Our Way of Life

The affluent feeling of Mediterranean sexual tension is Highsmith’s trademark. Who will end up with whom is a sort of background radiation in her books. Her characters are always 1950’s Americans but they could easily be mistaken for the 1930’s English of Agatha Christie - with more libido and less confidence. The Tremor of Forgery is no exception.

In this story, though, she plays an interesting dialectic between two Americans in Tunisia - one a coastal liberal, the other a right-winger from the heartland. The first, Ingham, lives his smug, petty life as if the rest of the world would eventually catch up to the standard set by America, and meanwhile could be enjoyably exploited. The latter, Adams, is afraid the world just might catch up to America, and in the process inflict great harm on “our way of life.”

The context of the action is the Six Day War between Israel and Egypt, which also happens to be the point of highest intensity of the American War in VietNam. Highsmith uses this context to provoke a judgment on her characters. The ‘conservative’ Adams is, of course, in favour of the country’s ever increasing engagement in VietNam and predicts inevitable victory in light of vastly superior technology. The Arab-Israeli conflict he is less sanguine about, primarily because he doesn’t Semites - Arabs or Jews. His theory of the world is that America is being persecuted and must defend itself from these and other inferiors.

But Highsmith’s real target is the liberal Ingham who has no theory of the world whatsoever, except that he’s doing fine. His concerns are trivial, as are his emotional attachments. He is repulsed by Adams’s views but doesn’t contradict him for reasons of politesse. He’s writing a novel (with the same title as Highsmith’s) in which the main character is a rationalised version of himself, a conman who feels no guilt about his massive embezzlement. He has no tremor whatsoever as he forges cheques from his employer. His self-delusion is complete.

By the time The Tremor of Forgery was published in 1969, Highsmith’s references to casual sex and homosexuality had become passé. American society had moved on from its overwhelming Puritanism of the 1950’s. Nevertheless she could read that society very well. What she saw then is the birth of what we have now grown to maturity in American politics - a religiously grounded, xenophobic, violent, faction describing themselves as anti-communist; and a self-absorbed, commercially successful, apparently sophisticated and worldly faction with no social conscience whatsoever. I think she foresaw the development clearly.american93 s Anastasia Fitzgerald-Beaumont113 685

The Tremor of Forgery is the first novel by Patricia Highsmith that I have ever read. It was this year’s main ‘holiday book’, taken with me to Tunisia for no better reason than it is set in Tunisia. I chose it, in other words, for precisely the same reason that I took Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile to Egypt last year.

Setting out on a review here is beset with uncertainty, a little going on safari without a guide, a map or a compass. I simply have no landmarks, no basis for comparison. I certainly know of Highsmith’s work, her reputation as a writer of thrillers and crime stories, through film adaptations of novels Strangers on a Train and The Talented Mr Ripley, but as commendable as these may be they are little better than palimpsests.

The Tremor of Forgery is a simple, subtle and altogether deceptive piece of work, a trap for the unwary, for those beguiled by surfaces. As I read it the impressions crowded in. I had no Highsmith to compare with Highsmith. What I had instead was Albert Camus’ The Stranger and Paul Bowles' Let it Come Down, novels that also happen to be set in North Africa, the latter in Morocco and the former in Algeria, Tunisia’s neighbours in the Maghreb. But there is more than mere geography here. All of these books deal with displacement, alienation and moral ambiguity; all, if you , are about Strangers on a Plain!

I simply loved The Tremor of Forgery, loved the author’s limpid prose style, loved the way she handled her themes, loved the psychological insight. This is no mere writer of crime fiction; this is an author on a far higher plain than poor old, dear old Agatha Christie.

Her sense of place and time is perfect. She seems to understand Tunisia, though I have no idea if she has ever been there. She certainly understands the experience of living in an alien culture, the challenges this presents to the moral lumber and sense of certainty that the outsider brings along with the luggage.

The main outsider here, the narrator, is Howard Ingham, an American writer who comes to Tunisia to work on a screenplay. His story unravels against the background of the Six Day War between the Arabs and Israelis. Though this has no direct impact on Ingham, it creates an underlying mood of anti-Western hostility that may or may not have had an impact on Anders Jensen, a Danish artist and homosexual that Ingham befriends.

Incidentally, as a small aside here, Highsmith, in Ingham’s correspondence, preserves the rather quaint antique dating convention whereby the last two numbers of the year are substituted with a dash. So we have June 8, 19 – Hey, but we already know this is 1967!

The Tremor of Forgery creates a tremulous mood right from the outset. Ingham is alone in a strange land. There is no word from home, either from John Castlewood, the film director who is supposed to be joining him in Tunisia, or from Ina, his girlfriend and possible future wife, in New York. Increasingly apprehensive, he decides to work on a new novel, which concerns a morally ambiguous banker. The ambiguity here is heightened by the fact that Ingham selects The Tremor of Forgery as a working title, only to discard it!

As time passes – still no word from the States despite increasingly desperate pleas – he makes friends with two wholly contrasting fellow expats – Jensen, whom I have already mentioned, and Francis Adams, another American. Jensen hates the Arabs, though paradoxically he has gone native, living in a seedy Arab neighbourhood in the seaside town of Hammamet. More than that, in going native he has taken on the moral ambiguity of his surroundings, where life and death are matters of indifference.

Adams is a contrast in every way. A rather absurd character, he is a Rock of Gibraltar so far as Western and American standards of morality are concerned. Pompous and possibly delusional, he broadcasts a weekly talk show to the Soviet Union, a secret he confides to his new friend. The content is so laughably self-righteous that Ingham accords him the nickname of OWL – Our Way of Life.

Bit by bit Ingham’s own standards are corrupted, a reflection in real life of the action in his evolving novel, the elliptical story within the story. He grows closer to Jensen, his most important confidante, more important than the distant Ina, who remains distant even when she eventually appears on the scene.

The heart of the mystery is a death, or is not a death – we simply never know! Ingham absorbs a lot of Jensen’s distrust of the Arabs, one Arab in particular, a notorious thief. This Arab may, or may not, have attempted to break into Ingham’s hotel bungalow in the dark. In guarding against the intruder Ingham reaches for the only weapon to hand, his typewriter, which he throws, hitting his target, possibly killing him, or possibly not killing him. All we know, all Ingham ever knows, is that after a scream, a fall and a scuffle in the dark, there is nobody and no body. The Arab in question simply disappears, no questions asked.

