H is for Highsmith

I have about 20 minutes left on the new Ripley series, based on the book by Patricia Highsmith. I really don’t want it to end. I love Patricia Highsmith and all her charmingly creepy yet deadly creations, from novels to short stories. Andrew Scott is a wonderful Tom Ripley, but it’s Matt Damon who led me to reading Patricia Highsmith with his Tom in 19—, well, let’s call it back in the day. I’ve got two of her biographies, read one, and now I want to re-read the whole Ripley series again. John Malkovich played a wonderfully mature Tom in Ripley’s Game, too.

Beautiful Shadow is the biography I read, written by Andrew Wilson. But like a lot of books and authors I love, I didn’t read everything of hers yet. Some stories have stayed with me—The Cry of the Owl is one I remember well. The premise blew me away. Some of her more disturbing short stories, too. So this is a good reminder to get back to reading and re-reading Highsmith. Also, a recommendation to check her out if you love mystery and suspense. The creators of the Netflix series Ripley gave it a beautifully noir spin by filming in black and white. The streets and buildings in Italy are filled with stark contrasts, the artworks whether in stone or the hyper-reality of Caravaggio’s paintings, just brilliantly done. There are some amusing bits too, like the gorgeous witness cat in Rome, the multiple hotel desk clerks, and su, su, su. It’s the kind of story and movie I love inhabiting and hate for it to end.