Customer Reviews

Two Faces of January

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4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
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If you are already a Patricia Highsmith fan, I would highly recommend this book next.

While the book starts out somewhat slowly, I think this pacing helps set the overall mood of the book and allows the reader to settle into a Highsmith "high" in anticipation of another skillfully written book. At any rate, by chapter two, everything starts to wind/unwind as the book settles into typical Highsmith high-gear which, if you're like me, will soon leave you physicially and mentally breathless in an attempt to keep up!

The foreign setting of the book is also a delight, and the reader quickly becomes a part of the story, shadowing the 3 main characters in and out of the various cities, hotels, towns, and nefarious deeds that happen. There is also this undercurrent of very fine wit and humor throughout the book.

The ending is, of course, the best part. It's been many, many years since I was last compelled to rush to the last page, as I neared the end of the book, to find out what happened. The ending is also prime Highsmith and a bit of a surprise--not, perhaps, for the characters in the book or the storyline, but certainly for Highsmith during this particular period of her writing.

A great holiday/vacation read for anyone with a few days of peace to settle into the book--and to savor it from start to finish!

Chester Mc Farland, a clever swindler and defrauder, is travelling in Greece with his wife Colette. They are about to arrive in Athens and settle into The King's Palace.
Another American also present in Athens at the same time is Rydal Keener. He is spending several months in Europe on what money he inherited from his grandmother.
It is when Rydal sees Chester at the Benaki Museum for the first time that his resemblance to Rydal's father's twin brother strikes him. Rydal then decides to keep an eye on Chester. A few days later, Chester gets the unpleasant visit of a Greek police officer who informs him that he is working in co-operation with the American authorities. The latter are apparently more and more interested in Chester's shady past. Realising that he may well be arrested and extradited, Chester hits the policeman who then stumbles and falls, banging his head against the bathtub. A fatal blow. Chester immediately understands that he must hide the body in a small store-room down the corridor. It is at the precise moment when Chester is dragging the corps in the corridor that Rydal appears on the landing and witnesses Chester's act. Will Rydal help or blackmail Chester?
As good as "Strangers on a train" or the Ripley series by the same author.

"The Two Faces of January" a psychological thriller by Patricia Highsmith, American author who was expert in that genre -- "Strangers On A Train,""The Talented Mr. Ripley --" was published in 1964. It's set largely in Greece, particularly Athens, also Crete, and does an excellent job of giving the reader the look and flavor of that country. It also drops into Paris, and gives the reader a good picture of that city at that time. In fact, as it is set among people we might once have known, who drink and smoke heavily without even thinking about it, it gives the reader a surprisingly accurate picture of its early 1960's era.

The plot concerns one Rydal Keener, young American hanging around Europe, collecting his mail at American Express, hoping something memorable will happen before his money runs out. He trips over it in a top Athens hotel, the King's Palace, where a rich, crooked American businessman, Chester MacFarland, has accidentally killed a Greek policeman come to call on him. Rydal, a graduate of Yale Law School, had issues with his recently-deceased father, a stuffy Harvard professor, and McFarland somehow reminds the young man of his father, whose funeral he had refused to attend, gone bad. The young man gets involved with the older one, and his pretty young wife Colette, helping them to hide the body, get new fake passports, and flee Athens. Rydal never entirely understands why he has chosen to get involved with Chester, though the author makes that pretty clear to us. However, the author leaves us on our own when it comes to figuring out Chester's relationship with Rydal.

"Two Faces" will be a bit dated and dusty for most readers. It really cries out for a good contemporary movie director to blow off the cobwebs and capture the clever plot at its heart.

Patricia Highsmith has an interesting way to tell a crime story. Every time you get tired of reading you'd like to go on because of the tension in the text. I truly can say that this book is one of my favourites. At first you have to get to know a lot of things, but after a certain time they all fit together, like a puzzle. The characters are deeply described, you get to know Chester and Rydal up close and personal. There are two faces of January and two faces of Rydal and Chester.
There is just one thing I didn't like very much: after Colette died things got easily forseenable. I already knew the end of the book before I had read it. But after all I recommend this book. But you will only read it once, because the story is quite simple at the end. Like every crime story this book lives of the tension.

'The Two Faces of January' is one of many Highsmith's lesser known works written after her early great successes ('The Talented Mr Ripley', 'Strangers on a Train') and before her decline in the 1980s. It follows the formula often used by Highsmith: two men, guilty or accused of murder, playing a psychological duel until either party breaks down. However in this novel the formula didn't work that well for me.

The story is about an American couple (hubby is a crook, wife is unfaithful) on vacation in Greece who 'accidently' kill a cop. Another American, a stranger to them, helps in covering up the crime. Of course they don't get off that easy, and the adventure begins. The relationship amongst these Americans takes odd turns, and ... you'll need to read the rest.

I suppose I found the book 'only entertaining' (versus enthralling) because I felt the main characters were generally unlikable. I had no empathy, let alone sympathy, for their plight. However perhaps the best part of the novel is the perfect capture of early 1960s vagabond European travelling (ie, before the era of jet travel and package tours) to be fascinating. So for this (probably unintentional) reason I found 'The Two Faces of January' to be a very fast read.

Bottom line: an enjoyable romp of mystery and old-fashioned European travel. No, not a Highsmith classic. But even her 'so-so' efforts are better than most.

I thought this book was well written, but kind of slow to get into. Once the main characters met though, the pace increased pretty quickly. The story had many surprises, and kept me guessing what would happen next.Well written by Patricia Highsmith.

This book arrived in great condition in just a few days after ordering. Great service!

The first part of the story was absolutely great. The past of Rydal Keener is an important and interesting fact in the story and it's always behind the story and has a great influence.
The most interesting part is of course the little love story between Rydal and Colette and the reactions of Chester. Chester depends on Rydal, because he does not have any connections in Greece, but he loves his wife too and has to see to it that Rydal does not sleep with her. The tension is that I always wait for a reaction of Chester's and the lack of knowledge about the next step of Colette and Rydal.
When Colette dies, the tension is gone. It's just a normal crime with a bad and a good guy. For me it was a bit unrealistic, nobody would travel with a murderer on the same ship, who hates you and wants to kill you.
The end is not really interesting, the bad guy dies and the good guy has no problems anymore. Rydal escape from his problems too easily.
At last the beginning of the story is absolutely great, but the end is for me a bit unrealistic and it is not so thrilling as the first part of the story.
But I must say that I do not often like the end of books or movies in general.