"The Talented Mr. Ripley" 

by Patricia Highsmith

If you know Patricia Highsmith at all, it’s probably because you saw Matt Damon playing Tom Ripley in the 1999 movie, “The Talented Mr. Ripley.”

Highsmith wrote the Ripley novels and they’re exceptional, slow-burn psychological thrillers — perfect for reading late into these long summer twilights — especially because there is a new Ripley television series coming to Showtime. I can’t wait!

Ripley is a charismatic, amoral anti-hero — a sophisticated, narcissistic con man who moves among Europe’s wealthy aristocrats and covets what they possess.

Novelist Sarah Hilary, a Highsmith admirer, wrote recently that Highsmith understands human behavior at a visceral level. “Our vanities and inhibitions, our foibles and complexities, all that makes us capable of being great and good, or mean and small is contained within her novels.”

And for my money, that’s what makes Patricia Highsmith essential reading even 65 years after “The Talented Mr. Ripley” was published.
Highsmith doesn’t wrap things up in a neat moral bow. She resists the satisfying ending. “She plays in the shadows,” Hilary reminds us.

There are five Ripley novels, published between 1955 and 1991, in which we follow our man to Italy, where he steals a friend’s identity and slips effortlessly into a life of ease and deception and violence, when necessary.

And yet, Patricia Highsmith ensures that we’re invested in Ripley’s success, identifying with him as he does whatever he has to to maintain the con. Highsmith once said that Ripley “detests” murder even as he employed it when absolutely necessary.

And the late film critic Roger Ebert had a particularly delicious description of Ripley: “He is a criminal of intelligence and cunning who gets away with murder. He’s charming and literate and a monster.”

So, dive into my Thread Must-Read before the newest television series premieres next year. It is Patricia Highsmith’s Ripley series, beginning with “The Talented Mr. Ripley.”

— Kerri Miller