Strangers on a Train
by Patricia Highsmith
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Book Summary Information
Author: Patricia HighsmithEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2001-08
ISBN: 0393321983
Number of pages: 256
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Book Reviews of Strangers on a Train
Book Review: Evil springs eternal
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a pretty good book, a suspenseful thriller in that it is a nightmare come true. There were many aspects of the book I enjoyed which I will discuss below.
First, Guy Haines is not a victim and Patricia Highsmith carefully constructs a story where the main character, Architect Guy Haines, has a character flaw which allows a sociopath such as Charles Bruno to get his foot in the door of Guy's life. Guy is far from an innocent man. He has an unsuccessful marriage with Miriam, his high school sweet-heart, who is not faithful to Guy, even in the early stages of their marriage. Guy leaves her and becomes a successful Architect, but they never divorce. But Highsmith is careful to show us that Guy leaves Miriam, not just for her propensity to need multiple male sex partners, but because he has ambition and creativity and intelligence, all characteristics that Miriam lacks. He is a careful and strategic artist in the world of wealth, fame, and influence - a world where he can really compete and succeed on his own terms. This is the crack in the facade that allows Charles Bruno to enter his life and wreck havoc. He wishes to be rid of Miriam, not becuase of her affairs with other men, but because she no longer fits his social and professional agenda. To further support the amoral grounding of Guy Haines, he does kill the elderly father of Charles Bruno, a senseless act since instead of becoming rid of Charles Bruno, he has bound them together forever. Guy does show two heroic actions as the story progresses, he trys to save the drowning Charles Bruno and he does confess to Miriam's last lover, who could actually care less if Miriam was dead or alive. This is the classic confession and redemption, but reversed, since he saves Charles prior to the confession. If he had accepted his own heroic effort to save Charles, he would not have needed to confess and thus be caught by the private-detective hired by the Bruno family. This is the trick Patricia Highsmith plays on him. His cold upward mobility is the flaw that allows Charles into his life, but lack of recognition of his own heroism and redemption seals his fate. Guy's great sin is lack of awareness, despite his intelligence, creativity, and ambition.
Second, Charles Bruno is one of the creepiest characters in fiction and Highsmith deserves credit for the creation of such a wierd character. He is latent homosexual, attracted to Guy, and wishing to be integrated into Guy's life. In some ways, the murder is not the behavior of a crazy psychopath but an act of an obsessed young gay man who wishes to be important in the life of a man with whom he has become obsessed. Mrs. Bruno, Charles' mother is a great character, indulging her son in every way possible while maintaining multiple affairs around the nation while her elderly husband stays home and makes more money.
Ann Haines is also a great character, she gradually trys to piece together why her husband acts so strangely and why he is connected with such an odd bird as Charles Bruno. She is the actually the moral compass in the novel, the character who discovers all the wierdness along with the reader. Yet in the end she loses her husband, but Highsmith helps us see that she had actually lost him much sooner, she lost him with the first terrible secret he keeps to himself.
There are flaws in this first novel, the confession to a phone off the hook is a bit contrived at the end, but Highsmith distrusted heroes and recognized that ordinary men were capable of evil. She does not let the reader off the hook by implying that evil resides totally in Charles Bruno. We see in the character of Guy Haines that it springs eternal.
Summary of Strangers on a Train
A major new reissue of the work of a classic noir novelist.
With the acclaim for The Talented Mr. Ripley, more film projects in production, and two biographies forthcoming, expatriate legend Patricia Highsmith would be shocked to see that she has finally arrived in her homeland. Throughout her career, Highsmith brought a keen literary eye and a genius for plumbing the psychopathic mind to more than thirty works of fiction, unparalleled in their placid deviousness and sardonic humor. With deadpan accuracy, she delighted in creating true sociopaths in the guise of the everyday man or woman. Now, one of her finest works is again in print: Strangers on a Train, Highsmith's first novel and the source for Alfred Hitchcock's classic 1953 film. With this novel, Highsmith revels in eliciting the unsettling psychological forces that lurk beneath the surface of everyday contemporary life.Literature & Fiction Books
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