Scotch. She was so stingy that she lugged a pile of firewood from home to home, & drove 60 miles to buy cheaper pasta.
If you are feeling dark, confused & put upon, as I was in the Seattle winter of 1998, I recommend the Ripley novels, read them in order, starting the next as the previous book is closed. They may have you getting in touch with your inner Tom Ripley, which could be just what is needed.
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