Customer Reviews

Ripley Under Water

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

In this book, written almost forty years after "The Talented Mr. Ripley", our hero has matured in many ways. Ripley is now a living abroad as a country gentleman with a beautiful wife, a home, and a refined taste in art. Even more interesting is the manner in which Ripley's criminal mind has matured. He has evolved from thief and confidence trickster to the more dignified crime of forgery. Now he has friends and confidants of many years to assist him. He also has a string of murders behind him and several implacable enemies including, vulgar American named Prichard who is determined to expose his crimes.

Despite Ripley's tarnished history, we quickly come to see him as the unfair victim of the obnoxious, meddlesome Prichard. So what if he's forged a few paintings and killed some people? After all, Ripley is a cultured gentleman-he's a painter, musician, and polyglot with all the trappings of a successful businessman. We know that Ripley kills but only as a last resort and often with regret. Prichard on the other hand, makes a career of victimizing people. His battle with Ripley is not a moral crusade as much as a sadistic whim.

In the oddest and perhaps the most brilliant part of the novel Ripley is reading Richard Ellman's biography of Oscar Wilde to take his mind off of Prichard's threatening activities. He finishes the book (it is an excellent biography of Wilde, by the way) and compares Prichard's activities to the Marquis of Queensbury's legal assault on Wilde and to the Persecution of Christ. Ripley concludes that in all three situations, the rough and the low-born attack the refined. It's a bit of a stretch but it works. Ripley the murderer becomes victim and martyr.

Since almost all of the crime in this novel has already been committed in the past, the reader experiences it in Ripley's recounting of past experiences. Even the removal of Prichard is more of a fortuitous even then premeditated murder. The tension and "edge" in this novel comes not so much from actions as the thoughts and words that accompany those actions. At one point Ripley admonishes a less determined accomplice not to bother saving the dying Prichard. His tone is stern, ruthless, and utterly devoid of any moral consideration.

I'm not surprised that a lot of Ripley fans did not like this book since it is largely psychological and lacks the frenetic action of "The Talented Mr. Ripley". But "Ripley Under Water" is a superb thriller in its own right with a lot of wonderful touches. I found the older, refined, Tom Ripley to be a completely believable character. Just go to a college reunion some time and you'll notice that all of the nihilists and trouble makers you went to school with are now the nicest parents and spouses. So it is with Ripley, the country gentleman.

Similarly his nemesis, Prichard is believable in his own right. In the end isn't it American culture that has come to France to attack its refined fugitive?

It is a shame Patricia Highsmith was unable to sustain her brilliance throughout all of her novels. Even the Ripley series has its slow moments. I had hoped the final Ripley novel from Highsmith would be one of her better works; some of the amazon.com reviews looked promising. But sorry to say, Ripley Under Water is just average Ripley fare.

Ripley Under Water starts off with such a wonderful premise. Tom Ripley is being hounded by a fanatic who for some inexplicable reason senses Ripley's murderous past, and is determined to make Ripley's life miserable as he uncovers the truth. But unfortunately Highsmith doesn't turn on the anxiety as expected, and the story has a rather unsatisfactorily flat ending. Beyond this, Highsmith spends so much time re-telling tidbits of the early Ripley novels ... as if there are potential readers who decided to start off on this book rather than follow in sequence (not likely, and not advisable).

But Ripley Under Water works very well in one aspect: the Ripley ambiance. It is amazing how Highsmith can capture the feeling of the characters and the setting so consistently throughout the Ripley series, a series spanning some 30+ years. She spends so much time detailing Tom Ripley's behaviour at being ... Tom Ripley! Enjoyable to an extent, but this too wears thin.

Bottom line: a satisfactory read for Highsmith fans only.

I have read all of the Ripley books in sequence, and am delighted to find that this last effort is the best since the "Talented" character appeared. It shares the flavor of "Strangers on a Train," that squirmy, claustrophibic quality of having control pulled from your grasp. Ripley is fascinating to me -- a completely amoral character for whom you feel sympathy -- and I find him at his most haunted and haunting in this book. My one regret: It is the final Ripley adventure.

Highsmith's Ripley novels declined precipitously, from the pure brilliance of the first three ("Talented Mr. Ripley," "Ripley Underground," "Ripley's Game"), to the less dynamic "Ripley Underwater" and the rather sad "Boy Who Followed Ripley." The latter two are poorly plotted but well-written (as always with Highsmith). Whatever you do, don't start with this one-- begin with "Talented Mr. Ripley" and move along chronologically-- then pick this up and read it (if you wish), as it fills in some neat little gaps in our understanding of Tom and his friends. But compared with the first three, this and its successor are mostly dispensible....

This was the first Ripley book I ever read, and remains my firm favourite - I enjoyed it even more than 'The Talented Mr Ripley', which itself is also excellent.

Patricia Highsmith is one of the most effective suspense writers I've come across. I have never been able to put my finger on exactly why - others can do the fancy literary analysis - but you HAVE to keep reading, you feel like you're right there in that place and time, and you feel all of Tom Ripley's worry, relief, triumph and terror as if it was your own.

Her books aren't particularly fast-moving or violent, and don't get to the action directly enough for some people. But if her wonderful, evocative prose gets you, Ripley (re-)discovering the single corpse of one of his victims is more horrifying than anything in a dozen splatter books - I was just dreading it, for pages and pages before it happened.

