Richard Bradford (2) (1957–)

Informative biography, with many more details of her life than the graphic novel (Falling Out of Space). However, I found the chapters somewhat jumbled with parts repeated. Still worth the read, and includes some B&W photographs. I found the parts about Yaddo, the writer's retreat recommended to PH by Truman Capote, where Patricia stayed with Chester Himes, Marc Brandel, & Flannery O'Connor, particularly interesting. Marc Brandel (Marcus Beresford), brother of Wombles creator, Elisabeth Beresford, was engaged to PH before she lost interest in him, leaving him bitter towards her. Highsmith left much of her will to Yaddo. Also the brief description of her encounter with Stan Lee, and his desire to write "the great American novel".… (lisätietoja)

The Warts* and Almost Nothing But the Warts Bio
Review of the Dreamscape Media LLC audiobook edition (May 18, 2021) narrated by Daniel Henning & released shortly after the Bloomsbury Caravel hardcover & eBook (January 19 & 21, 2021).

I chanced upon the beginnings of a potential Highsmith-binge when I recently snapped up The Tremor of Forgery (1969) through a Kindle Deal-of-the-Day. I had previously only read Strangers on a Train (1950), The Price of Salt (aka Carol) (1952) and the 5 Ripley novels (1955 - 1991). That leaves about 15 novels and a half dozen or more short story collections yet to discover. I also looked for the biographies and saw that Devils, Lusts and Strange Desires... was the most recent, along with a graphic novel Flung Out of Space: Inspired by the Indecent Adventures of Patricia Highsmith (2022) which is an adaptation of the real-life backstory to her writing of the lesbian romance portrayed in The Price of Salt.

With these recent books, the recent film Deep Water (2022) and the recent Loving Highsmith (2022) documentary and an upcoming Ripley (late 2023?) TV-series starring Andrew Scott as the murderous Thomas Ripley, it does look like a further Highsmith revival is ongoing/coming, so why not get ahead of it?

But caveat emptor about the Bradford biography. It paints just about as ugly a portrait of Highsmith as is possible to do and further spoils the plots of almost all of her novels as it tries to draw parallels between her real-life actions of discarding or ignoring past or current lovers with the murderous antics of her sociopathic protagonists. Bradford also doubts the veracity of much of Highsmith's own diaries and notebooks and constantly tries to make a case for them being fictional fantasies. Admittedly there was plenty to dislike about the real-life Highsmith with her self-destructive alcoholism, mistreatment of lovers and wide-spread racism. Bradford takes this to another level of hate for his own subject though.

See photograph at https://static01.nyt.com/images/2021/04/19/t-magazine/entertainment/highsmith-fa...
Portrait of Patricia Highsmith, circa 1942 by photographer Rolf Tietgens. Image sourced from The Many Faces of Patricia Highsmith, The New York Times Style Magazine, April 19, 2021.

So this is a mostly awful bits and little else biography, and the earlier biographies are likely to be preferred (although I haven't read them yet). A further (or alternative) recommended reading list is therefore Joan Schenkar's The Talented Miss Highsmith: The Secret Life and Serious Art of Patricia Highsmith (2009) and Andrew Wilson's Beautiful Shadow: A Life of Patricia Highsmith (2003). Also intriguing is Marijane Meaker's memoir Highsmith: A Romance of the 1950's (2003) and her own early lesbian pulp fiction of Spring Fire (1952) published under the Vin Packer pseudonym. A fictionally murderous Patricia Highsmith is imagined in Jill Dawson's novel The Crime Writer (2016).

The narration in the audiobook edition by Daniel Henning felt in keeping with the tone of the material.

Footnote
* When I was thinking about a lede for this review I remembered the phrase "warts and all" and then looking it up I saw that it is attributed to Oliver Cromwell, who supposedly instructed his portrait painter not to beautify his appearance, but to show even the uglier aspects.

Other Reviews
Gotcha, Pat! by Terry Castle, London Review of Books, March 4, 2021.
When Friends Mean Less than Plots by Kathryn Hughes, The Guardian, January 22, 2021.
A Look Into the Dark Inner World of Patricia Highsmith by Charles Green, Lambda Literary, January 22, 2021.
The Dangerous World of Patricia Highsmith by Andrew Martin, Financial Times, January 28, 2021.

Trivia and Links
A Patricia Highsmith biographical film documentary was released in 2022 called “Loving Highsmith” directed by Eva Vitija, for which you can see the trailer here.… (lisätietoja)

Well-trodden ground, this is more a critique of other biographers than any discovery of detail. The author likes to compare and trace forward to today’s issues and concerns, so the tone veers to the polemical. He tends to portray Orwell’s views as a consistent and purposeful mindset right back to childhood, although showing too how those views fed off experiences in Burma, on the breadline, in Spain, and beyond.
The chapter on antisemitism in Orwell is helpful, explicitly linking Orwell’s honest self-examination of his own failings to the Corbyn Labour party’s unwillingness to do likewise. Orwell’s oeuvre is well-enough known, and so Bradford’s main purpose, combatively, is to take down flawed received ideas about that legacy: off-message evidence, we are told, “has been assessed and summarised by dozens of Orwell critics and biographers in much the way that one might attempt to describe the bizarre behaviour of a close friend or relative while avoiding any attempt to explain it” (p167-8). On Brexit, seemingly, Orwell’s allegiance is now contested in the partisan style that topic attracts; Bradford finds essays and writings showing him to be “a passionate Remainer.”… (lisätietoja)

This small, slim book (in small print) is a wonderful history and overview of the crime fiction genre. It is written by a UK research professor who writes about aspects of literature and culture, and has written several literary biographies. Bradford traces the history of "crime fiction" from the very early precursors (crime in literature; think Oedipus the King, Hamlet, Tom Jones…etc, prison writings…etc) to those early writers; such as Edgar Allan Poe with his Inspector Dupin, and Wilkie Collins and other writers of what were called "Sensation" novels (which feature conspiracy themes and a cast of characters from the upper classes). He discusses the British "Golden Age", the arrival of Noir and the 'Hard-Boiled'. He continues with the 60s and 70s in the UK and the US.(this is bit of an over- simplification of the history on my part). This study could be likened to following a family tree as its branches spread and multiply.

International crime fiction is also covered, beginning with Europe and moving methodically to the other continents. Very interesting, I thought, in both their similarities and differences. And crime fiction was curtailed under Nazi Germany, banned by Mussolini in Italy, Franco in Spain, and Stalin in Russia (one would have thought that the despots would had better things to do…)

There is a somewhat lackluster chapter on Gender (although important) and a final chapter discussing related literature i.e. spy fiction, legal dramas, and the thriller.

This book is intelligently accessible, perhaps a wee bit dense, certainly meant for those who are interested in the literary history and ‘nuts and bolts’ of the genre. Looking at a genre historically reminds us that little is written in a vacuum; and we can ponder how much general history affected change the genre. I very much enjoyed this little book for what new things I learned, the interesting questions I entertained, but also unexpectedly how it charted my entire reading life in this genre.… (lisätietoja)