Customer Reviews

Selected Stories of Patricia Highsmith

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My interest in Patricia Highsmith was sparked by the two movies based on her novel "The Talented Mr. Ripley" (the Matt Damon picture and "Purple Noon" in which Alain Delon plays Tom Ripley). I have read a couple of the other Ripley novels, but continue to prefer the first one over any of the sequels. In researching Highsmith on the Internet, I saw a collection of stories called "Little Tales of Misogyny" listed in her bibliography. Needless to say, the title intrigued me. Though many of the stories in "The Selected Stories of Patricia Highsmith" have been continuously in print, I have been unable to find a copy the Misogyny Tales.

The Misogyny Tales take up about 60 pages of this 724-page collection, each tale being only 3 to 5 pages long. It's hard to know what to make of them. Each story features a female character who embodies a specific aspect of the feminine personality; Highsmith allows this quality to unravel to the fullest extent possible, always to the detriment of those who live with or near the protagonists. The titles of the indivdual stories will give you an idea of the range of topics covered: "The Invalid, or, the Bedridden," "The Middle-Class Housewife," "The Breeder," "The Perfect Little Lady," "The Prude," "The Victim," etc. As damning as these stories are of their protagonists, in most cases the reader is likely to be somewhat in awe of the misguided heroines (as we are of the amoral Tom Ripley). Highsmith draws these characters with quick bold strokes using indelible ink. The reader is not given time to warm up to any of the characters and in the end they function more as archetypes than as full-blown fictional characters. Does Highsmith have nothing but contempt for her own sex? Possibly (think of Marge Sherwood in "The Talented Mr. Ripley"). Does she resist feminist rhetoric and politcal correctness? Certainly (you need only read "The Victim" to be convinced of this). Can she write in an honest and thought-provoking way? Absolutely! In some ways her attacks on middle-class convention and mores remind me of the stories of H.H. Munro (Saki) and Shirley Jackson--ironic and hard-hitting at the same time. Even when being her most brutal, she leaves room for pathos.

According to the dust jacket, Highsmith turned to writing short stories later in her life (beginning in the 70s). "Little Tales of Misogyny," interestingly, was first published in German (1975) before being published in English (1977). My only wish is that with a book of this nature (one spanning the author's entire career) that the date of authorship was given for each story. (It helps to know, for instance, that "Little Tales of Misogyny" was written during the height of the 70s feminist movement.)

The book, by the way, is very handsomely typeset and bound, worthy of an author whose recognition and esteem seems to be growing since her death in 1995. Graham Greene's Preface is brief but insightful.

Highsmith's catalog, laden with unpredictability, tension, apprehension, strangeness and irrational viewpoints are classics ripe for a celebrated re-emergence

Norton has accepted the challenge with an announced 15-book initiative that should eventually bring nearly all of her work back into print. The initial release includes as the cornerstone a weighty volume of over 60 short stories written throughout her career, now collected together for the first time: The Selected Stories of Patricia Highsmith. Also re-released in trade paperback are novels Strangers on the Train and A Suspension of Mercy.

Norton's flap copy glows, "Compelling, twisted and fiercely intelligent, The Selected Stories of Patricia Highsmith is a landmark collection, showcasing her mastery of the short story form." What a weird and wonderful collection this is. The comprehensive volume brings together stories from Highsmith's five previously published collections: The Animal Lover's Book of Beastly Murder; Little Tales of Misogyny; Slowly, Slowly in the Wind; The Black House; and Mermaids on the Golf Course. Much has been made of Highsmith's personal life, including her sexuality, expatriate lifestyle in Europe, and the misunderstanding and ignorance of her fellow Americans. Was she compelled to live in Europe because her works are too twisted for her countrymen? Or maybe they were ahead of their time?

In the Animal stories, beasts and bugs are plotting and intelligent creatures who coldly calculate (in the first person no less) the exploitation or destruction of the neighboring humans. You've got to love being inside a caged elephant's head as she sucks up a huge trunk of water and sprays the people staring at her or a cockroach's mind as he explains the merits of the crumbs on the various floors of the hotel he lives in. In a way, Highsmith relates to animals more warmly than she does people. The collection also includes a series of very short stories, vignettes actually, written in the third person and detailing the women of a suburbia that Highsmith obviously deplored. In stories such as The Perfectionist or The Perfect Little Lady, Highsmith paints a landscape that's a nice and neat on the surface but full of wickedness and murder underneath.

True mystery takes the reader into an unpredictable, twisted and scary world. Highsmith writes true mystery. This is most certainly NOT the formula PI novel with a simpleton murder and nice and neat search for the culprit. Highsmith doesn't rely on simple cat and mouse tension. Instead, she's a master of an unpredictable world, a cold and dark place where even you, the reader, are capable of murder. These are not feel-good works. The good guy usually loses, (that is if you can find a good guy). But the reader wins big because the work is so utterly interesting. Highsmith can rightly be called a master. She disturbs you. And she does it in a totally entertaining way.

