The great revival of interest in Patricia Highsmith continues with this work that reveals the chilling reality behind the idyllic facade of American suburban life.
In Deep Water, set in the small town of Little Wesley, Vic and Melinda Meller's loveless marriage is held together only by a precarious arrangement whereby in order to avoid the messiness of divorce, Melinda is allowed to take any number of lovers as long as she does not desert her family. Eventually, Vic tries to win her back by asserting himself through a tall tale of murder—one that soon comes true.
Deep Water
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Review
“An atmosphere of nameless dread, of unspeakable foreboding, permeates every page of Patricia Highsmith, and there's nothing quite like it.” (Boston Globe )
About the Author
Patricia Highsmith (1921-1995) was the author of more than twenty novels, including Strangers on a Train, The Price of Salt and The Talented Mr. Ripley, as well as numerous short stories.
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More About the Author
Patricia Highsmith (1921-1995) was the author of more than twenty novels, including Strangers on a Train, The Price of Salt and The Talented Mr. Ripley, as well as numerous short stories.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
26 of 27 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Thirty-six-year-old Victor Van Allen is being cuckolded, quite blatantly. For a number of years his wife Melinda has paraded a succession of lovers around their small town of Little Wesley, Massachusetts, dragging the men along to the Van Allens' dinner engagements with friends, dancing with them provocatively, entertaining them in night-long debauches in the Van Allens' home. Victor's friends shake their heads or offer him extra desserts at parties--pity food--and they marvel at his reaction to the insult: Victor is a paragon of patience. He allows Melinda her lovers, only wishing that she attracted a higher quality paramour. Still, Victor is not as unconcerned about Melinda's behavior as he appears. He regularly forces himself to stay awake and chaperone his wife's "dates" in their living room rather than please the couple by retiring to his separate bedroom. And, near the beginning of the novel, Victor announces to his wife's most recent flame that he once killed a lover of hers, a certain Malcolm McRae. Victor is lying, but McRae *had* been pummeled to death in his New York apartment, and his murderer had not been identified.
This being a Patricia Highsmith novel, it cannot be a good thing for our put-upon protagonist to confess to a murder he did not commit, and the reader begins at once to wonder how this misstep of Victor's will lead to his undoing. But it is unlikely that readers will correctly anticipate precisely how Victor's story plays itself out.
Patricia Highsmith--the author of, among many other novels, Strangers on a Train and The Talented Mister Ripley--is a master of suspense. Deep Water shares with her other books a certain remarkable slowness. Highsmith's characters unhurriedly attend to the minutiae of their lives. They entertain friends and admire artwork and do the gardening, they take drives and prepare supper. Very often it seems that nothing is happening in one of her books, and yet as the pages turn the reader becomes more and more tense, wondering when precisely the axe will fall--for it certainly will fall. By the end of Deep Water the pages turn very fast indeed.
[Deep Water also shares with some of Highsmith's other novels (Found in the Street) a bizarre vision of parenthood. The Van Allens have a highly disposable daughter, perhaps eight years old, who spends her days in other people's homes, or playing contentedly by herself in her own room. She is sometimes left alone in the house. She is abandoned at the movies when her mother forgets to pick her up. Meanwhile the Van Allens' social calendar is chock full of late-night dinner parties and those uncomfortable threesomes in the living room. Part of this abuse of the daughter has to do with the storyline: Melinda is intended to be a very poor mother. But Victor, the "good" parent, leaves the house for those parties just as often as his wife does.]
Reviewed by Debra Hamel, author of Trying Neaira: The True Story of a Courtesan's Scandalous Life in Ancient Greece
This being a Patricia Highsmith novel, it cannot be a good thing for our put-upon protagonist to confess to a murder he did not commit, and the reader begins at once to wonder how this misstep of Victor's will lead to his undoing. But it is unlikely that readers will correctly anticipate precisely how Victor's story plays itself out.
Patricia Highsmith--the author of, among many other novels, Strangers on a Train and The Talented Mister Ripley--is a master of suspense. Deep Water shares with her other books a certain remarkable slowness. Highsmith's characters unhurriedly attend to the minutiae of their lives. They entertain friends and admire artwork and do the gardening, they take drives and prepare supper. Very often it seems that nothing is happening in one of her books, and yet as the pages turn the reader becomes more and more tense, wondering when precisely the axe will fall--for it certainly will fall. By the end of Deep Water the pages turn very fast indeed.
