Highsmith’s thrillers produce an nearly queasy feeling – the desire to survey away – while being too fascinating and compelling to put downI first read Patricia Highsmith while in college,starting with Strangers on a Train. I’d seen Alfred Hitchcock’s film version, so I knew the plot, or but I wasn’t prepared for the novel’s sticky atmosphere of guilt and corruption. Hitchcock managed to capture some of it,but he was only skimming the surface of a very murky pond. Highsmith takes her readers accurate into the muck. Reading it produced an nearly queasy feeling – the desire to survey away – yet I was compelled to keep turning the pages. That’s not an easy trick, particularly for an author’s first book, and that is why Highsmith is my literary hero. Related: How Patricia Highsmith became hip Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com