Highsmith: The Talented Mr. Ripley. Comment.

 

It has been quite a few years since cracking this novel's cover once again. After seeing the excellent film adaptation with Matt Damon as the infamous Mr. Ripley, returning to the novel had been at the top of the list. As my "must read" pile slowly diminished, Highsmith's novel appeared, and I have read it with the same pleasure and suspense as the first encounter. This is a great `classic' in the truest sense of the word. 

 
Having read all five novels in the series, the first instalment is without question the best of the lot...a close second would have to be Ripley Underground and interestingly, the last novel of the series, The Boy Who followed Ripley. Let us face the fact that all the novels are exceptional pieces of crime fiction, introducing the first schizophrenic murderer, a serial killer with a likable and charming personality. In the crime genre, at least, Tom Ripley is the anti-hero that everybody loves and wants to succeed despite his ruthless machinations to achieve his goals. In crime fiction, this was original, and never really has been duplicated since. 
 
At the start of this novel, the reader recognizes that Ripley is a tad on the criminal side, engaging in tax fraud, realizing he would never cash the embezzled checks; he merely does it for the challenge and thrill. He's asked to go overseas to persuade a certain Dicky Greenleaf to come back to the States and join his family. Father Greenleaf pays all of Ripley's expenses and he travels abroad to the beautiful town of Mongibello, Italy. One incident led to another; Dicky rejects Ripley's friendship over a frumpy girl, Marge, and, unexpectedly, Tom murders him on a small motorboat with the end of a wooden oar. This murder is savage and brutal but effective, though Ripley's conscience is clear as he becomes Dicky Greenleaf, assuming Dickies identity with frightening skill. 
 
What makes this story unique and compelling is Highsmith's writing, narrating the tale in the third person but from Ripley's perspective only, and giving us a glimpse into the mind of a sociopath and ruthless killer. 
 
To be fair, Tom Ripley is indeed a likable character, an individual with good taste in art, food and anything of beauty. He teaches himself Italian, French, and later German to ensure his schemes come off without a hitch. In the later novels, he has acquired a magnificent French mansion, filled with original art and co-habituating with a beautiful and rich young woman. He also, in the later novels, becomes an expert gardener, spending hours on his lavish property. We really like this man but, be aware, because he turns and kills, without a second thought, when it suits his plans or thwarts his carefully laid out schemes. Never get in this man's way. 
 
Ripley is a dangerous individual, a man who views the world in a much different way than the rest of us. Although a true psychopath, Highsmith has made the reader like the guy, hoping, for some reason, that he gets away with whatever crime he's committing... very strange, original and terribly seductive. 
 
If you have not read Highsmith before, read the Ripley series, particularly The Talented Mr. Ripley, and if you are hooked, the novels can be read over again through the years because, like all true art, these novels are timeless.