friends have persuaded me to try a Le Carre, a Clancy or a Grisham. So far, I
have resisted. One crime writer that I have read, however, is Patricia Highsmith.
There is obviously a reason for this: Highsmith seems more obsessed with the
psychology of crime than with crime itself, and this make her novels a lot more
interesting.
American author Patricia Highsmith (1921-1995) first published her novel 'The
Talented Mr Ripley' in the United States in 1955. It was only her fourth book,
after having debuted with 'Strangers on a Train' in 1950 (which was filmed by
Alfred Hitchcock only one year after its publication) and the publication of
another thriller ('The Blunderer') and a lesbian love-story ('The Price of Salt',
later renamed 'Carol') that she published under the name of Claire Morgan.The
novel, however, is so well crafted that it does not betray the relative
inexperience of the writer: this is a mature psychological thriller that continues
to appeal to this day.
It tells the story of a relatively young small-time crook in New York, Tom Ripley,
who ends up in Italy because a rich father, Mr Greenleaf, has asked him to
travel to Europe to convince his son, Dickie Greenleaf, to return to the United
States. Off Tom goes, seizing the opportunity to see something of Europe and
perform this -he thinks- easy task. Once he has found Dickie in Italy, however,
he falls in love with Dickie and his rich playboy lifestyle and decides to stay with
him rather than to try and coax him back to his father and fatherland.
Tom becomes quickly obsessed with Dickie and when Dickie grows bored with
Tom and Tom (accidentally?) kills Dickie, Tom decides to let his dream come
true: he becomes Dickie. Obviously, people that knew Dickie grow suspicious
and Tom has to maneuver very intelligently to stay out of trouble, though in the
end he succeeds and retires to France to live his bohemian European lifestyle
the way Dickie had in Italy.
The novel's core lies in the examination of Tom's character (or rather the lack
of it) and how he tries to compensate for this lack of character by assuming
Dickie's. Thus it is not a straightforward thriller as its main preoccupation is not
with who commited the crime(s) or even why the crime(s) where commited, but
with a person's inner psychology that happen to lead him to be (amongst other
things) murderous. Tom Ripley is portrayed as a fairly likeable character in that
his actions seem to make sense from his perspective. He tries to get by like any
other person, with the exception that his actions go beyond what would be
acceptable for most people.
Much has been made of the homosexual overtones of the story, but for me
personally, the homosexual aspect is inherent to Tom's character: if he feels he
is a 'nobody' and he wants to be 'somebody' he has to become 'someone else'
(or so he reasons). That is why his infatuation with Dickie has nothing to do
with any sort of sexuality: he is in love with Dickie's persona because that is the
person he would like to be. He has found his role-model in Dickie and therefore
has fallen in love with him, but his love is of the obsessive kind: even if Dickie
would have responded to any advances by Tom (note: he never makes any in
the novel) the relationship could not have worked: Tom does not want to be
with Dickie, he wants to be Dickie.
As a portrayal of a flawed (non-) character, 'The Talented Mr Ripley' makes for
compulsive reading, also because as a reader we do want to know how and if
he will manage to stay out of trouble despite his criminal acts. A very interesting
read, though not your typical thriller-fare.
