Tales of Natural and Unnatural Catastrophes [Hardcover]

Patricia Highsmith (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1989

A brilliant collection of stories, based on natural and unnatural catastrophes and exploring the macabre and its meaning. The stories range from midnight revelling in an East Austrian cemetery to a picnic for "crackpots" on the White House lawn. They also include the source of the tell-tale smells of Nabuti, the unsporting hiding place chosen by the Nuclear Control Committee for radio-active waste, and the crumbling defence tactics of a luxury high-rise against a crawling army that fumigation cannot kill. Other tales tell of how magic and horror stories followed in the wake of a furious whale, how miracle and revolution were launched when a Pope stubbed his toe, and how happiness came to a woman who thought she was Cleopatra.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Master storyteller Highsmith ( Mermaids on the Golf Course ) offers an eerily up-to-date collection of modern horror tales. On the cutting edge of technology are "Operation Balsam; Or Touch Me Not," about the government's problems in disposing of nuclear waste and an ingenious bureaucrat's solution, and "Rent-a-Womb vs. the Mighty Right," where surrogate mothers unionize and take on the religious fundamentalists. "President Buck Jones Rallies and Waves the Flag" culminates with the end of the world, while "Trouble at Jade Towers" embodies one of the city dweller's worst nightmaresenormous, unkillable roaches. Most of the stories take current trends to their logical and horrific conclusions, as in "Sweet Freedom! And a Picnic on the White House Lawn," which concerns the wholesale release of "harmless" patients from mental institutions. Highsmith looks at our civilization with a remorseless eye. Almost anyone trying to change things for the better is destroyed, even the Pope in "Sixtus VI, Pope of the Red Slipper," who is martyred trying to bring justice to the poor.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

The richly imagined but brutal fables in Highsmith's newest collection are gothic horror tales mixed with a dash of macabre humor. One is a reprise of Moby Dick told from the furious whale's point of view; another shows scientists experimenting on cancer-ridden corpses. When the corpses are buried in the cemetery behind the hospital, enormous blobs of fungi grow from themeventually to become a great tourist attraction. For Naomi, 190 or 210 years old, there is truly "No End in Sight." She is without one redeeming quality, prompting Highsmith to imply that it is too bad that "they don't push the old folks over cliffs anymore." In Highsmith's grim, sardonic view, people pollute the earth and carry evil within them. Not for the squeamish or the escapist.Marcia Tager, Tenafly, N.J.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 189 pages
• Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Pr; First Edition edition (January 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0871132516
• ISBN-13: 978-0871132512
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,545,455 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

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Neither Here, nor There, but not bad, January 22, 2009

By 

lin (Dallas, Texas USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tales of Natural and Unnatural Catastrophes (Paperback)

My only exposure to Highsmith prior to reading this book is Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train, which I loved. But somehow I can't believe the same person wrote them, as these stories hardly leave an impression me like Strangers on a Train did. The style reminds me of Catch-22 by Joseph Heller--a sort of mad-hatter of absurdities--which held me initially with a few painful chuckles, but it got old quickly if the story was too long.

Overall, I was not impressed by this particular work, but I am intrigued enough by what I've read to see her talent used in a different direction.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Stories that are not so much scary as just icky, July 22, 2009

By 

Dave Deubler (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tales of Natural and Unnatural Catastrophes (Paperback)

Mystery and suspense writer Patricia Highsmith offers tales of Gothic horror in the tradition of H.P. Lovecraft in a thoroughly modern (and at times, almost futuristic) setting. Most of these stories struck this reviewer as more unpleasant than truly horrifying, and more often than not, the bad guys only got what was coming to them, so no regrets. And as mysteries, these stories were not overly clever, and seemed to go on far too long for the amount of plot. If this was done with the hope of building suspense, it largely failed. Meanwhile, the topics of nuclear waste, plagues of insects, and the struggle for women's rights each figure prominently in more than one story, making this collection seem needlessly repetitive - a little more variety in subject matter probably would have helped. This reviewer's favorite tale was "Sweet Freedom! And a Picnic on the White House Lawn" which at least had a pleasant subplot. Also, "Sixtus VII: Pope of the Red Slipper" was pretty good and at least well-intentioned. The others fall short of being genuinely frightening without being funny, or clever, or presenting any positive message. The author certainly delivers on what the title promises, but this reviewer wonders "to what point?"

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Tales to give you nightmares, March 26, 2000

By 

A. C. Seligman (New York City) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tales of Natural and Unnatural Catastrophes (Paperback)

This book was classed as Mystery & Suspense, but presumably just because "that's what Patricia Highsmith writes." I'd class it as fantasy. These stories describe completely recognizable worlds, but "gone slightly mad" as one review accurately puts it. Some are enormously disturbing - I tried not to fall asleep in the middle of one because I feared the nightmares it would kindle!

That said, it's far from my favorite Highsmith. The stories just don't grip like most of her work - I couldn't stay awake when I tried. Peculiarly, many of them seem both too short, i.e. sketchy, and too long, i.e.moral/story could have been delivered much more quickly.

Perhaps mostly a good book for Highsmith completists; it's always interesting to read a favorite author's forays into a different genre.