David Meerman Scott
Author of Eyeball Wars: a novel of dot-com intrigue

Patricia Highsmith came late to short fiction after decades of novel-writing, and Joyce Carol Oates opined in the New York Review of Books that Highsmith had little talent for the form. The stories here certainly are uneven. Stories such as "Blow It" and "Something the Cat Dragged In" seem too formulaic; "Old Folks at Home" starts from an unbelievable premise and curdles quickly from its mean-spiritedness; "Please Don't Shoot the Trees" is warmed-over Ray Bradbury; most of the "Little Tales of Misogyny" are total throwaways. Highsmith's best stories, however, are breathtaking, and put the lie to Oates' blanket condemnation. My favorite stories in this collection are "Not in This Life, Maybe the Next," "The Cruelest Month" and "The Romantic," all touching and perceptive portrayals of women who have lived too much in their imaginations. "The Pond" and "The Kite" are brilliant and moving fantasies of bereavement; "Chorus Girl's Absolutely Final Performance," about the mistreatment of a zoo elephant and her final vengeance, would make stones weep. And that isn't even counting the tales of horror and suspense that were Highsmith's specialty. There are wonderful, Shirley Jacksonish tales of communities turning on their own ("Not One of Us," "The Black House"), Hitchcockian tales of murder ("Slowly, Slowly in the Wind," "A Curious Suicide," "The Button"), tales of conspiracies gone awry ("When in Rome," "Under a Dark Angel's Eye"). Highsmith's meticulous plots, wide knowledge of the world and bracingly acid view of life ensure that there are many more gems than duds in this book.

Since I am not a huge fan of Highsmith's mystery novels, enjoying this superb collection was an unexpected surprise (after being recommended to me by a friend). There are five collections of Highsmith's short fiction included in this book and there are a few undeniable masterpieces in each one of them. First up is "The Animal Lover's Book of Beastly Murder," which includes stories where the protagonists are animals trying to survive in the human world. My favorite is "The Bravest Rat in Venice," about a rat exacting a horrible revenge on the family who maimed him. Also enjoyable was "Notes from a Respectable Cockroach." "The Little Tales of Misogyny" was my least favorite group of stories, though "The Victim" is very well done. For me, the truly great stories of this anthology begin with the "Slowly, Slowly in the Wind" section (and where Highsmith begins to show her amazing versatility as a writer). "The Pond," is a terrific tale of horror and bereavement. "One for the Islands" is a creepy sci-fi cruise. "Please Don't Shoot the Trees" is a superb futuristic tale. And "Slowly, Slowly in the Wind" is a masterpiece of horror and murder. From the collection of "The Black House" are even more terrific stories. "Not One of Us" is a wicked, gossipy tale of friends and outsiders. "The Terrors of Basket-Weaving" exhibits "possession" at its most haunting. "Blow It" is a great comedy of manners of a man trying to choose between two girlfriends. And "The Black House" is a haunted house story gone wrong, where it is not the house that is as haunted as the men who keep the story of it alive. Highsmith exhibits a more domestic, suburban style with the stories in "Mermaids on the Golf Course." "Chris's Last Party" is about an actor's fear when his mentor becomes ill. "The Cruelest Month" is indeed cruel. And the finest story of the collection (and my favorite) is "The Romantic," which chronicles a young woman's "fantasy dates." Highsmith is a good, succinct writer who doesn't waste time embellishing or exaggerating her prose, instead letting the plot lead her characters toward their conclusions. I also highly recommend "Nothing That Meets the Eye: The Uncollected Stories of Patricia Highsmith," another compilation of Highsmith's short stories. While not as terrific as "Selected Stories," it does include a few favorites and masterpieces, among them "The Second Cigarette," "A Bird in Hand," and "The Trouble with Mrs. Blynn, the Trouble with the World."

I confess that as much as I'm a fan of suspense fiction, I have, up to this point, overlooked the fiction of Patricia Highsmith. In fact, I'm sure I'm not alone in writing that my only acquaintance with her work has been through the successful dramatization of two of her novels, "Strangers on a Train" and, more recently, "The Talented Mr. Ripley." So it was with great pleasure that I sampled her shorter suspense fiction, much like one would the mysterious dark chocolates in a Whitman's Sampler.

As to be expected, the quality and effectiveness of the stories is uneven in places. Some of the shorter stories seem more like character sketches rather than full-blown short fictional stories. Still everything makes for fascinating reading.

Now to correct my oversight and begin reading all of Highsmith's suspense novels...

