The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith

 

Let's start at the beginning.

At some point during the month of March, while looking for books to read, I came upon the name of Patricia Highsmith. She is best remembered for her 1950 psychological thriller, Strangers on a Train, which was adapted to film in 1951 by director Alfred Hitchcock. As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, I located the Hitchcock film online and re-watched the movie and began reading the e-book.

For those familiar with the film, note that Hitchcock made several changes to the story. Never the less, I became an immediate fan of Highsmith, downloading everything she had written.

I went on to read Highsmith's Deep Water in April and so far this month, I've read two additional e-books -The Blunderer and The Talented Mr. Ripley. It was after I had put The Talented Mr. Ripley into the queue for this month that I came upon The 9 Books you Must Read in 2023 of which The Talented Mr. Ripley is one. As I am a fan of Highsmith, I knew I'd enjoy that particular book, although frankly I wasn't sure that it belonged on a list of the 9 books that really had to be read before the year was out.

That was, of course, before I'd actually read the book. Now that I've finished reading it, I'd have to say that it may be the best book I've read so far this year. Highsmith was a master of the psychological thriller; each of the four books written by her, that I've read so far, have not failed to surprise me at every turn.

Highsmith wrote five books within the , so-called "Ripliad". Having finished the first, I'm naturally looking forward to finishing the "Ripliad". However, I began with the idea to read Highsmith's novels in pretty much the order that they were written. The second in the Ripley series, Ripley Under Ground, was published 15 years after the first one. I'd have to skip over eight of her books - breaking the order. I'm going to stick to my original plan and read her 1958 novel, A Game for the Living next (even though Highsmith herself said "This is my worst book, so please think twice before you buy it").

Nine Books

 

When I opened the Chrome browser on my phone recently, I was greeted with a link to the following article - The 9 Books you Must Read in 2023. Being ever on the lookout for interesting books to read, I clicked on the link. Here's the list, according to the article:

Sea of Tranquility       by Emily St. John Mandel
The Midnight Library   by Matt Haig
The Talented Mr. Ripley    by Patricia Highsmith
I’m Glad My Mom Died   by Jennette McCurdy
Carrion Comfort         by Dan Simmons
Death at La Fenice     by Donna Leon
Half of a Yellow Sun   by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Dune                          by Frank Herbert
Harlem Shuffle          by Colson Whitehead

Of the nine, three were already in my e-book library; as a matter of fact, The Talented Mr. Ripley was already in my queue of books to read this month.

Of course, I had to download the remaining six.

I'm currently alternating between a book on my Kindle and a book on my phone. Following those two, I have two additional books in the queue, so I'm not at all certain when I'll begin on the above list (other than the Highsmith novel) and I'm not certain in what order I'll read the books. I suppose reading each in the order they fall on the list would work.

Book List for April, 2023

The time has come around once again for me to post onto this blog a list of the books I've read this month. April being a relatively short month, it would be expected that the number of books read would not be particularly high, but this April the list is considerably smaller than usual. The list is exactly half the number of April 2022.

Part of the blame can be placed upon the Internet. I've come upon websites that have old television shows of which I'm found. Yes, place the blame on Sgt. Bilko, Lt.Columbo and Dr. Who.

The first book on the list is Deep Water by Patricia Highsmith. I was impressed with her first novel, Strangers on a Train. This novel did not disappoint. As a matter of fact, a Highsmith novel will be first on the list for May.

Next on April's list is another of David Lagercrantz' continuations of Stieg Larsson's Millennium series. Sadly, I am not as big of a fan of Lagercrantz as I am Stieg Larsson.

Book number three came to me as a pleasant surprise. Bullets and Bolos: Thirteen Years in the Philippines Islands by John R. White was recommended to me by a friend and I appreciate the recommendation. The book is a memoir of an American who served in the Philippine Constabulary under Gov. Taft, beginning in 1901. The fact that most of the events he wrote about happened on the island where I now call home is certainly a plus.

I've been thru a number of Kindles over the past few years and I've prepared for the day when my present Kindle will fail me by downloading an e-reader app onto my phone. The Kindle is still my first choice but I have used the phone app a couple of times. The e-reader on my phone came with a few e-books pre-loaded. Of course, these are books found in the public domain. 

Having the book on my phone was the reason I began reading Jules Verne's A Journey to the Center of the Earth. Jules Verne is one of those writers I heard of all my life but had never actually read. After a couple of chapters in, I did a little research on the book. As it turned out, the English translators of Verne's novels weren't always faithful to the original French novel. It seems the first English translation in 1871 was a "drastically rewritten version of the story" pretty much created out of thin air. The 1877 translation by Frederick Amadeus Malleson is considered a much better translation, although it is far from perfect. It's the Malleson translation that's on my phone. Frankly, Jules Verne might have been a wonderful writer (as far as style goes) but the story is absolutely unbelievable. It's hard for me to imagine that readers in the 19th Century could be so incredibly ignorant regarding science. Sure, scientific knowledge has advanced quite a great deal in the 150 plus years since the original French publication, but the story is totally absurd on its face.

So, without further ado, here is my April 2023 reading list.

Deep Water     by Patricia Highsmith
The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye     by David Lagercrantz
Bullets and Bolos:Thirteen Years in the Philippines Islands     by John R. White
A Journey to the Center of the Earth    by Jules Verne

Palm Sunday VW

We were on our way to attend Palm Sunday serves this morning when I spotted this VW parked near the church.