This is the core of this clever little book, as intense as a medieval morality tale, with modern existential and psychological overtones, made all the more intriguing by an ever present sense of threat. Ingham tells Jensen. What does it matter?, he responds; nobody cares. It matters, says Adams. He suspects that Ingham has had a part in the Arab’s fate, or is failing to tell the whole story. Drawn between the one pole and the other, Ingham begins to question who and what he is, who and what he has become.

Do not look for resolutions here: there are none. When Ina appears, briefed by Adams, she puts pressure on Ingham to confess the whole truth, though there is really no whole truth to confess. She comes draped in conventional religious morality, though there are clear overtones of hypocrisy here, particularly in the relationship she may have had with the movie director, who has since committed suicide, a relationship that is never fully revealed.

I was so impressed by The Tremor of Forgery, not at all what I expected, far more than a simple crime thriller. I was all the more impressed reading it in situ, aware of the ambiguity of my surroundings, aware that this was a place where certainties may be no more solid than the mirages I saw in the great salt lake of Chott el Jerid.

This is a beautifully unsettling story, that, if properly read, may very well lead you to question what Ingham questions; to question who and what we are. Un Strangers on a Train or The Talented Mr Ripley, this is a book that is unly ever to be made into a movie. It’s far too realistic for that.
47 s Roman Clodia2,615 3,547

'In view of the atrocities going on in some parts of Africa,' Ingham said, 'Arabs massacring blacks south of Cairo, murders as casual as fly-swatting, I dunno why we make so much over this. I didn't murder the fellow.'
This is a fascinating little tale from Highsmith, stuffed full of her trademark unease and pregnant spaces, but with an unusual politicised overlay.

Set in Tunisia, in some ways this gestures to the 'Eastern / African-set alienation of Western visitors' genre (think The Sheltering Sky though I'm not claiming this has the same spiritual profundity as Bowles): set adrift and unmoored from so-called American/Western values (coded, satirically, as Our Way of Life or OWL in the text), three men, two American, one Danish, are in a kind of limbo from their past and have to construct a moral and ethical system from scratch.

Adams, also known as OWL, makes explicit anti-communist broadcasts into Russia - though there are intimations that something more shady might be going on; the Danish artist, Jensen, sleeps with Arab boys and adheres to an existentialist position, claiming that nothing matters. And our protagonist, Ingham, scuttles between the two, unsure of who he is or what he believes even while he writes a book called, dizzyingly, 'The Tremor of Forgery' in which his amoral hero embezzles huge sums from his insurance company employer without a qualm, and gives it to the poor and needy, a kind of modern Robin Hood. And, in the background, the Vietnam War plays out, as does the Arab-Israeli Six Day War.

Fans of the Ripliad may be a little disappointed at the lack of plot: days are filled with conversations, showering from a bucket, drinks in rooms, and cheap dinners of couscous. But, for me, this is an engrossing and subtle exploration of a kind of low-key and unacknowledged identity crisis as Ingham almost unconsciously struggles to identify who he is and what he might believe in. There is probably a death - this is Highsmith, after all - and much of the psychological energy revolves around it though readers shouldn't expect any kind of investigatory narrative.

And Highsmith peppers the textual landscape with muted moments of horror which shape the troubled psyche of the book: a death, what we would now call sex tourism, a body on the streets with its throat cut, dogs with broken tails, a suicide... The subtext of homoeroticism was probably transgressive at the time of first publishing but doesn't have that kind of frisson today, of course - all the same, this is a wonderfully subversive book in a recognisably Highsmith way.23 s Tony961 1,686

My third Highsmith, and nowhere near my last.

Blurbs call her "a practitioner of the murder mystery genre" and The Times named her "the greatest crime writer of all time." But no crime - other than a few thefts - occurred in this book. Still, yes, there was suspense, although it just hung there, unspecified, and without need of resolution.

The protagonist is an American writer, in Tunisia on a kind of assignment, but nevermind that. He's also working on his next novel, about a man, engaged in fraud, who is leading a kind of double life. There are inexorable echoes of his own life, of course. Of his novel, our protagonist writes, it's about:

whether a person makes his own personality and his own standards from within himself, or whether he and his standards are the creation of the society around him.

in Tunisia, a reader might ask. As does our protagonist: He had the feeling that in the months he'd been here, his own character or principles had collapsed, or disappeared. What was he?

There are love interests, infidelities, Vietnam, the Six-Day War. There's a bit of sex, but as always with Highsmith, we are spared the details. There's homosexuality, treated well, again as always with Highsmith.

And there's a character, again recurrent with Highsmith, a character who is unable, intrusive, but who can gather the threads of circumstantial evidence, and surmise the truth. We wish he wouldn't. We want our protagonist not to be caught. But the unable character will not go away.

This was not insubstantial, page-turner though it may be. I kind of grew to love it maybe. There would be no whodunit ending and I didn't expect that. Still, I felt the novel portended some message at the end, maybe even some wisdom. So, as I will, ponder this:

There is nothing . . . nothing so blissful in the world as falling back into the arms of a woman who is---possibly bad for you.highsmith u-s-lit21 s Alan Teder2,255 150

A Night in Tunisia*
Review of the Grove Press Kindle eBook edition (2011) with an Introduction by Francine Prose of the Heinemann (UK) & Doubleday & Co. (USA) hardcover original (1969).

Last night, oddly enough after his disturbing conversation with Adams, Ingham had thought of a title for his book, The Tremor of Forgery. It was much better than the two other ideas he had had. He had read somewhere, before he left America, that forgers’ hands usually trembled very slightly at the beginning and end of their false signatures, sometimes so slightly the tremor could be seen only under a microscope.

There are some aspects to this noirish tale, set in Tunisia, where it crosses over with Highsmith's more famous portrayals of sociopathic characters such as Tom Ripley in The Ripliad Pentalogy (1955-1991) and Charles Anthony Bruno in Strangers on a Train (1950). Howard Ingham is an innocent writer character who is drawn into a morally ambiguous world in his environment and his own fiction. There are 2 deaths during the book, one found by Ingham and one ly caused by him, but neither are reported on. The impression is given that the local tourist industry and bureaucracy would prefer that crime not be publicized even if it resulted in murder.