Known for her novels (see STRANGERS ON A TRAIN and THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY), the late Patricia Highsmith was also a fabulous short story writer with her myriad of tales containing suspense and believable protagonists even when the star or support cast is an animal. Until this anthology this reviewer had no idea how many and how good her shorts are.

The collection is divided into five major segments filled with tension and in many cases dark humor. "The Animal Lover's Book of Beastly Murder" includes thirteen tales of angry animals demanding respect sometimes violently (ask that brave rat) from humans destroying their world. Section Two, "The Little Tales of Misogyny" contains seventeen tales of morality with choices not always being the high ground. Number three "Slowly, Slowly in the Wind" holds twelve more classical type horror/sci fi thrillers. "The Black House" compilation is eleven psychological haunted house tales with quite a human twist. Finally the last grouping, "Mermaids on the Golf Course" blends horror with loosely put romantic fantasy in eleven fine tales.

THE SELECTED STORIES OF PATRICIA HIGHSMITH is a fantastic collection that showcases the depth of a great novelist to bring her trademark suspense to the short format.

Harriet Klausner

You often lose track of time reading this, because the stories don't drag, and they are mostly compelling - you'll often go through 2 or 3 of the collections in one sitting. And this also serves as a superb introduction to Patricia Highsmith's work.

We start with two odd collections, "The Animal-Lover's Book of Beastly Murder," then "Little Tales of Misogyny." The "Animal-Lover's Book" has "full-length" (i.e. about 20 pages long) stories of the blood-lusting intent of cats, goats, horses, rats, camels, and more! They're readable because the animals' feelings toward whatever malicious humans are involved are presented as they might be for a person, save for behavioral characteristics. A couple also have European settings which are used to the same effect as in some of her novels. "Little Tales" has a misleading title, since not all the stories can be considered misogynistic - rather, they are often tales of comeuppance, or victimization, just the main character is a woman (who won't always be on the receiving end - like in "The Hand," or "The Breeder"). All are very brief, so they're either "over with fast, at least" or "good, for their confines."

The remaining 3 collections - "Slowly, Slowly in the Wind,"
"The Black House," and "Mermaids on the Golf Course" play it straight, with stories of crime (the unsettling "The Black House"), suspense ("A Shot From Nowhere"), horror ("Slowly, Slowly in the Wind," "Woodrow Wilson's Necktie" [kind of]), "apprehension" by Graham Greene's introduction ("The Terrors of Basket-Weaving," "The Pond"), and what may be called "stylistic experiments," or none of the above - some ("Chris' Last Party," "Not in Ths Life, Maybe the Next") work, some ("Please Don't Shoot the Trees") don't; although even the lesser stories are still readable, if not as memorable as the best ones.

Anyway, this stands as a very worthy purchase, as is its companion volume (the uncollected stories).

Although my husband thinks it is about the weirdest, creepiest movie in the world, I loved the film The Talented Mr. Ripley, but knew nothing of the author. So when I stumbled upon her books I excitedly purchased two; this collection of short stories and Strangers on a Train. Big mistake. I personally do not care for her writing which to me is uninspired and flat. Granted she has an admirably twisted mind, something I like in an author but not a friend, but was extremely disappointed in the books. This collection of short stories was actually boring to me and I gave the books away.

This book contains roughly sixty stories, representing five previously published collections, spanning Highsmith's career.

Normally I try to resist the whole "the author's life is the key to the work" argument, because it's so obviously rubbish in many, if not most, cases. There are perfect monsters who wrote like angels, and virtue in one's private life is a worthless predictor of literary talent. However, it's hard to watch the parade of pathologically depraved characters presented in these stories and not be reminded that they were written by someone whose mother once told her she'd tried to abort her by drinking turpentine. The stories in this collection were written over the course of several decades, but one feature is a constant throughout - Ms. Highsmith's unwavering misanthropy. Her interest in the aberrant and antisocial side of human behavior was an early development -- at the age of eight, she discovered Karl Menninger's The Human Mind and was particularly fascinated by the case studies of schizophrenics, pyromaniacs, and those with other mental disorders. (Wikipedia)

Exploration of transgressive behavior is the defining characteristic of Highsmith's work. From the early "Strangers on a Train", through the various Ripley novels, and in each of the roughly sixty stories in this collection, her (human) characters are variously depicted as amoral, manipulative, shallow, or weak, prisoners of their most venal impulses. In contrast, the portrayal of the animal characters that populate the first dozen stories (taken from "The Animal-Lover's Book of Beastly Murder") is infinitely more sympathetic. Most of these stories are told from the animal's point of view, and it's quite clear who Highsmith favors in the ongoing battle of man versus beast. Circus elephants, ferrets, horses, rats and truffle-hunting pigs all exact vengeance in these stories. Highsmith wastes little sympathy on their human victims. Perhaps the most disturbing aspect is her skill in manipulating the reader's sympathies. In stories like "Hamsters versus Websters" and "The Bravest Rat in Venice", you may find yourself rooting for those homicidal hamsters, or caring more about the survival of the rat than the fate of the baby.

