Found in the Street [Hardcover]

Patricia Highsmith (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1987

When Ralph Linderman returns a stranger’s wallet he found during a morning stroll through Greenwich Village, he is entirely unprepared for the complex maze of sexual obsession and disturbing psychological intrigue he is about to be drawn into. Patricia Highsmith, author of The Tremor of Forgery, Strangers on a Train, and The Cry of the Owl has once again created an unsettling thriller that explores the bleakest alleyways of human desire. Highsmith has been called “one of the finest crime novelists” by the New York Times and is now considered one of the most original voices in twentieth-century American fiction.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Highsmith is best known for Strangers On a Train, basis for the prizewinning Hitchcock film, one of her 19 eerie novels. The new one pulses with the beat of Greenwich Village where chance brings ill-assorted people together. Ralph Linderman, a middle-aged security guard, finds a wallet and takes it to its owner, artist Jack Sutherland who lives nearby with his wife Natalia and their small daughter. Meeting young Elsie Tyler, a waitress, Jack learns that Ralph harasses her continually, warning her away from "bad company." The girl's vivid beauty attracts Jack and bisexual Natalia, who team up with their bohemian friends and create a modeling career for Elsie, practically overnight. Trouble develops both from Ralph and from the girl's lesbian lovers, along with several curiously unrelated incidents that leave the reader vaguely unsatisfied. The story's intoxicating flavor and promise beg for a sounder structure than the ambiguous ending provides.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Highsmith is best-known as a mystery writer. This novel is being presented as serious literature, but it's simply a psychological suspense thriller that sorely needs the conventional surprise ending. Although the author creates a compelling semi-villain (a snoopy, dotty old security guard) and builds a tense atmosphere, she lets the suspense fall flat after the climactic murder. The protagonists, a Greenwich Village couple who pride themselves on their sophistication and open marriage, come off as stagey and tedious as each falls into a sexually tinged friendship with a young lesbian. Both try to pin her subsequent murder on the snooper; subliminally they blame each other. With a bit less pretension this could have been a good mysteryand what's wrong with that? Joyce Smothers, Monmouth Cty Lib., Manalapan, N.J.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Mysterious Press (December 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0892962593
• ISBN-13: 978-0892962594
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,696,470 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not your average mundane psycho thriller..., February 15, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Found in the Street (Highsmith, Patricia) (Paperback)

Like the reviewer below, I was surprised to find the ranking of this novel so low. If anything, Highsmith has captured the sexual ambiguities of a stalker in such a way that she puts more "literary" writers such as Joyce Carol Oates to shame. Furthermore, classic Highsmith peculiarties are present in full force- amoral anti-heroes, lesbianism, sexual repression and lack of vindication for all involved. In short, great read!

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Don't expect a crime thriller here, folks, October 19, 2000

By 

Joseph W. Smith III - See all my reviews

This review is from: Found in the Street (Highsmith, Patricia) (Paperback)

Normally, I don't pay much attention to books that already have several reviews (I'm tryin' for that gift certificate!); but when I saw that this fine book had two 2-star reviews, I just had to pitch in my dissenting vote. It shouldn't take any sane reader long to figure out that Highsmith's final novel has no intention of being the typical suspense thriller that she is known for. There's plenty of the old-fashioned "apprehension" here that Graham Greene first identified as the hallmark of her work; but this is a NOVEL in the finest modern sense, replete with convincing characters, complex relationships, and richly textured themes. As long as I live I'll never forget the character of Ralph Lindermann, and how he turned out to be RIGHT, damn him, in his annoyingly pessimistic reading of events. Among other things, this is a brilliant exploration of urban life in the eighties, and one of Highsmith's most assured and sophisticated works; like so many of her other works, it's painful and deeply moving.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Vividly drawn characters; a strong sense of place., March 3, 2007

By 

Michael G. "mikefromrochester" (Rochester, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Found in the Street (Highsmith, Patricia) (Paperback)

Patricia Highsmith had been writing fiction for 30+ years before she authored this outstanding gem of a novel. The years of experience are abundantly evident in the understated, precise way this highly interesting and totally believable tale is told.

Jack and Natalia Sutherland lead charmed lives and they know it. Both are young and both come from wealthy families. Jack is a talented illustrator and Natalia works in an art gallery. They live in a very desirable apartment in Greenwich Village along with their precocious 5 year old daughter Amelia. Their marriage is perfect. Their lives are perfect.

Enter Elsie Tyler, a fresh faced 20 year old from a small town in upstate New York. Elsie has a rare type of natural beauty, the kind that causes heads to turn. She is an object of desire to many. Men and women.
Much of the book concerns the unusual dynamic that is set up when Jack and Natalia both find themselves falling in love with Elsie.

Adding to the tension inherent in the narrative is the presence of Ralph Linderman, a socially isolated middle aged security guard, who takes a very unhealthy interest in Elsie's well being.

Highsmith developes the characters using detailed descriptions that ring absolutely true. These are characters you can practically reach out and touch. Moreover, every action taken is completely in character. Time after time I found myself thinking: "Yes, that is exactly what a woman like Natalia would have done." Or, "Isn't that just like Jack to do that very thing." Also presented with great skill is the ambiance of New York. The crowds, the shops, the restaurants. All the sights, sounds and smells of the city.

I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that Found in the Street is an unrecognized masterpiece of fiction. Very highly recommended.