Ingham is on a working vacation to the seaside town of Hammamet in Tunisia. He is there to work on a film script in advance of the arrival of the film's director. The latter never writes and never arrives, and eventually Ingham learns that he has committed suicide back in New York City. Ingham's own girlfriend Ina also does not write and Ingham suspects an involvement with the director. Ingham stays on in Hammamet to work on a new novel, a Robin Hood- tale of a character who embezzles from his business in order to aid disadvantaged people. He forms friendships with two other local visitors, an American propagandist Francis Adams and a Danish artist Anders Jensen. One night while walking home from Jensen's apartment, Ingham stumbles over a dead body in the street, the victim of an apparent cutthroat robbery. Ingham doesn't call the police and doesn't mention the murder.


The dust jacket for the original UK edition published by Heinemann in 1969. Image sourced from Existential Ennui (see link below).

Ingham has items stolen during his stay and especially resents an old local thief named Abdullah whom he had seen in the act. One evening there is a break-in at Ingham's rented bungalow and in the dark he throws his typewriter at the head of the thief who collapses outside. Ingham locks his door and ignores further outside sounds. In the morning there is no body outside, but Abdullah is also no longer seen in the vicinity. The houseboys deny that any body was found. Ingham believes that he probably killed Abdullah, but decides to keep quiet about it. Eventually he confesses to Jensen. The latter, who is also resentful about the locals who have apparently stolen his beloved dog, tells him to forget it. Adams however is suspicious and then Ina arrives from the USA as well. Ingham is lost in a moral quandary of whether to confess all or to keep silent.

I found the tension and moral ambiguity of The Tremor of Forgery to be very compelling and the evasiveness and self-justification of Ingham made for a suspenseful character study. The atmosphere of the Tunisian setting was also well crafted and definitely gave the impression that Highsmith must have spent time in the area.

Footnote and Soundtrack
* I couldn’t resist using this title for my lede, having recently come across film director Neil Jordan’s first book of short stories Night in Tunisia (1993) and being reminded of the Dizzy Gillespie bebop jazz tune, first called “Interlude,” and which later had lyrics added and was first sung by Sarah Vaughn in 1944, which you can listen to here.

Other Reviews
Not a full review, but author Graham Greene said: "Miss Highsmith's finest novel to my mind is The Tremor of Forgery, and if I were to be asked what it is about I would reply, 'Apprehension'."

Not an original review from 1969, but this later 2011 review does include photos of both the original UK and USA covers at Existential Ennui: The Tremor of Forgery by Patricia Highsmith.

Trivia and Links
The Tremor of Forgery has not been adapted for film un many other Highsmith novels (e.g. Strangers on a Train, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Carol (aka The Price of Salt), The Two Faces of January, etc.). A recent biographical film documentary was released in 2022 called “Loving Highsmith” directed by Eva Vitija for which you can see the trailer here.2023-re-reads 2023-reading-challenges ebook-edition ...more18 s J.459 222

People on vacation, or on a working vacation, or on a vacation that turns to work occasionally-- are slightly different than ordinary people. Their connection to the world is shifted, their spending, dining, recreating, interacting habits-- are all slightly different in the vacation or travel mode.

Either their guard is up, or down, or the general components of what comprises their "guard" has shifted a little, subtly changed. The talented Miss Highsmith sympathizes, taking genuine interest and fairly bloodthirsty delight in the crossed signals and misplaced allegiances that can result.

Written in 1968, The Tremor Of Forgery is Highsmith at the top of her game, or even maybe just past it, enough that her usual ingredients are stirred, shaken, and mixed-up a fair amount. Without doing a summary of the plot, it's enough to say that her usual Innocent gets himself entangled in traps of moral, sexual, criminal and cultural dimension, all while trying to navigate a self-appraising re-inventory of his life and oh, yes, happens to be writing a novel.

The best of it is in the early going, when an imminent, unnerving 'something' is swirling in the air of the Tunisian resort where our protagonist has set up camp. As usual in Highsmith, something inevitable is happening, forming in dark clouds just around the bend-- but for the moment, we only feel the foreboding. The North African setting offers something we don't usually get in this author's books, which is a drastic, horizontal plane of action, the desert and sea of the location; it is somehow even more dizzying to watch the usual bad-to-worse spiral take place in this land of deep-focus and undefined context. (..and yes of course, Messrs Camus and Bowles are standing in the shadows..)

Once the gears and cogs begin to rotate, we're on firmer ground, but the unmentioned, the between-the-lines dread of the situation are what has hooked the reader by this point. When I say she's past the top of her game, it is because there is something simple, maybe chamber music, that is being played here; every action and counter-action prompts an overtone or an undertone... each duly appears, in-time and on-cue. Highsmith is composing her weirdo music here, tapping the keys that will set the mood for the entrance of the theme that sets up the questions, blithely knowing, hearing the ripples and answering tones, just the musician aiming at that final, puzzle-solving end-chord.

Cat and mouse, but a lot of fun.highsmith mystery re-read ...more18 s Paul Ataua1,688 191

Writer Howard Ingham has been commissioned to write a screenplay for a movie that is to take place in Tunisia and moves there to write it. The project, however, is soon abandoned when the director dies, but he decides to stay on to write a book which he provisionally titles ‘The Tremor of Forgery’.
Graham Greene claimed it was Highsmith’s finest novel, but I am still not sure what I feel about it. It’s a story in which not a lot happens. There is mention of a lot of petty thefts and burglaries, a dog is attacked, and Ingham does come across a dead body, but none of these events hold center stage. The ‘murder’, one that may or may not have happened, is at the center of the story, but even this doesn’t seem central. While nothing much is going on, however, themes do emerge. A treatise on love covering the whole range from friendship to erotic sexual desire is somewhere in there, as is a discussion of the relational nature of morality as people are transplanted long term into a different culture. All in all, I was underwhelmed as I read it and yet mildly fascinated as I now try to piece my thoughts together. It might be worth reading for of Highsmith.
17 s Nigeyb1,306 323

The Tremor of Forgery (1969) is a classic Patricia Highsmith slow burn, morality tale set in Tunis in 1967 during the time of the Six-Day War.

The focus is primarily on two Americans: Howard Ingham, a complacent NYC liberal, and Francis Adams (aka OWL), an unwavering pro-American right winger. This being Highsmith, her sights are set firmly on Ingham who has no theory underpinning his world view. A third character, Jensen, is a homosexual Dane with a penchant for underage sex which, here, is completely unremarkable probably reflecting Highsmith’s own views.

Highsmith has an uncanny knack for writing stories in which characters make terrible life decisions thereby snatching disaster from the jaws of comfort. The minor characters are as convincing as the two protagonists and friendships are a mass of unexpressed resentment and disdain.

