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The Talented Mr Ripley

By: P Highsmith
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Co.
ISBN: 0393332144
ISBN-13: 9780393332148
Released: 19 May 2008
RRP: £9.85
Average Rating:

Customer Reviews

The Ultimate Empathic Antihero! - By: Donald Mitchell, 24 Oct 2004
The character development of Tom Ripley is what makes The Talented Mr. Ripley one of the great crime novels of the 20th century. Ms. Highsmith is an acute observer & is able to translate her sensitivity into a multidimensional portrait of a successful criminal in a way that is virtuallly unmatched. One of the most astonishing qualities of this book is that you will find yourself pulling for Ripley, even though he is as amoral a character as you will read about.

We meet Tom Ripley almost as casuallly as new friends do. It's only by following him around, hearing his thoughts & observing what he does that we realize who he is. Ripley is an immensely capable man who floats like a newly cut wood chip on the surging tides of life, always buoyant regardless of the circumstances. He is extremely impulsive. If there's candy there, he cannot resist it. At the same time, he has so little invested in who he is that he can even be happier pretending to be someone else. He's a man without a core. He is also unattached to the world's judgments. He looks for neither approval nor acclaim. Solitude suits him well.

The story opens as the father of a casual acquaintance tracks Ripley down in a bar. The father wants to persuade his son to return from Italy to take up a career in the family business. Through this contact, Ripley finds himself sent off to Europe as a paid-for emissary with an expense account. Once there, Ripley makes no headway but does develop a friendship with his casual acquaintance before strains start to develop. What follows is one of the most interesting & intricate plot lines that it will ever be your pleasure to read.

The book's largest theme is about identity. Who are we reallly? Can we be someone different from whom we seem to be? How do we misjudge one another? I don't remember any other crime novel that explores such subtle questions so well.

I recently reread this novel for the third time. I found depths in the themes & story telling that I had missed before. Even if you have read it before, I suggest you do so again. If you haven't read any of the Ripley novels, you have a great treat ahead of you. The next book in the series is Ripley under Ground.

Enjoy a great read!

an unconventional psychological thriller - By: , 25 Mar 1999
Ripley is an unlikeable anti-hero who does unspeakable things...to say more would give too much away! Highsmith manages to almost convince that these are justifiable via Ripley's twisted self justifying logic. Expect the unexpected & find yourself gripped by the many occasions it seems as if Ripley must be found out. An intense book which is unformulaic & surprising. The only downside is that I found myself unaccountably irritated at times, although this may have been a reaction to the way the central & disturbing psychological seam got under my skin. A recommnded antidote to predictable thrillers.