I knew next to nothing about this book. I never watched any of the movie productions and haven’t yet watched the newish Netflix show. That was probably a good thing because it allowed me to be surprised at the turns of events several times in the book.

Set in the late 1950’s, the story begins with Tom Ripley trying to make a life for himself in New York and he’s not above a con game here and there. He’s approached by a wealthy businessman who believes that Tom is a friend of his son, Dickie. He offers to pay Toms travel and expenses to go to Italy and convince Dickie to return to America.

Once there, Tom inserts himself in Dickie’s life and sees that he’s a man who thinks nothing of money because he has plenty. Tom finds himself both fascinated by and jealous of Dickie and his lifestyle.

I really don’t want to say more because the events of the story build on each other and become a web of deceit and crime. It was a fascinating thriller and there are more Ripley books that I plan to read. In the meantime I’m looking forward to watching the Netflix series. ( )

Interpretado pelo brilhante Andrew Scott com um sinistro senso de reserva , Ripley não apenas — alerta de spoiler — mata pessoas. Ele envida esforços fisicamente exaustivos para encobrir os assassinatos, esforços que , em detalhes excruciantes, Steven Zaillian narra lenta e imaculadamente num trabalho cinematográfico impressionante e bonito. ( )

A breathtaking dive into the mind of a sociopath, narrated by an actor who conveyed all the duplicity of his personality, to the point that you feel how he is a opaque to himself in a way, and aren't we all? Aren't we all in loathing of ourselves at some stage, willing to do everything to escape the boundaries of our socio-economic, personal, even interior identity?
In this sense, the literary ancestors of Tom Ripley are Mme Bovary, with her eternal, puerile dissatisfaction, and Mattia Pascal, with his futile attempt at escaping identity as a mean to conquer freedom.
However, mr Ripley leaves the parental nest quite early, ever the daring Young American White Male. His Bouvaristic pining for a life of luxury and affluence doesn't stop at second-hand enjoyments. He (or better his subconscious and his conscious rationalisations of murderous instincts) takes matters in his hands and becomes the protagonist of his fantasies in real life, no matter the price for others. Will he fall again into the throws of dissatisfaction that destroyed his literary mother? The novel leaves it to us to decide. Ok, yes, I know, there are sequels in which Ripley enjoys his wealth and position without qualms, but honestly, that guy is a pale ghost of the gloriously maladaptive social climber of the first novel.
In the light of the sequels, it is not surprising at all that this guy became the archetype of the charming psychopathic villain, although the role doesn't do the Ripley of this first novel any justice. The psychology here is too chiselled and alive, for a mono-dimensional Stavlo Blofeld in the making.

SMALL SPOILERS AHEAD

The only dated element is the facility with which a superficial disguise allows him not to be recognised by the same inspector under two different identities. Indeed, the movie with Matt Damon changed this detail, in an anxiety-driven scene where the feared meeting at the Venice police station is defused by the arrival of a different inspector than Ripley expected.

END OF SPOILER

This said, I am available to give this novel all the suspension of disbelief I am capable of. The portrait is too deliciously believable to condemn it because of secondary blunders like this, also because they don't influence the character's arc at all.
All in all, there is a lot that I am available to forgive Patricia Highsmith for, in the light of her superb characters. ( )

It's definitely a page-turner, but it's a page-turner in the same sense that [b:Crime and Punishment|7144|Crime and Punishment |Fyodor Dostoyevsky|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1382846449s/7144.jpg|3393917] is a page-turner. That is, while the suspense element isn't lacking, it's mostly a psychological portrait of guilt and police procedure. And Ripley is a genuinely complex character with ambiguous morals and sexuality. But mostly, he's a guy that feels like he's deserved a better shake from life than what it's given him. A 20th century must-read. ( )

It's definitely a page-turner, but it's a page-turner in the same sense that [b:Crime and Punishment|7144|Crime and Punishment |Fyodor Dostoyevsky|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1382846449s/7144.jpg|3393917] is a page-turner. That is, while the suspense element isn't lacking, it's mostly a psychological portrait of guilt and police procedure. And Ripley is a genuinely complex character with ambiguous morals and sexuality. But mostly, he's a guy that feels like he's deserved a better shake from life than what it's given him. A 20th century must-read. ( )