Ripley's Game [Import] [Paperback]

Patricia Highsmith (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Pearson Longman (May 31, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1405851775
• ISBN-13: 978-1405851770
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)

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

50 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent novel in many respects, January 19, 2000

By 

C. Colt "It Just Doesn't Matter" (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Ripley's Game (Paperback)

In her book about plotting and writing thrillers, Patricia Highsmith said that European critics and publishers think of her books as novels, not merely as thrillers. After reading "Ripley's Game", one can certainly sympathize with the European point of view. "Ripley's Game" is an excellent thriller and an excellent novel.

I suspect that this book finds Tom Ripley in mid career. He's married and living on a French estate thanks to the generosity of a father-in-law who despises him. A series of chance events provide Ripley with the opportunity to simultaneously repay an insult and to help a friend commit a crime. The ensuing action comprises one of Patricia Highsmith's most interesting stories.

Ripley engineers events so that the man who insulted him ends up committing the crime for his friend. But a sense of guilt and an adventurous spirit compel Ripley to come to the man's assistance. Since crimes never succeed in the exact manner intended, Ripley and company soon find themselves in a desperate situation that requires a lot of maneuvering.

By the end of the story, at least two people with conventional mores wind up behaving in a manner that contradicts their ethics. While Ripley's point of view is a little more subdued than usual, he still displays a few humorous touches. In the scene where he decides that he must garrote a Mafia leader, for example, he becomes excited at the thought of "his first Mafia effort". Later when he must explain the presence of two dead Mafia hitmen to a frightened housewife, he becomes the country gentlemen informing her that these people are vermin whose death is regrettable but who deserved their fate.

Patricia Highsmith usually writes from the point of view of a single protagonist, and since all speech and action is conveyed through that person, we quickly see things from his or her point of view. In this novel, however, the action is disseminated through two points of view, Ripley's and that of his puppet/accomplice. The result is both interesting and unsettling. On the one hand, we really get a sense of what other people think of Tom Ripley, and how much of his criminal life is apparent to them. On the other hand, it's a strange change to observe Ripley from the outside instead of seeing the action from his point of view.

"Ripley's Game" examines the forces that motivate a normally law abiding citizen to commit a crime. In the process it causes us to question how circumstantial our own morality and legal obedience may actually be.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Explosive, December 30, 1999

By 

P. Manze "P" (Sherman Oaks, California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Ripley's Game (Paperback)

The best of the Ripley books. It starts off like the Eurostar train - that can only go at a slow speed on the English tracks; but once it hits France it takes off at 200 mph. Once again the charming sociopath starts a chain of events that keeps the reader glued to the page, turning them faster and faster to the explosive ending. The best of the best.

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Character Development, November 5, 1999

By 

Valiant (Bend, OR United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ripley's Game (Paperback)

Tom Ripley after playing a foolish trick on a fellow townsman for slighting Ripley, unknowingly sends the mans life into a tailspin. In this novel of the series Tom is faced with trying to put back together the life of a good man whos life has been turned upside down by the unwitting events that Tom sets into play. The consequences and choices that are made by these two men are heart rending and leaves the reader feeling quite unsettled to the very last page. A dark and fascinating read.