Highsmith: A Romance of the 1950's [Paperback]

Marijane Meaker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2003

Patricia Highsmith, author of classics such as The Talented Mr. Ripley and The Price of Salt, was a lesbian who defied categorization during the postwar period. Her dynamic, often difficult life coupled with her sinister crime stories and upbeat lesbian pulp fiction challenged popular stereotypes about homosexuality as well as women writers. To aspiring young novelist Marijane Meaker, however, Highsmith was more than a role model. During their two-year romance amidst the bohemian set of Greenwich Village and the literary crowd of the Hamptons, the pair navigated the underground lesbian bar scene, lunched with literary stars like Janet Flanner, shared intimacies, gossiped with abandon, and maintained a steady routine of writing and heavy drinking. Written with wit and brassy candor, this is a rare and revealing look at the life and loves of a controversial icon of popular American fiction.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Highsmith: A Romance of the 1950s begins like a brainy, romantic novel complete with exotic settings, fast-paced dialogue, and a who’s who of the 1950s New York literati. All this should not be surprising given that Marijane Meaker’s tale of her two-year relationship with famed mystery novelist Patricia Highsmith comes from a pen that has crafted more than 40 works of fiction and non-fiction.

Meaker’s touch is light and clear. She backlights her memoir with glimpses of the New York scene of the era: the Mafia-controlled lesbian bars, the rise of Fire Island, the rage for Freudian psychoanalysis. She doesn't attempt a detailed literary biography, nor is the book a complete psychological portrait of Highsmith. But Meaker, a self-proclaimed lover of pseudonymous disguises, does peer beneath Highsmith’s public mask to reveal her constant despair over a disapproving mother, her fascination/obsession with Germany, and her discomfort around intellectuals. This, and Meaker’s persistent jealousy and constant fear that her beloved Pat would leave her to write in Europe slowly edges the narrative into darker territory. Inevitably, the lovers part, as each author kills off the other, albeit in fictional form, with their first post-relationship murder mysteries.

Meaker closes the book by describing her difficult 1992 reunion with Highsmith. Meaker depicts her ex-lover as a hard-drinking, grizzled, chain-smoking, bigoted woman recently returned from Europe and recovering from a bout with lung cancer. Far from the bright beginnings of young love in the 1950s, this segment provides a depth absent from the earlier, more novelistic chapters and provides a glimpse of what a further, more complete biography might have to offer. --Patrick O’Kelley

Product Details

• Paperback: 250 pages
• Publisher: Cleis Press; 1 edition (April 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1573441716
• ISBN-13: 978-1573441711
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #794,988 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Warts and all, December 2, 2004

By 

mojosmom (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Highsmith: A Romance of the 1950's (Paperback)

Meaker met Highsmith in the '50's. Both were successful novelists - Highsmith had written the first of the Ripley novels, her Strangers on the Train had been filmed by Hitchcock, while Meaker was just breaking into hardcover. They fell in love. Meaker broke off with her lover to move to rural Pennsylvania (from New York City!) with Highsmith. They had two years together, before Meaker's jealousy (early on a friend had quoted Shakespeare to her as a warning: 'Trifles light as air / Are to the Jealous confirmations strong / As proofs of holy writ.") and Highsmith's alcoholism destroyed their relationship. In fact, despite a habit of remaining friends with old lovers, Meaker did not have contact with Highsmith for twenty-seven years after their breakup.

Highsmith seems to have been a terribly insecure woman; she was restless, always wanting to be where she was not, doing her best writing in (and eventually moving permanently to) Europe. The casual racism and anti-Semitism she voiced when Meaker first knew her, while perhaps not so uncommon in the 50's, had grown into a vicious hatred of Jews by the time they reconnected nearly three decades later. She seems to have had a very difficult relationship with her mother, whom she actually stopped speaking to later in life.

Meaker draws a compelling portrait of two writers, and how they tried, without ultimate success, to make a home and lives together. At one point, towards the end, Highsmith accuses Meaker of having imagined who she (H) was and being disappointed that she was someone else. Meaker admits the truth of this. While she has drawn Highsmith warts and all, she doesn't airbrush her own portrait, but gives us an honest account an affair that was likely doomed from the start.

It is also an interesting portrait of urban gay/lesbian life in the 50's, when "you could still be fired for being a homosexual, or lose your lease, your straight friends, your family -- even in a big city like Manhattan, you were safer in the closet." Even Highsmith and Meaker, whose families knew, if they did not accept, their lesbianism, and both of whom had published books about lesbians (Highsmith's The Price of Salt actually had the nerve to have a happy ending), felt guarded, out in the world.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Truly fascinating!, June 8, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Highsmith: A Romance of the 1950's (Paperback)

I've heard such mixed things about Patricia Highsmith over the years. The comments about her writing have been very positive, but most of the statements about her personality have been negative. Here we get a fair and balanced portrait of a fascinating individual. But more than that, Meaker's book gives us an intriguing perspective on New York in an earlier era when social mores may have been somewhat different but timeless human dramas played out with the same abandon as today. This memoir is written in incisive, witty, and honest prose. As I neared the final pages I found myself reading slower and slower because I didn't want the book to end.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Meaker is funny as h*ll!, July 2, 2003

By 

Tabby (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Highsmith: A Romance of the 1950's (Paperback)

Although this is a bittersweet love story, it is told with a sense of wit and high grade storytelling. Of course there are the serious aspects of the intensely passionate relationship between Meaker and Highsmith. Meaker paints a vivid picture of a specific society in New York (and of city mice living in rural Pennsylvania) in the 1950's. Meaker is a talented raconteur and wonderful writer! I recommend this book to anyone interested in learning more about Patricia Highsmith, life in the 1950's (lesbian or otherwise), Marijane Meaker, a talented author in her own right, or a decent read. I also recommend Shockproof Sydney Skate to see how Meaker incorporated her nonfiction life into a fictional book. I read these books around the same time and I felt like I was back in time.