[Deep Water also shares with some of Highsmith's other novels (Found in the Street) a bizarre vision of parenthood. The Van Allens have a highly disposable daughter, perhaps eight years old, who spends her days in other people's homes, or playing contentedly by herself in her own room. She is sometimes left alone in the house. She is abandoned at the movies when her mother forgets to pick her up. Meanwhile the Van Allens' social calendar is chock full of late-night dinner parties and those uncomfortable threesomes in the living room. Part of this abuse of the daughter has to do with the storyline: Melinda is intended to be a very poor mother. But Victor, the "good" parent, leaves the house for those parties just as often as his wife does.]
Reviewed by Debra Hamel, author of Trying Neaira: The True Story of a Courtesan's Scandalous Life in Ancient Greece
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
By "vortex87"
Format:Paperback
I'm happy that this -- one of Patricia Highsmith's finest novels -- is back in print, because it deserves to be read.
The set-up is that Vic and Melinda are unhappily married, but rather than divorce, since they have a daughter, he lets her go off and have affairs (this seems quite an interesting concept to have proposed in 1957, when this book came out) -- and you'd think that surely, a little jealousy might come in on his part, right? Right. . . . And from here, it goes off in some interesting directions. I really didn't expect the ending. And now that it's finally available, go ahead and get it! You're missing a great novel otherwise.
The set-up is that Vic and Melinda are unhappily married, but rather than divorce, since they have a daughter, he lets her go off and have affairs (this seems quite an interesting concept to have proposed in 1957, when this book came out) -- and you'd think that surely, a little jealousy might come in on his part, right? Right. . . . And from here, it goes off in some interesting directions. I really didn't expect the ending. And now that it's finally available, go ahead and get it! You're missing a great novel otherwise.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
This is a story about the complicated and very obscure structures of social life in the suburbia of New York. It's the story of the quite nice guy who becomes a murderer. The most remarkable thing in my opinion is the fact that you, as the reader, identify yourself with Vic Van Allen, the evil one, the murderer. You can understand him and his acting, you get the feeling that he is the betrayed one, the victim, but in fact he is the bad one, he is a murderer! That's very special.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
A wonder.
She has to be the best at writing about unpleasent people. Smart and sharply entertaining. Good at the slow progression of getting in way over your head. Read more
Published 7 days ago by Emer Foley
5.0 out of 5 stars
just another patricia highsmith obsessor
this is a great book, one of her best. Im writing a book on her works.
check out my blog--
patriciahighsmith.wordpress.com
check out my blog--
patriciahighsmith.wordpress.com
Published 27 days ago by Moises C Pulido Jr
4.0 out of 5 stars
Highsmith creates great characters
Highsmith can turn ordinary people into amazing sociopaths. Her writing style is very simple but her descriptions are so clear that the reader can visualize each scene perfectly. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Ruth A. Sorsen
4.0 out of 5 stars
Take a Walk Inside the Mind of a Sociopath
One thing that simultaneously works for and against Highsmith's writing style is her ability to create terror out of the mundane. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Todd Croak-Falen
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very intense
I really like her way of describing the mind, and disturbing me as a reader with characters whose actions seems plausable. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Marwinsen
5.0 out of 5 stars
Paradigm Shift
[ALERT: This is not a mystery story in the normal sense, so there is no question of spoilers. But readers who think otherwise should not read on. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Roger Brunyate
4.0 out of 5 stars
Vic get's it right in the end
I really enjoyed Deep Water. It is the first Highsmith novel I've read and it won't be the last. A dark and painfully precise look into the mind of a man torchered by by the... Read more
Published 7 months ago by RestlessAssKickingSyndrome
4.0 out of 5 stars
Highsmith's Touch
As with every Highsmith book, some plots elements work better than others. Some parts of the story are believable and some aren't at all. Read more
Published 18 months ago by J. Smallridge
5.0 out of 5 stars
deep pleasure
A deliciously twisted tale with a Robert Forester-like protagonist (only not the dull empty-shell Forester, but a cultivated repressed madman on the order of Poe's killer of "The... Read more
Published 19 months ago by Wayne F. Burke
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of Highsmith's Finest
This book has to be one of the finest psychological character studies I have ever read. It is amazing how right Highsmith gets it.
If you like suspense, read this book. Read more
If you like suspense, read this book. Read more
Published on March 6, 2011 by Susie-Q
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