Ingham is writing a novel in which the protagonist is a conman who feels no guilt. Is there a “tremor of forgery” when someone does something they know to be wrong? Or does the wrongdoer's hand remain still and tremor-free?

I was captivated by the discombobulating, apprehensive atmosphere of Tunisia. This vibe is accentuated by significant events happening elsewhere but with only slivers of information arriving.

The Tremor of Forgery is an engrossing, subtle and unsettling story which was heading for five stars however my conviction that this was heading for a more dramatic denouement proved wide of the mark. There are no neat resolutions, instead just ambiguity and hypocrisy.

4/5

Howard Ingham finds it strange that no one has written to him since he arrived in Tunisia - neither the film director that he is supposed to be meeting in Tunis, nor his lover in New York who is, he hopes, missing him. While he waits around at a beach resort, unable to get going on the film script he is there to write, he starts work on a new novel, about a man living an amoral double life. Howard also befriends a fellow American who has a taste for Scotch and a suspicious interest in the Soviet Union, and a Dane who appears to distrust Arabs intensely. When bad news finally arrives from home, Howard thinks he may as well stay and continue writing, despite the tremors in the air of violence, tensions and ambiguous morals.




16 s ToshAuthor 13 books693

There has always been traces of Paul Bowles in Highsmith's fiction - and this book is almost a love letter of sorts to Bowles' world. Without moral overtones one falls into the spell of evil or at least except it on a face value. Very disturbing, even creepy .13 s Joy D2,335 262

Set in the mid-1960s, American protagonist Howard Ingham, an author, has traveled to Tunisia to work on a screenplay with a director, who has not yet arrived. While waiting, Ingham decides to begin his next novel. Howard is anxious that he has not heard from his fiancé, Ina. He meets two other men and strikes up an acquaintance. Francis Adams is an American broadcasting anticommunist messages to Russia. Anders Jensen is a Danish artist. Howard finds himself embroiled in a mysterious disappearance and possible death of an Arab man.

The theme of this novel parallels the theme of the book Ingham is writing. As Ingham states, “Essentially, it’s whether a person makes his own personality and his own standards from within himself, or whether he and the standards are the creation of the society around him.” The plot follows Ingham’s ethical decisions, where he is at times influenced by his current environment as opposed to what he would have done if he were still living in the United States. This book is too slow-paced to be described as a thriller. It is more a psychological study of behavior.

Though it may not pack a lot of action, the character development makes up for it. Ingham is often alone with his thoughts, or in conversation with Adams and Jensen. Their interactions, along with the thread of mystery, kept my attention. This is my first book by Highsmith. Her writing style reminds me a bit of Graham Greene, sans religion.
africa literary-fiction relationships ...more11 s Caterina100 40

So, this is how a liberal author would write in a pre-politically correct era: full of ethnic stereotypes, but given with the well-meant curiosity of the Westerner, who is not actually appalled by an encounter with a completely different culture, but instead judges everything by western measures. The moral issue of the story was quite inadequate for me, my personal view is that one has to do his/her duty and live by a certain moral code in any culture anywhere in this world. Reason is the basis of ethics, please read your Aristoteles!
I still don't understand most of the protagonist's decisions and I actually don't care anymore!
Not my best Highsmith.10 s Greg2,006 18

COUNTDOWN: Mid-20th Century North American Crime
BOOK 37 (of 250)
This is my second reading. In my first review below I state this is the most unusual Highsmith I've read (that remains true) and that I'd have ended the book 20 pages earlier with "Ingham lit a cigaratte" (and there I was wrong, perhaps). And still, there are 3 Highsmith novels I think better. (Right now, that is, as Highsmith novels are just so re-readable).
HOOK - 4 stars: "You're sure there's no letter for me," Ingham asked. "Howard Ingham. I-n-g-h-a-m." He spelt it, a little uncertainly, in French, though he had spoken in English. The plump Arab clerk in the bright red uniform glanced through the letters in the cubbyhold marked I-J, and shook his head. "Non, m'sieur."
This 2-paragraph opening tells us Howard Ingham is waiting on a letter, that he is unsure the clerk understands him, that he's somewhere, geographically, that consists of mixed cultures, that Howard himself is apparently well-traveled and well-educated as far as languages but still he is unsure of his own communication capabilities. What's in the letter? Who is it from? Where is Ingham, anyway? (Tunisia) You might, me, want to pronounce his name as Ingraham as you read. But it's i-n-g-h-a-m. It's off a bit, and perfect for a Highsmith novel.
PACE - 3: Steady character development and continual tension after an early murder takes place. But Highsmith doesn't rush things, she never does. She isn't Spillane, she doesn't write pure action thrillers.
PLOT -4: Ingham is hired to write a screenplay set in Tunisia and to be filmed there. The producer, John Castlewood, has sent Ingham ahead to get a feel for the area, to perhaps get a first draft in place. Ingham is also writing a follow-up novel to his very successful "The Game of If." After weeks of not hearing from John, nor from his girlfriend, Ina, he finally gets a letter. His world is turned upside down by the contents of said letter. Then, someone breaks into his bungalow and things go bad. Our 'hero' is alone in a foreign country, no one is coming for him, he has only his mind and the novel he is writing to deal with issues. When Highsmith nails a certain coffin shut, one can hear and feel it. (And you'll be surprised.)
CHARACTERS - 4: Ingham decides not to name his new novel "The Tremor of Forgery" because, perhaps, that's too close to all that's happening. Then there is the problem of a missing body. Dead or alive? There are no cops investigating the crime. Hotel management refuses to discuss the issue. The employees say nary a word. And is Ingham turning into the character in his new book? Is this the way he writes himself out of his predicament? Howard makes a few friends and when Jensen puts the move on Howard, he says no, but they become best friends. We're told early (page 2) in the book that "Homosexual relationships had no stigma here," which puts an early spin on several relationships. A missing dog plays a large part in friendships, as does the never-met ex-wife of Ingham, Charlotte.
ATMOSPHERE - 5: Tunisia is an area of mixed cultures, Highsmith makes that clear. And she does it beautifully: it's a place I'd love to visit. I could never quite picture it, physically, I couldn't grab onto the look which makes this place even more intriguing. The politics of the world seem just right, and presented, really, for Ingham to ignore the rest of the universe. And Ingraham's frustration and confusion comes through clear as day: we, as readers, are alone but with him. We, as readers, don't know what to do, where to go. If you've become enthralled in a horror movie, say, and you scream at the screen, "No, don't go that way," you know something. Here, you just don't know what to yell at the character. And he can't settle down: there's a good reason he moves from his very nice bungalow to a mid-to-low level hotel with no indoor plumbing: he is...I think this is something each reader has to decide. He can't access Tunisia either, he just doesn't fit it. This is a case where the author had to place the story in a location unfamiliar to most readers. A place where culture boundaries are iffy.
SUMMARY: This book is very good, better than I remembered. Overall, my rating is 4.0, so my original 3 star rating increases to 4. In 1987, the New Yorker declared this to be "her best work." It's definitely the one that placed Highsmith solidly in literary territory. But still, this is not one of my favorite Highsmith novels. As I'm making a few final touches to this review, I'm placing this book back on my 'to-read' shelf for 2019.
ORIGINAL REVIEW -January 19th, 2016
This is the tenth Highsmith work I've read and for me it's her most unusual. The title is perfect as there are tremors of forgeries everywhere: signed/unsigned artwork; a man who might be dead; even romantic preferences that aren't resolved. It's been said that great artists know when to stop. I would have stopped twenty pages earlier with: "Ingham lit a cigarette." But I've never been called a "great artist".20th-century mid-20th-century-american-crime psychological-crime ...more10 s Elizabeth (Alaska)1,401 518