Stories from the second collection, "Little Tales of Misogyny", are less successful. At an average length of under 3 pages, character development is not an option, so that everything rests on the cleverness of a given story's central conceit. But with titles like "The Fully Licensed Whore, or, the Wife", "The Mobile Bed Object", and "The Breeder", subtlety and genuine wit are in short supply.

Highsmith ups the ante in later stories, and the best stories in the book are all taken from the last three collections. There is a fair amount of death and dismemberment, usually with a macabre twist. The best stories are those where she explores her characters' demons without actually having them erupt in homicidal fury, as she does in "The Terrors of Basketweaving", for my money the best story in the book.

Not all of the stories work. Highsmith's focus on transgressive behavior, her predilection for writing about those on the fringe - often antisocial, amoral, and outlawed - doesn't necessarily lend itself to the short story form. Sometimes the characters are simply too repulsive to be interesting, a problem which might be fixable in a full-length novel, but not within a short story. In general, though this work is impressive, I don't think it's as strong as the Ripley novels. But, even taking the weaker stories into account, it is still well worth reading, and many of the later stories in particular are outstanding.

Be warned, though. These are tales of the macabre; reading too many of them in one sitting might jaundice your view of the human species permanently.

Texas-born Patricia Highsmith, author of novels "Strangers on a Train," and "The Talented Mr. Ripley," could be considered a writer's writer: whatever she's working on, she sure does well. She began concentrating on short stories during the 1970's; she writes a tight little masterpiece of a story, set in a world we generally recognize as ours, among people whom we might once have known, back in the day when you could recognize adults because they drank and smoked. She was more popular in Europe, where she chose to live, rather than in America during her lifetime. However, since the recent movie of "The Talented Mr. Ripley," her work is catching on more at home. And don't feel too sorry for her -- in her lifetime, this author of twenty, noir-in-outlook books, won the O. Henry Memorial Award, the Edgar Allen Poe Award, Le Grand Prix de Litterature Policiere, and the Award of the Crime Writers Association of Great Britain.

"Selected Stories," compiled in 2001, brings together outstanding stories from several previous collections: "The Animal Lover's Book of Beastly Murder," "Little Tales of Misogyny," "Slowly, Slowly in the Wind," "The Black House," and "Mermaids on the Golf Course." It delivers a lotta pages, and a lotta stories, though some of the most memorable aren't here.

In the first book, "The Animal Lover's Book of Beastly Murder," stories are presented from the animal's point of view, and generally about the revenge of an animal whom humans have wronged. The first story, "Chorus Girl's Absolutely Last Performance," is simply overwhelming. In twelve intense pages, the author lays out the plight of a zoo elephant, and what must have happened to any elephant for it to be in a zoo. This, written at a time when very few of us, even those who claimed to love animals, would have thought of all the implications in an animal's captivity. There's also another laying out the horrors of battery-farming chickens: once again, Highsmith was well ahead of her time. There's a memorable tale of a camel, and several entertaining cat stories: Highsmith, like a lot of us, loved her cats.

"Little Tales of Misogyny" are by and large quite short, never too short for the writer to get her point across, but too short to pack an emotional punch. Her targets are some of the predictably weaker sisters among us: girly girls, breeders, party girls, and her satire's scathing.

Stories from the last three books, "Slowly, Slowly in the Wind," "The Black House," and "Mermaids on the Golf Course," are generally longer, set in a recognizable fairly contemporary world, and among people we might know, with a twist. We're going to see several suicides, several suicide attempts, and a lot of hospital rooms. In "Slowly, Slowly in the Wind," "The Pond,"an exercise in terror, looks into the black heart of a pleasant-looking exurban pond. "Woodrow Wilson's Necktie," and "A Curious Suicide," are chilling first-person looks at successful murderers. "Please Don't Shoot The Trees," is, so far as I know, Highsmith's only venture into science fiction.

In "The Black House," "Something the Cat Dragged In," charts a group of pleasant, middle-class English and Americans who talk themselves into helping a murderer cover up his crime. The title story, "The Black House," pulls the masks off a group of seemingly friendly guys in a small town bar somewhere in the States, and shows us some nasty insides.

The title story of "Mermaids on the Golf Course" is an insightful look at the devastating consequences a close brush with death have had upon a man. And "The Stuff of Madness" is an unsettling examination of the marriage, and the garden, of an apparently happy English couple: but oh, macabre things do grow in that garden.

Highsmith, in both her longer and shorter fictions, is for those who are willing to have their worlds shaken, not stirred. But she rewards the adventurous reader.