I am nearing the end of my Blind Date With a Book subscription (boo!) and I just finished up my second last book to come through which is a classic, The Talented Mr Ripley. The name was familiar and I have since found out that there is a well-known movie which might be why, but I haven’t seen it yet which is probably for the best as I normally prefer books to the movies, or at least starting with the book.
On first appearances, it is a relatively small book so I thought it would be a light read. If you are familiar with the storyline you know ‘light read’ isn’t exactly the genre Patricia Highsmith was going for.
To give Highsmith credit though, despite the heavy subject matter, it is a relatively upbeat read. Despite the morbid nature of the stalker/ serial killer protagonist, there isn’t much darkness to the storyline. Despite some very brutal murders, you still remain connected to the protagonist.
This is one of those books though where you don’t know where your sympathy feels, or which character you should be rooting for. None of the characters are particularly likeable or provoke warm feelings in the reader.
I got through the book pretty easily, but I think that might be down to the low page number. I didn’t think there was enough storyline to keep me interested if the book went on for much longer. It was definitely good to try a bit of a different genre, and I would be very interested in watching the movie as well to see how they portray the characters and to see if I feel more sympathy / affection for all of them, but otherwise I wouldn’t rush back to read this book again, or another of Highsmith’s.
Overall, it’s a solid read and I ended up giving it 3 out of 5 on Goodreads. It is probably worth a 3.5 but until Goodreads introduces the half star measure I will continue rounding down to 3. If you are looking for something a bit different then I would definitely recommend it!
A Turtle Stranger 