Book Review: Ripley Under Water by Patricia Highsmith
I read the first 3 Ripley books in a compendium form. And at the time I assumed that Patricia Highsmith had written only 3 Ripley books - since the blurb on the back said "collecting the Ripley novels under one cover". And then I stumbled across "Ripley Under Water" and then in the ‘also by Patricia Highsmith’ section I see "The boy who followed Ripley", which unfortunately came out before "Ripley Under Water" so I still have more Ripley to read later, as a ‘missing episode’.
Of Patricia Highsmith’s novels, I have only read the Ripley novels. So I don’t know if the tight writing and constant underlying sense of menace exhibits itself in her other novels. Sadly since Patricia Highsmith died in 1995 I suspect I won’t see an official ‘end’ to Ripley’s life of menace, paranoia and… incident.
A ’strange’ Ripley novel this, in that Ripley moves into the role of ‘victim’ when some ‘Americans’ move in to his village hinting at knowledge of his past. Although Ripley handles this in true Ripley style and for much of the novel nothing much happens - so I have kept this as a novel to study to try and work out how Patricia Highsmith manages to carry through mounting tension and a sense of constant threat. And then when something ‘big’ does happen - because we see it through the eyes of Ripley it becomes another event requiring handling.
A very fast and easy read that I have to re-read in order to work out how it managed to hook me so well. I recommend the Ripley novels.
