The Selected Stories of Patricia Highsmith

Excellent condition, arrived on time.

The level of imagination is consistently high, as are the insights into human character. But the ratio of really stellar stories to those that do not shine brightly is not that great. Then there are stories that are just plain weird, seemingly pulled from old EC comics ("The Vault of Horror" et al.). Perhaps a comparison to comics is unfair; even the strangest of these short stories left me a little unsettled, uneasy, checking locks on my doors at night. Comics rarely evoked this sort of discomfort.In any large collection of short stories (~65 here), readers will likely find individual tales that resonate, and others that seem dull. In roughly equal numbers, I found stories that were engrossing, others that were uninspired, and others that were simply bizarre. I left a few unfinished, something rare for me with short stories. But I also thoroughly enjoyed many.Three stars if you desire consistently entertaining reading.Four stars if you are willing to enjoy the best of the collection and endure the others in order to do so.

One of the things that's interesting about Patricia Highsmith is that her birth and early childhood was in Ft. Worth, Texas. Her parents were artists. When they divorced - Patricia was about ten - her mother remarried and they moved to NYC. Good start. She went to Barnard and studied English, but "Good Housekeeping" America was definitely not ready for her in the 1940s. Truman Capote landed her some kind of writer's residency in the late 40s, and she wrote "Strangers on a Train" - maybe when she was in her twenties? - and Hitchcock picked it up immediately for the movie. (Money, fame, comes in handy.) A lot of her stories were set in the Village. But later she moved to France - travelled - and ultimately lived there. "The Price of Salt" - written in the early 50s under a pseudonym - I think it was the first lesbian novel that had a happy ending. The revival of interest in Highsmith's work must have been catalyzed by the recent movie (2015) of the retitled book - "Carol" - with Cate Blanchett. But "Salt" sold a million copies before that. Our new woke culture has stimulated interest in all things homosexual and every other kind of alternative sexual. It might be fair to say that Highsmith was bisexual, but fascination with her sexuality kind of reduces her to the lowest common denominator. Edmund White - a brilliant gay writer - wrote a scathing article about Highsmith in the NYT Magazine recently. Pat was not a good homosexual. She was not a good anything. (Except a writer) If everybody hated her, she must have been doing something right...

I admit that I have been letting this book gather dust on my shelf since I bought it several years ago, but I finally decided that its time had come and lugged it with me on a month-long, multi-country vacation. It was a wise choice. I enjoyed the stories a lot more at my current age than I would have several years ago, and now that I've visited many of the locations she uses myself, the stories have more personal resonance. Her style is not for everyone! The first two collections in particular, "The Animal Lover's Book of Beastly Murder" and "Little Tales Of Misogyny" are sure to leave some readers cold even as they delight others in their unexpected cruelty. Nearly every story in both collections ends with gruesome death or mutilation. Highsmith's longer works and novels are more satisfying and engrossing but these short offerings are the perfect way to relax on the beach before hitting the water again, or to pass time on a train or bus between cities. Anything longer would have been too hard to put down and I appreciated being able to skip around to different stories based on my current mood, instead of sticking with one long narrative.A can't-miss for Highsmith fans! But new readers may want to try a few of her novels first.

I enjoyed the book as a whole but some short stories were not interesting or were confusing. The chapters "Little Tales of Misogyny" and "Slowly, Slowly in the Wind" were the most exciting and worth reading. The stories in the "Little Tales of Misogyny" were short and allowed me to read multiple in one sitting. They were obscure and often had chilling endings with the women dying. The stories in "Slowly, Slowly in the Wind" were longer but often featured thought provoking story lines. Many of the short stories featured themes of relationship struggles, poor family lives, and evil women which stem from Highsmith's childhood. There were many violent endings and murder was featured often in the stories so, if you aren't comfortable with that I wouldn't suggest this book for you.

First book I read for her and have been extremely pleased. What a creative imagination, capacity to describe feelings and situations. Impossible to highlight any of the stories as the vast majority of them are extraordinary, just a few disappointing. And a pleasant surprise is to find that not always the good ones win, ....as in life., and that things do not turn out as expected. Very intelligent creations.And the book is a bargain, with so many stories.

I confess that as much as I'm a fan of suspense fiction, I have, up to this point, overlooked the fiction of Patricia Highsmith. In fact, I'm sure I'm not alone in writing that my only acquaintance with her work has been through the successful dramatization of two of her novels, "Strangers on a Train" and, more recently, "The Talented Mr. Ripley." So it was with great pleasure that I sampled her shorter suspense fiction, much like one would the mysterious dark chocolates in a Whitman's Sampler.As to be expected, the quality and effectiveness of the stories is uneven in places. Some of the shorter stories seem more like character sketches rather than full-blown short fictional stories. Still everything makes for fascinating reading.Now to correct my oversight and begin reading all of Highsmith's suspense novels...

I love short stories and most of these are pretty interesting and definitely different.

the selection is a fine tribute to one of the greatest writer in the second half of the twentieth century.P.Highsmith at the very best. she nearly has won the Nobel-Price, but lost him to Nadine Gordimer.Highly recommanded and enjoyed like "Whisky rips, Jamaica flips, ohio dips".