Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley
was a difficult book for me to read. Not because it was bad, or because it was convoluted or anything negative really. I have a gut reaction to lying that I can’t turn off. Sitcoms on television based on one character telling a lie, and then trying to maintain the lie throughout the episode, those episodes bother me. I can’t watch them. Tom Riply does something like that in this book. It makes me want to turn my head so I don’t have to watch him squirm trying to get away. I had to put this book down several times over the last couple months since I started it.
At the beginning of the book, Tom Ripley is pulling two-bit scams on people just for the pleasure of putting one over on them. For instance, writing letters to people and convincing them they owe additional taxes (sometimes followed up with a phone call). He doesn’t collect the money. He just likes to see people pay extra.
The meat of the story starts when Herbert Greenleaf asks Tom Ripley to travel to Europe to try to convince his son Dickie Greenleaf to return to the U.S. Ripley sees a free trip and so he agrees. He eventually get to Italy, meets up with Dickie, and strikes up a friendship with Dickie and Dickie’s sort of girlfriend Marge. He gets to live on Mr. Greenleaf’s money for a bit, and then sponges off Dickie, the two of the jaunting around Italy. But Marge and Dickie soon tire of Tom, spending less and less time with him. Tom starts to resent them.
On one last trip to the Riviera, Tom’s resentment of Dickie finally spills over. Tom clubs Dickie in the back of the head while on a boating trip. Somewhat spur of the moment, but it’s something Tom has been thinking of for a while. He quickly assumes Dickie’s identity. Not just trying to pass himself off as Dickie, but becoming Dickie almost to the point he loses himself. But of course there are people who know Dickie (Marge for instance). And there is the small matter of someone finding Dickie’s body.
Highsmith does a superb job of putting you inside Tom Ripley’s head, which makes him the quintessential anti-hero. I wanted him to succeed because of where Highsmith puts the point of view, but at the same time he is despicable and I wanted him to get his. Every encounter with another character heightens the tension. Will Tom be able to pull this off? Will he convince the tourists he meets that he’s Dickie? Will he convince Marge that Dickie has decided to leave town without telling her? Every time Tom picks up a paper, will the abandoned boat and Dickie’s body be discovered? I felt Tom’s resentment, however messed up it was. I felt the fear, even as it turned to confidence as Tom manipulated himself to succeed.
This is one messed up book, and because of that it is pretty damn good.
Title: The talented Mr. Ripley
Author: Patricia Highsmith
Cover creator: Arthur Tress (photo)
Series: Ripley; 1
Imprint / publisher: Black Lizard / Vintage / Random House
Format: Paperback
Length: 290 p.
Publication date: September 1992 (originally 1955)
ISBN-10: 0-679-74229-8
LC classification: PS3558.I366T33 1992
