Ripley Under Ground
by Patricia Highsmith
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Book Summary Information
Author: Patricia HighsmithEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 1992-09-01
ISBN: 0679742301
Number of pages: 320
Publisher: Vintage
Book Reviews of Ripley Under Ground
Book Review: An Earthworm's View of the World
Summary: 4 Stars
Patricia Highsmith's crime thriller "Ripley Under Ground," was initially published in 1970. It's second in her Ripley series, known to the faithful as the Ripliad, recounting the deeds of her widely-known antihero, the American Tom Ripley, a smooth, charming, murderous, potentially bi-sexual, young psychopath, semi-retired to a lovely French villa -- with an equally lovely young French wife -- off the proceeds of his many bad deeds.
As the book opens, Ripley has been profiting quite nicely thank you, for donkey's years, from a sweet little scam: a cottage industry grown up around selling the paintings -- and the sizzle -- of Derwatt, a brilliant British surrealist painter. But unfortunately, Derwatt has been dead these six years. However, Ripley and friends had resurrected him, and continued to sell his increasingly valuable paintings, actually executed by a close friend of the late artist; and to license, at handsome fees, the use of the well-known painter's name to an art supply house and school. All the while explaining that Derwatt had not committed suicide in Greece, as once was thought, but merely retreated to a remote Mexican village, there to live in complete anonymity. Then, wouldn't you know it; the whole shebang is menaced by Murchison, a suspicious American art collector.
Ripley will take action, of course, and it will inevitably be murderous. His response will be orchestrated with a lot of pan-European travel, to gallery openings, and glamorous places, and is a lot of fun to watch. The book is so skillfully written, we almost find ourselves rooting for Ripley. It moves fast, dialog crackles, narrative writing is fine.
Highsmith, of course, was American herself, a Texan, who chose to live in Europe. She's best known as the author of the superlative thriller, Strangers on a Train, and, as filmed by Alfred Hitchcock, Strangers on a Train (Two-Disc Special Edition); also for the first Ripley book, The Talented Mr. Ripley, recently filmed by Anthony Minghella, as The Talented Mr. Ripley. The Ripley series doesn't necessarily need to be read in order, but it's perhaps best to do so, as the Ripliad is certainly subject to the law of diminishing returns; the later books get weaker. At any rate, Highsmith's work has previously been best-known and most popular in Europe, but the recent film has reminded a lot of Americans of her large body of work, mainly unsettling chillers, set in a topsy-turvy world of her own devising that resembles ours, only in an earthworm's view.
Summary of Ripley Under Ground
Tom Ripley has a lovely house in the French countryside, a beautiful and very rich wife, and an art collection worthy of a connoisseur. But this gracious life has not come easily; it is based on murder, forgery, and smuggling, and could topple at any moment.United States Books
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