In her Introduction (which I read as an Afterword), Francine Prose calls this Highsmith's best. Admittedly this is only my third by Highsmith, so I'm definitely no expert on the subject, but I didn't this as much as The Talented Mr. Ripley. For me, there was no tension. There is an extraordinary event, for which I assume I am expected to be anxious about consequences. The main character didn't seem to be anxious and so I wasn't either. The main character, Howard Ingham, simply wasn't the hand-wringing type.

What I did about this was there were two story-lines. Howard Ingham is an author, writing about an embezzler. His character, Dennison, has no guilty conscience. (Does he even have a tremor in the split second before his forgeries?) Ingham is not an embezzler, but his personality seems so very similar to that of his character. Perhaps others would find this clever.

Prose also calls Highsmith funny. That had never occurred to me. Is there supposed to be humor in psychological novels? I simply didn't see anything in that vein, but not everyone's sense of humor is the same. Ingham's previous book titles are ridiculous, but it never occurred to me to dwell on them long enough to crack a smile. I admit I don't see humor in as many places as others do.

I didn't hate this and it certainly doesn't put me off reading another Highsmith. But I could have skipped it and not missed anything.
africa kindle mid-20th-century ...more10 s JessicaAuthor 6 books208

I found this different from other Highsmith novels in that the characters are all fairly able and believable, not as extreme or as paranoid as I've come to expect. What isn't able is Howard Ingham's increasingly less than sympathetic view of Arabs. "Ingham imagined that Arabs were more or less always the same from one day to the next, that no external events could much affect them," for example. Highsmith does a good job of showing Ingham's shifting sense of self, of morality, in the heat, barrenness and otherness of the Tunisian landscape. She seems genuinely interested in exploring notions of morality and in following Ingham's search for an authentic self, less intent on taking us down the path of an inevitable downturn... Ingham missteps but he also "confesses", and still is able to follow his less conventional self to achieve a surprisingly--for Highsmith--"happy" turn of affairs by the novel's end. Highsmith's portrait of the Danish artist Jensen and his beloved dog, the growing friendship/love between the two men, their care for the animal, is completely believable. There is more tenderness in this novel, despite the harsh landscape (because of?), than I'm used to seeing in Highsmith territory. The American "OWL" provides comic moments but he too is taken seriously as a character.

note:
if you want to avoid spoilers, you'd best skip the comment section below.10 s Filipe58 6

Writer arrives in Tunisia. Time passes. Poor judgement in the depiction of Tunisians. Some letters are written. More time passes. Slowly. A conservative character with strong views is introduced. More letters are written. Hurray, somebody gets killed. Oh, but we find out in a letter. More characters who treat Tunisians animals are introduced. Time passes. It’s hot. There’s an “accident.” Consequences are inexistent. Guess what— letters. It’s really hot and the writer complains. He extends his trip. He starts writing his new book. Rinse and repeat for a long time. Girlfriend arrives. It’s hot. No more letters. More time passes. Weird judgements are made. There’s talk about marriage. Nope, scratch that. Girlfriend leaves. Yay, one more letter. Wait, is our hero actually gay? Also nope. He leaves. The End.10 s CriminOllyAuthor 39 books1,244

Not her best, but still a readable thriller and VERY Highsmith with its two central male characters, Americans abroad theme and a tonne of moral ambiguity. There’s also some interesting stuff about American anti-communist activity. 9 s Dave SchaafsmaAuthor 6 books31.8k

Mary Patricia Plangman, born in Texas in 1921, moved to NYC to attend Barnard, and became a successful writer (comics folks: Her first writing gig was in comics, as a writer for the comic book series Black Terror!), changing her name to Patricia Highsmith (though she also wrote one “lesbian” novel called The Price of Salt/Carol initially under a pseudonym). She moved to Europe permanently in her forties after having published several books, where she was more critically acclaimed and popular than in in her native US. Highsmith’s first novel, Strangers on a Train was first published in 1950, and in 1951 Alfred Hitchcock adapted the work for the screen, so she was a sensation almost from the first.

Highsmith wrote many great books but may be best known for her series of four Ripley novels (as in The Talented Mr. Ripley). I read this book because Black Oxford wrote a strong review of it, and because I saw Graham Greene said: "Miss Highsmith's finest novel to my mind is The Tremor of Forgery, and if I were to be asked what it is about I would reply, 'Apprehension'."

I’m a Greene fan, and as I read Tremor I thought of him and several of his books that take a grim view of Ugly Americans (cf., a novel by Burdick and Lederer, 1958). Set in Tunisia in the sixties, The Tremor of Forgery focuses on a successful writer named Howard Ingham, who goes there to write a screenplay. There he meets an American propagandist, Howard Adams, who speaks on a Voice of America-type radio show, and a gay painter named Anders Jeffries. Early on, Ingham’s writing to his girlfriend in NYC, but initially she is not writing back. Later we find out why (SPOILER); she was having an affair with Ingham's film producer, though she later rebuffs him, who then kills himself.
Ingham decides to write a novel instead of the screenplay.

