I can't believe she wrote this book in 1955. It seemed so modern, stylish and fresh and really tense. I read it on the train up and back from, Newcastle. Visiting my good mate Nicky put an extra macabre twist on the whole event because I weirdly imagined how I could bash Nicky around the head and get away with her murder. (Sorry, no offence Nicky, if you read this. It just proves how much this book got into my head!)
At first I found it hard to get the actors from the film, Jude Law and Matt Damon, out of my head. In fact Jude Law was well cast as the fun loving, dippy and rich Dickie but Matt Damon was just too good looking and clean cut. Mr Ripley is a nobody, a faceless grey person who has no confidence until he takes on the personality and identity of the only guy he liked and killed, Dickie. Ripley hates himself until he is in character. He is a loathsome man really but Highsmith is amazing and twists the book so that you are behind Ripley all the way and just want him to get away with the murder. Also the repressed homosexual edge of Ripley's personality is expressed in a really clever and totally repressed way!
This book was a real page turner and so, so twisted. The manipulation and games played by Ripley are ridiculous but it works because you really believe it could have happened. He is so organised in his deception and you, as the reader, become so involved in his plan that yes, in the end it is like you have become Ripley yourself. When he makes mistakes you think...NO! NO! RIPLEY THE GAME IS OVER. It's a stressful and claustrophobic read but ultimately totally enjoyable. Great!
No comments:
Post a Comment