Ep 18 Patricia Highsmith & The Talented Mr. Ripley

Patricia Highsmith is having a surge of popularity due to the recent TV series “Ripley’ (adapting her novel, “The Incredible Mr. Ripley”. It is much deserved as her work is unique and unsettling. Most of her major novels (she wrote 22 of them) were written in the 1950s and 1960s and reflect the temper of those times. However, she used her own life, much like a method actor uses memories of their life events, to create characters that are remarkable and troubling.

In the podcast, Hal Bodner and I address her troubled life, her views and background as a gay woman and her writing style/themes. We discuss HIghsmith’s masterwork novel, The Incredible Mr. Ripley, a strange crime story told from the point of view of the criminal. Or is he?

The short biography was sourced from the excellent bio, “Beautiful Shadow: A Life of Patricia Highsmith" by Andrew Wilson. Her life was one of sex, alcohol and writing, writing, writing. She also drew, painted, designed and constructed furniture, collected cats and snails, and wrote hundreds of volumes of journals.

Special Guest - Hal Bodner

Bram Stoker nominated author, Hal Bodner, is probably best known for his
comedies, particularly BITE CLUB which, when it came out, made him one
of the best-selling gay authors in the country. His work has spaned
several genres, including Horror and Romance, but he has always
considered himself more of a Mystery/Thriller author, specializing in
comic capers.

Until very recently, he made his home in West Hollywood. He was in fact
so West Hollywood-centric that he never learned his way around Beverly
Hills – the next town over. He now lives in the Valley and is married
to a wonderful man, half his age, who never knew that Liza Minnelli was
Judy Garland’s daughter. Somewhat stereotypically, they have a poodle.
Sometime around the 4th or 5th grade he was both traumatized and
fascinated by Highsmith’s “The Terrapin” and eventually became a
lifelong fan of her work.

Sources

Two biographies were the main sources for Patricia Highsmith’s life and works:

1. The Talented Miss Highsmith: The Secret Life and Serious Art of Patricia Highsmith by Joan Schenkar

2. Beautiful Shadow: A Life of Patricia Highsmith by Andrew Wilson

Both biographies are very well written, but I prefer the plainer style of Andrew Wilson and recommend it highly.

Hal mentioned he enjoyed the Everyman hardback collection of the first three Ripley novels: The Talented Mr. Ripley, Ripley Under Ground, Ripley's Game (Everyman's Library).

The current publisher of Patricia Highsmith’s works is Penguin Books. They have a good article on the writer titled, “Where to Start with Patricia Highsmith”.

Vintage paperback collectors look to Bantam’s The Price of Salt as the most valuable paperback. Strangely, there were only three reprints of her early novels published in paperback. It wasn’t until the sixties and seventies that her works started showing up regularly in paperback. If you are looking to put together a mass-market sized collection of Patricia Highsmith paperbacks it will take you a while and set you back a bit financially. The easiest paperbacks to find are the Penguin editions from the seventies, but most come from the UK and shipping is a pain. Try abebooks and Ebay for the largest selection of vintage paperbacks.