false<![CDATA[The Selected Stories of Patricia Highsmith]]>http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170991362m/80886.jpg808862<B>Penzler Pick, September 2001:</B> One of the truly brilliant short-story writers of the 20th century, Patricia Highsmith has at last received the acclaim she never had while alive.<p> The release of the excellent film <I>The Talented Mr. Ripley</I> appears to have brought Highsmith many readers who may have heard of her but had never read her books. In spite of the fame of <I>Strangers on a Train</I>, published when she was still in her 20s, Highsmith never enjoyed commercial success in the United States (though she was a huge bestseller in Germany and Austria).<p> Now, six years after her death at the age of 74, Norton is reissuing her novels and has compiled this giant collection of her short fiction, incorporating the complete text of five previously published collections. This volume also includes an introduction by Graham Greene, somewhat truncated from its original (and uncredited) publication in <I>The Snail-Watcher and Other Stories</I> (1970). It is abbreviated because, oddly, none of the stories from that excellent collection are included in the present omnibus, and Greene makes reference to what is perhaps Highsmith's most famous story, "The Snail- Watcher."<p> Even lacking this masterpiece and the equally unsettling "The Terrapin," there are many distinguished tales of horror and, as Greene accurately defines them, apprehension.<p> In "The Hand," the first story in the collection originally published as <I>Little Tales of Misogyny</I>, a young man asks the father of his beloved for her hand and is given it--in a box. Equally unappealing events befall the women (and, indeed, the men) skewered in the other stories in this aptly titled volume, most of which are so short that they are mere vignettes, each startling in the terse clarity of the prose and the matter-of-factness of the fates meted out to the protagonists. <p> "The Dancer" is strangled in quiet rage by her partner, who walks away from her lifeless body as an audience cheers the performance. "The Coquette" is murdered by the two lovers she had set against each other, and they are let off by a judge who had also been tortured by her coquetry. He forgave their infatuation with her, "a state that inspired his pity, since he had become sixty years old," as Highsmith cruelly explains.<p> "The Black House," the title story of another collection, introduces a pleasant, happy, and charming young man who is, of course, doomed. He tests his courage by entering a dark house, reputedly haunted and the scene of young lovers' trysts as well as the vicious murder of a boy, and finds it empty and unthreatening. When he describes his adventure to his friends at the local pub, he is killed for a transgression that remains unknown to him. <p> This important book may not be for everyone, but if you don't mind a sense of unrelenting doom and are willing to risk nightmares of dread, you will find the prose dazzling and the fiction memorable. <I>--Otto Penzler</I>780972001The Selected Stories of Patricia Highsmithtotal:144|5:52|4:61|3:24|2:7|1:0|14459022123411falsefalseThu Feb 12 00:00:00 -0800 2009Fri Jan 30 23:30:32 -0800 2009Fri Feb 13 04:23:17 -0800 2009
DEPRAVED, DISTURBING, AND ODDLY DELECTABLE
This book contains roughly sixty stories, representing five previously published collections, spanning Highsmith’s career.
Normally I try to resist the whole "the author's life is the key to the work" argument, because it...more...]]>
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Little Tales of Misogyny: Quite unsettling and completely accurate look at humanity.
Slowly Slowly in the Wind: Title story may make you lose sleep.
The Black House Mermaids on the Golf Course more...]]>
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40falsefalseSat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2005Thu May 31 08:23:46 -0700 2007Thu May 31 08:25:41 -0700 2007 Patricia Highsmith’s mother tried to abort her by drinking turpentine. Perhaps this is why she was such a misanthrope. I adore her work.
This brilliant collection of Highsmith’s ...more...]]>
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Good writing, but despite what Graham Green says in the introduction, I just can't find myself in Patricia's world.]]>
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Slowly, Slowly in the Wind and The Black House were perfect, but I wasn't a huge fan of the rest of this collection. Not One of Us, Under a Dark Angel's Eye, and Old Folks at Home are particularly chilling. ]]>
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