Ms Highsmith's talent for building tension, suspense and sheer dread are even more marked in Ripley Under Water because we know what's going to happen - Ripley has done some bad things, and somebody is trying to get him into trouble for them. As a plot summary, that's a non-story, but in the hands of Patricia Highsmith it's a taut and compelling thriller.

She gets us right inside Ripley's mind, a place with neither conscience nor much regret about his murders. His privileged existance, thanks to both his ill-gotten gains and the assets of his wealthy wife, is wonderfully

evoked, and we squirm at the creepiness of the Pritchards, his meddling new neighbours.

The waiting, while the reformed predator Ripley is himself preyed upon, is almost agonising. If you've seen the movie and don't like books where you know the ending, then start with this one. It'll scare and surprise you, it's simply a marvellous book.

I've been browsing the reviews for this particular entry in the devilish Tom Ripley series, and a lot of them seem to cite this as one of the weakest books. I don't understand why - it seems perfectly in the spirit and style of the rest of the series, and I find it perversely satisfying that the series ends with Ripley, once again, secure and happy. Maybe it's not as emotionally resonant as the original "Talented Mr. Ripley," nor as crackerjack suspenseful as "Ripley's Game," but (for what it's worth) I'd say it's definitely better than "Ripley Underground" and "The Boy Who Followed Ripley."

Too bad that the last of the Ripley books was a bit of a let-down. A great set up and interesting premise, the book is marred by its poor resolution. What potential - two vulgar Americans who become Ripley's neighbors with a hidden agenda...the "cat and mouse" of this book should have been great, but sadly it falls short. In my opinion, Ripley's Game is the best of the Ripley sequels - this one doesn't even come close...

I have read few good reviews for this book, but having read it now, I think very much otherwise.

In my opinion, this is the second best in the series - because "The Talented Mr. Ripley" is the best, of course, but also because "Ripley Under Ground" had a few good moments and was otherwise rather flat (4th best to me), "Ripley's Game" had a more good moments, but still didn't reach great peaks of suspense (3rd best), and "The Boy who Followed Ripley" was really pointless, and the core concept had already been done, and a lot better, in "The Two Faces of January."

But here, as soon as Tom grows suspicious of the Pritchards, the atmosphere goes very apprehensive. And, as the novel progresses, it turns to a tension - that sweet, magical "oh, don't get caught! Don't get caught!" tension - that only the first one really has. And it doesn't let go.

This book is indeed one of the few "unputdownables" that nearly equals Highsmith's best. It's definitely worth it. Read on!

In her fifth and what was to be her final installment in the novels about Tom Ripley, RIPLEY UNDER WATER, Patricia Highsmith has written a suspenseful page-turner that both shocks and entertains the reader. The talented Mr. Ripley, married to Heloise, now lives in France. He is the perfect friendly neighbor-- although he of course must maintain his distance from others as he is the killer of four people, Dickie Greenleaf, Murchison and two Mafia members. But Tom is no longer completely convinced that he committed all these murders. "Some remembered experiences faded, he [Tom] supposed, such as that of killing. . ." until a strange American Pritchard and his wife show up at the most inappropriate times and disrupt Mr. Ripley's placid existence.

Ripley now takes harpischord lessons, listens to Brahms waltzes, drinks gin and tonics and kirs, grows dahlias, watches videos of "Some Like It Hot," and reads Richard Ellman's biography of Oscar Wilde. He is quite the gentleman of leisure. He is also a cold-blooded killer. This writer has the amazing ability to make you root for this psychopath although you know that he possesses few if any redeeming qualities. On the other hand, it's no coincidence that the Iagos of the world are much more fascinating then the Cordelias.

The story stops rather abruptly; Ms. Highsmith apparently meant to write another chapter to Mr. Ripley's life. Unfortunately that did not happen. Nevertheless, this novel is entertainment at its best.

If you have enjoyed the Ripley series of books, you will undoubtedly want to read the final book, Ripley Under Water.

This book is a continuation of the story line of Ripley Under Ground, as the title suggests. This book is, however, less engaging and dramatic than Ripley Under Ground.

What Makes Ripley Under Water noteworthy is its boding sense of menace and paranoia. What would it be like to be stalked by someone who wants to do you harm? How would you feel? Those are the themes that are well developed in this book.

An American couple in their thirties, David and Janice Pritchard, move into Tom Ripley's neighborhood. Tom has a slight recollection of seeing them before somewhere. Soon he begins receiving strange telephone calls from someone claiming to be a person Ripley killed many years before. The Americans invite Ripley and his wife for a drink. Ripley goes alone and finds that the couple is obsessed with him, and knows quite a bit about his past misdeeds. The man even threatens Ripley. Soon thereafter the couple is seen outside of Ripley's home taking photographs.

Ripley's annoyed, but trying to stay cool. But when the man shows up in Morocco during the Ripley's' vacation, it's too much. Ripley begins to fight back in typical Ripley fashion. Events escalate when Ripley and Pritchard return to France.

My main complaint about the book is that the end doesn't live up to the suspense that leads up to it. As a result, I was left feeling dissatisfied with the story.

On the good side, the psychological development is very fine. In addition, the book is full of subtle puns and ironies . . . such as Ripley, who has killed so many men being freaked out by having to be in the kitchen while live lobsters are cooked.

Even if you are paranoid, remember that someone may really be after you!