Early on, there doesn’t seem to be much going on here except some "low level" anti-Arab racism on the part of all these men. Ingham’s novel is the story of a banker who forges documents to steal money he then gives to the poor. Ingham himself is robbed of many of his valuables, and then one night, he finds someone breaking into his apartment, throws his typewriter at the guy, hurting him, but he doesn’t follow up to see if the guy is killed, and doesn't tell anyone about it. Adams hears about the guy getting hurt, asks Ingham about it, who denies any knowledge. Adams doesn't believe Ingham, thinks this secrecy constitutes a moral problem, though Jensen, who hates most of the Tunisian Arabs even as he paints some of them, does not. As Ingham’s girlfriend shows up, we find she had had an affair with the producer, though she seems to come clean about it, and she sides with Adams on the moral position with respect to the possible killing.

The hallmark of Highsmith’s work seems to be this growing “apprehension” of which Greene speaks, and a sort of quietly building intensity as things spiral downhill. Another aspect of her work, including in Strangers on the Train and the Ripley books, is the presence of sexually ambiguous characters, sketched with psycho-socio realism. Ingham is one of these characters. That adds a layer of tension between Jensen and Ingham, and also Ingham's girlfriend, who thinks the two guys are nto each other.

Many people think Tremor is Highsmith’s best novel. In spite of how grim and uneventful it sounds, it focuses interestingly on the moral ambiguity of its four main character moving from the Colonialist West to Northern Africa even as the Vietnam War and civil rights demonstrations happen in the US. We see connections between white middle class views of the Vietnam war and racism in the US in parallel to the sort of casual colonialist behavior of white middle class folks visiting in Tunisia.

I d it, as it has this sense of growing dread about it, as these folks all seem headed to moral ruin, as much of America seemed to be in the sixties. It could be paired with Greene's Quiet Americans or Our Man in Havana.fiction-20th-century mystery-detective-thriller sixties13 s Darwin8u1,638 8,814

Not the usual crime novel. Perhaps a bit of a subversion (or at least an exploration) of both the Quiet American and The Stranger. A morality tale for sure, but Highsmith is always want to do, the tale eats its own tail a bit. This is not a page turner. It is a meditation on morality; an West meets East, or West is consumed by East, with great characters and a book within a book that serves as another lens to explore the dynamics of the characters and the protagonist's journey.2024 american fiction9 s Molinos354 573

Pocas cosas más "casa" y más seguras que la Highsmith. Acerté de lleno. El temblor de la falsificación transcurre en Tunez, un escritor de novelas con cierto éxito es contratado por un amigo para escribir el guión de una pelícua que transcurre en el país norteafricano, para documentarse y empaparse del ambiente se instala en un hotel a esperar a que su amigo vuele a encontrarse con él. No sé si Patricia estuvo en Tunez alguna vez pero digamos que la descripción del país está un poquito contaminada de tópicos pero eso importa poco. En unas pocas páginas consigue, como siempre, meterte en la historia y, en este caso, en el tempo y el calor africano. Howard, el protagonista, hace lo que todos los personajes de la Highsmith, se pasea, almuerza, toma una copa, escribe cartas, se pasea, abre el correo, toma una copa, se pasea, duerme un poquito, cena y se toma mil quinientas copas. Por supuesto conoce y traba cierta amistad con gente rara, con personajes que hacen lo mismo que él (sobre todo lo de beber y cenar) y que también se ven poco a poco inmersos en el tempo africano. ¿Pasa algo más en la novela? Alguna cosa que no quiero destripar pero es que, además, da igual. Las novelas de Patricia Highsmith atrapan desde el principio, absorben al lector entre sus páginas haciéndole vivir en los ambientes que retrata y mano a mano con sus persojanes que casi nunca son admirables ni casi respetables pero con los que el lector se identifica aunque no quiera.

Cuando puse una foto de este libro en Instagram algunos lectores me dijeron que nunca habían leído a Patricia Highsmith. No me déis disgustos. Hay que leerla siempre, todo. Si queréis empezar con ella, coged Extraños en un tren o El talento de Mrs Ripley. De nada.

11 s Sketchbook688 240

Sweaty Tunisia in the blistering sun. PaHi, suspense writer of "sheer dread," keeps you uncomfortable in a labyrinth of amorality, ethics and ambiguous relationships. That said, I don't think you can kill someone by hurling your typewriter at 'em in the dark. The basic flaw here is the oopsy "murder." ~~ Consider the damage an inked eraser might cause if it hit the heart !
9 s Chris557

I have purchased waaayyy too many books this year and decided to put myself on a book buying ban. But when I visited one of my favorite bookshops, I decided to ignore the ban and allowed myself to buy just one book. I was on the fence with what I wanted and finally decided to purchase this Highsmith, which on the front says "one of her best" from The New Yorker. No. No it isn't. Apparently the reviewer had never read "This Sweet Sickness" or "The Blunderer" or even Tom Ripley. There was no mystery in this book at all. Oh wait, I was mistaken. There was a missing dog for a majority of the pages. But he comes back! This was a real disappointment. And made me never want to visit Tunisia! 2017-reads mysteries8 s Merl FluinAuthor 6 books48

A man goes abroad and slowly falls apart. Does he lose himself, find himself, or discover he has no real self at all? Yes, the same old Highsmith theme, but somehow (how? how? how the hell does she do it?) it never gets stale.

I chanced upon this one in a second-hand bookshop and made the mistake of reading the first couple of pages on the bus home. I say mistake because once I'd started it the rest of my life was cancelled until I'd finished. Almost nothing happens for most of the book, and when something does happen you're not sure what it was... and it's mesmerising.suspense7 s Kristine Brancolini196 38

The Tremor of Forgery defies description. I loved it and I'm at a loss to explain why. Patricia Highsmith must have been an utterly intriguing and mysterious woman. The only other books I have read by here are the first three Ripley books, which I devoured one after another in short succession. This book is neither a mystery nor a thriller. It is a morality tale. And even though nothing much happens, I can't stop thinking about the protagonist, Howard Ingham. He is the book's narrator and it's fascinating to follow his thinking as he tries to explain away an inexplicable lapse in morality. So, here are the three elements that I think combined to knock my socks off.

The setting. Tunisia, summer, 1967. Near the beginning of the book, the 6-Day Arab/Israeli War occurs. And for the rest of the book, Ingham and his friends discuss the war and its potential to impact them as they live and work in seaside Hammamet. This is so strange given the recent eruption of violence in the Gaza Strip. Could the situation be more different today? We take it for granted that the Israelis have superior military strength than Hamas. Still no ceasefire. Still no peace. In 1967,Tunisia was untouched by the war or the continuing conflict once it ended. Parts of the book read a travelogue, as Ingham and a Danish artist named Jensen travel around the country. But Highsmith also establishes this atmosphere of unease from the first page and never lets it go.

