|
44 of 45 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent novel in many respects, January 19, 2000
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.
|
by Patricia Highsmith
by Patricia Highsmith
by Patricia Highsmith
by Patricia Highsmith
by Patricia Highsmith
See all Editorial Reviews
