PECKERWOOD BOOK CLUB: What Are Your Favorite Patricia Highsmith Novels? Plus An Icy-Cold "Mouth To Mouth!"
Welcome, trollops, to the latest edition of the Peckerwood Book Club, where we can giggle and share our favorite books we've been reading - and giggle some more. Today, let's chat about Patricia Highsmith, the inimitable author of unputdownable suspense novels whose reputation has only grown since her death in 1995.
Whenever a Highsmith virgin asks which of her novels to start with, I first ask if they've seen any movie or TV version of "The Talented Mr. Ripley." If they haven't, I cry out, "Lucky you!" and recommend that they read it immediately - since it's a masterpiece, yes, but also because it's best to have Highsmith's unadulterated "Ripley" foremost in your mind before you approach the many big and small screen incantations. None of them have equalled his jeweled, sometimes elegant, evil in this first of five "Ripley" novels.
If they have seen screen versions of "Ripley," I usually recommend they start with one of my top five Highsmith's, "The Blunderer," a chilling classic in which Walter, a seemingly ordinary married man, becomes fascinated by news accounts about Melchior, a man suspected of murdering his wife. Walter also fantasizes about murdering his wife, and when she goes missing and is soon after found dead, police move in - and Walter becomes ensnared in a deadly trap of his own making. It's one of her best.
Like many of you, whenever I read a novel by an author I like, I immediately vacuum up anything and everything they've written. After discovering Highsmith, I went on a tear, hungrily consuming all of her novels and short story collections. Was I later disappointed to learn that she was anti-Semitic? Of course, but as with many great artists - Hitchcock, Renoir, Chuck Berry, to name only a few - I'm able to see them in their entirety and appreciate their works both separately from, and together with, their virulent personal views.
Years ago, I was in a bookstore and asked an aging, learned clerk whom I'd chatted with several times before to recommend an author "like Highsmith." He smiled sagaciously and said, "There are none." Recently, I've yearned to ask him what he thinks of "Mouth to Mouth" by Antoine Wilson, a hair-raising suspense novel by an author who may well be an heir to Highsmith.
The story begins benignly enough when a writer reunites with Jeff, whom he knew as a long-haired golden youth from his college days, but who's now a slick and very wealthy art dealer. Jeff recalls his post-college days in which he saved Francis, a middle-aged art dealer, from drowning beachside by giving him mouth-to-mouth. Shortly after, he became inextricably linked with Francis' moneyed business, with his daughter and his wife. The novel’s mood is lightly suspenseful, only to become far more menacing as it unfolds.
Similar in tone to "Bonjour Tristesse" and "The Talented Mr. Ripley," "Mouth to Mouth" is awash in seductive locales – such as tony art auctions, stylish French ski resorts – the surface sheen belying an increasingly sinister storyline, one that may, or may not, lead to murder. The characters are uniformly fine, especially Jeff, who progresses from a sympathetic young man to a darkly cynical and wildly successful art dealer. The progression sneaks up on you, this being the novel’s greatest feat, as if the rug were being yanked out from under you - though not all at once, but inch by underhanded inch.
The supporting characters are equally well-drawn, especially Chloe, Francis’ overly-pampered daughter who has no idea what Jeff is capable of; and Alison, a gimlet-eyed portrait of a woman who’s long grown accustomed to making excuses for her husband Francis in exchange for the prestige he imparts amongst their social set. And the writer listening to Jeff’s tale? He's more than a just stand-in for the reader, he's a man who's confronting true darkness for perhaps the first time in his life. It's a mesmerizing, sometimes terrifying, novel.
Meanwhile, your happy-go-lucky Bibliophile Bendy Boyz™ need your help. What's your favorite Patricia Highsmith novel? And what novels or book are you finding irresistible these days? Please give them your recommendations or they'll put their clothes on, and really, no one wants that.
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