The narrative structure. The reader is dropped almost in the middle of the action. Within a couple of pages, Highsmith has completely set up Ingham and his situation. Ingham has gone to Tunisia to meet a movie producer who wants him to write a screenplay set there. But John Castlewood has not arrived as expected and Ingham cannot reach him. They met through Ingham's girlfriend Ina, who works for CBS, but he can't reach her either. Since this is 1967, Ingham is writing letters and cabling. There's something about him being cut off from everyone back home that adds to the menacing atmosphere. Letters play an important role throughout the book. While waiting to hear from someone, Ingham begins writing a novel about a man named Dennison who embezzles money from the bank where he works. He lends it to people in need. Throughout the entire novel The Tremor of Forgery, Ingham is writing a novel that in the beginning had the same title. For Ingham, "[his] novel was more real and definite than Ina, John, or anything else. But that was to be expected, Ingham thought. Or was it?" (68)

The dilemma. Can't tell you, but suffice to say that Ingham creates a situation in which he should be experiencing his own crisis of morality. But, curiously, he isn't. Here's a quotation from near the end of the book: "It has to do with the book I'm writing. Essentially, it's whether a person makes his own personality and his own standards from within himself, or whether he and the standards are the creation of the society around him" (p.193). And since Ingham is in Tunisia and "the Arabs all around [him] had different standards, different ethics," well, under those circumstances Ingham thinks that we might begin to question our own morals, our own ethics.

Graham Greene thought this was Patricia Highsmith's best book and maybe it's not that, but she's a brilliant writer and it's definitely a compelling read. And although Camus covered similar ground in The Stranger, I'll take Highsmith any day.

7 s Mercedes Fernández Varea263 85

Reseña en 5 minutos y al dictado

Por una vez me he adelantado este domingo a la lectura conjunta con el grupo de viaje literario por el mundo y no ha sido precisamente por algo positivo sino simplemente por quitarme de enmedio este libro que no me estaba a mí personalmente aportando prácticamente nada.

Tenía en mente que Patricia Highsmith era una autora de thrillers trepidantes y me he encontrado para mi sorpresa con una obra centrada en conversaciones sin fin de cuatro personajes que no han captado mi atención. Es de esos libros en que uno va pensando a ver en qué momento mejora… y no mejora. Los personajes no son precisamente de mi agrado pero no creo que este sea el motivo por el que la novela no me ha gustado.

Las referencias al país, Túnez, y a la guerra de los seis días se me han quedado muy justas… Y para rematar el tema, recuerdo que en un momento se nombra que apenas hay restos romanos en Túnez cuando mi memoria me teletransporta muchos años atrás a varios de los lugares arqueológicos de Roma más impresionantes que he visto.

Como siempre lo que escribo es simplemente una opinión. Aquí por GR la reseñadora Molinos, cuyos escritos valoro, coincide conmigo en el estilo del libro que hemos tenido entre manos y sin embargo ella lo ve muy positivamente. Y lo mismo escribió Graham Greene, al indicar que esta es la mejor novela de Patricia Highsmith. Para gustos, colores.

20237 s Isaac Clemente ríos261 20

Estoy realmente impresionado.

El argumento es sencillo: un escritor neoyorkino es contratado para realizar el guion de una película y se va a Túnez para trabajar en él. Mientras espera al productor observa el ambiente, empieza a escribir y trata de aclimatarse. Se ve envuelto en un incidente que pone a prueba su personalidad, sus convicciones morales y su cultura.

Otros dos hombres occidentales que conoce en el lugar, y su novia son el resto de personajes sobre los que pivota la trama.

La profundidad de estos y la ambientación son espectaculares. La trama es realmente intrigante y entretenida. El final, que al principio me decepcionó ligeramente, mejora en mi cabeza conforme pasa el tiempo, tal vez por ser un poco abierto.

Nunca había leído una novela de suspense tan profunda y con tanta carga psicológica. Se acerca por momentos al existencialismo de Camus.

Una maravilla. Además, sirve como novela de vacaciones.

Mi nota: 9,3/107 s Maria João Fernandes352 31

"E o que está certo e errado, supunha Ingham, é aquilo que as pessoas que nos rodeiam dizem que é.(...) as pessoas vivem segundo um código moral, no qual lhes tinha sido ensinado a acreditar desde pequenos. (...) Até que ponto se manterá, até que ponto se poderá actuar segundo ele, se não for o mesmo código daqueles que nos rodeiam?"

Howard Ingham, um escritor divorciado cujos ganhos lhe permitem ter uma vida simples sem preocupações monetárias, encontra-se na Tunísia para realizar um projecto com o seu amigo John Castlewood. Este pediu a sua participação na produção de um argumento de um filme de baixo orçamento que irá realizar. A acção passa-se na Tunísia e por essa razão, Ingham viaja para lá a fim de conhecer o meio, as pessoas e a cultura. No entanto, o produtor do filme, que ficou de se encontrar lá com ele, não aparece no dia combinado nem lhe responde às cartas. O mesmo acontece com Ina, a sua namorada que ficou em Nova Iorque a trabalhar. Também ela não lhe dá qualquer notícia. Os dias vão passando devagar e Ingham acaba por aceitar este silêncio. Faz a sua vida normalmente: escreve, vai à praia e conduz até outras cidades. E assim é o início de uma série de acontecimentos estranhos que irão atravessar o caminho de Ingham e que o farão debater-se sobre o que está certo e o que está errado, de modo a poder agir da forma que ele acha a mais acertada na sociedade em que se encontra enquadrado.

Apesar de já ter lido alguns livros desta autora, ela continua a conseguir surpreender-me. A sua escrita é brilhante e perturbadora. Traição, mentiras e segredos são apenas alguns dos temas, comuns em todas as obras da autora, que vemos abordados neste thriller psicológico.

Uma vez mais somos confrontados com o crime da falsificação. Quem leu a série Ripley, lembra-se certamente que este tinha, com um sócio, um negócio de falsificação de quadros de um pintor que já tinha morrido, mas que eles fingiam que estava vivo, para continuarem a falsificar e a vender o seu trabalho. Em "O Falsário Indeciso" é a personagem principal do romance de Ingham quem faz os desvios de dinheiro: investindo-o e dando-o a amigos, para abrirem negócios ou ajudarem as suas famílias. Aliás, o título "O Falsário Indeciso" foi escolhido, por Ingham, para a obra se encontra a escrever.

