Talented Mr. Ripley is a twist on An American Tragedy
Finished Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley last night and I am now thinking about the parallels between this book and other novels where the protagonist commits murder in the first act. The grandfather of all books like this is Crime and Punishment, which it just so happens I am reading at the same time … Continue reading
The Murder of Dickie Greenleaf
God only knew how deep the water was… [Nobody] could see anything they did here… he could have hit Dickie, sprung on him, or kissed him, or thrown him overboard. Talk about your options. If Freud was looking for a poster child for the clashing instincts of Eros and Thanatos he need look no farther … Continue reading
“I’m not queer.”
This is the follow-up to yesterday’s post on The Talented Mr. Ripley‘s complicated central relationship between Tom Ripley and Dickie Greenleaf. The scene is millionaire heir Dickie Greenleaf’s Italian villa where he has just walked in on his housemate Tom Ripley dressed in his clothes, imitating his voice. Dickie’s reaction? “What’re you doing?” They have … Continue reading
Tom Ripley and Dickie Greenleaf: Just Friends?
In Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley, our morally and sexually ambivalent hero Tom Ripley meets the man he’s been sent to recall home to New York from Italy, Dickie Greenleaf, on page 47. [SPOILER ALERT] He kills him 54 pages later. In a book of less than 100,000 words, these two young men spend … Continue reading
Reviewing a Scene 2: The Gabriels at Home
The other day, I wrote about a scene in The Witches of Eastwick where our three wicked ladies are seduced by a devilish new man in town. Read that here. Today, is a follow-up with what is the best scene in the novel so far. And it doesn’t include the leads. The scene that closes … Continue reading
Letters Republic 