O tema da homossexualidade volta também a ser retratado. Eu, pessoalmente, gosto imenso de ver este tema a ser abordado, uma vez que me fascina imenso sentir o à vontade desta autora, que nasceu a 19 de Janeiro de 1921. Em 1952 ela publicou um livro com esta temática, o Preço do Sal. O livro é sobre uma história de amor entre uma jovem e uma mulher mais velha, que se está a divorciar e já tem filha. E um dos primeiros livros, com esta temática, em que as personagens principais têm um final feliz. Até esta altura as personagens homossexuais tinham sempre um final trágico, como se a sua orientação sexual fosse algo de tão errado, que mereciam e deviam ser castigadas por isso. Eu acredito que nós amamos, independentemente do sexo da pessoa. O amor existe sob todas as formas e é por isso mesmo que é um sentimento tão excepcional.A sua personagem mais famosa, Tom Ripley era também bissexual.

No livro “O Falsário Indeciso", Ingham conhece duas pessoas que vão acompanhar o seu percurso ao longo do livro: Francis Adams, um americano viúvo e Anders Jensen, um pintor dinamarquês homossexual, que vive com o seu adorado cão Hasso. As relações entre as personagens são um detalhe importante do método de escrita de Highsmith. À medida que vamos conhecendo Howard Ingham, começamos a compreender os seus verdadeiros sentimentos. A ex-mulher, por quem afirma ainda sentir saudades, apenas lhe era útil na cama, segundo diz. Ina, a actual namorada, que diz amar e com quem deseja casar, acaba por se revelar insignificante. Tão insignificante, que quando lhe confessa que o traiu, este pensa que até o desaparecimento do cão - Hasso - é mais horrível que a confissão dela. Quanto ao seu vizinho Adam, o americano que faz propaganda americana para a Rússia via rádio, compara-o frequentemente a um esquilo, devido ao seu sorriso trocista. Admite que a sua simpatia é genuína, e convive com ele várias vezes, no entanto o seu desdém, tanto pelo seu físico, como pelo seu intelecto, é evidenciado com bastante clareza. Este fala constantemente do "O nosso estilo de vida" (isto é, o estilo de via americano). Está sempre a pregá-lo: a bondade, a santidade e a democracia irão, segundo ele, salvar o Homem e o mundo. Ingham não acredita no que Adams defende. O que está claramente errado para ele, não é assim tão linear para o nosso herói. O dinamarquês Jensen é com quem Ingham mais simpatiza. No momento em que o seu cão Hasso desaparece, Ingham sente vontade de estar com ele e de o consolar. Mais tarde, é a este que faz as suas confidências.
Howard vê-se mais inclinado a acreditar nos ideais de Jensen, talvez porque lhe é mais conveniente. Mas no fundo, é uma pessoa que sente perdida e confusa, num mundo que não é apenas preto e branco, onde também existe o cinzento, que é onde ele se encontra.

Um outro fio condutor da história é a descrição do povo árabe, por parte das personagens. No meu entender, a autora deixa transparecer o seu desdém pelos árabes, criticando o seu comportamento e atitudes, não apontando nenhuma característica minimamente positiva. Quando alguma coisa é roubada a culpa é dos árabes. Quando o cão Hasso desaparece a culpa é dos árabes. Todas as personagens sentem o mesmo relativamente a este povo e cultura, em menor ou maior grau. A verdade é que ninguém simpatiza com eles. Eu mesma dei por mim a apreciar as conversas em que os árabes são gozados. Mais uma vez está presente a noção de moral única da autora. Será isto correcto ou errado?

A mestre do suspense literário faz sempre introduções lentas às suas histórias. Demora o seu tempo a introduzir as personagens e a descrever o meio envolvente para que o leitor os possa conhecer melhor. Para mim, a sua escrita pode mesmo ser descrita com hipnótica. O seu herói/criminoso, Howard Ingham, tal como todas as suas personagens que conheci anteriormente, tem uma personalidade muito complexa e é dotado de uma perturbação psicológica profunda. Mesmo depois do produtor do filme não ir ao seu encontro, Ingham continua a fazer o seu trabalho, continua a escrever o seu romance mesmo sabendo que o filme não irá ser produzido. A sua história é sobre um homem chamado Dennison que tem uma vida dupla, que não tem consciência da amoralidade da sua forma de viver. Por um lado, ele rouba e engana pessoas, mas por outro ajuda aqueles que mais necessitam. Mas o que torna tudo isto interessante e genial é o facto desta descrição assentar que nem uma luva à personagem principal de Patricia Highsmith. E, quem sabe, talvez se aplique também à própria autora.

Ao longo deste livro somos confrontados com os mistérios humanos que levam alguém a cometer um crime. Neste caso em particular, trata-se de um crime por impulso. Ingham vê-se encurralado numa situação complicada e o medo leva-o a agir instintivamente. Patricia Highsmith foge à estrutura tradicional do romance policial a que estamos habituados. Um dos aspectos que mais se destaca, para mim, é a inexistência da noção de justiça nos seus livros. As suas personagens principais são sempre criminosas e, normalmente, instáveis. Indivíduos que não se encaixam na sociedade a que chamamos "normal". E acredito mesmo que estas estranhas personagens, produto da sua imaginação obscura, são nada mais do que versões da própria autora. No entanto, apesar das suas más escolhas e comportamento criminoso, estas nunca são castigadas. Muito pelo contrário.

Para finalizar, quero apenas dizer que gostava muito que fosse possível ter conhecido pessoalmente esta autora. Tenho a certeza que a sua mente era tão obscura como a das suas personagens e o seu sentido de moral único. A sua personalidade era, certamente, inconstante, complexa e contraditória pois só isso poderá ter tornado possível a criação das suas obras extraordinárias. Sinto que conheci um pouco desta mulher, de talento inato, e estou grata por isso. Se Alfred Hitchcock - na minha opinião, o melhor realizador de todos os tempos, também ele descrito como mestre do suspense, dotado de um génio sem igual - viu talento na Patricia Highsmith, quem pode duvidar da qualidade da escrita desta autora? De qualquer maneira, se não fosse escritora, seria, certamente uma assassina.

“My New Year’s Eve Toast: to all the devils, lusts, passions, greeds, envies, loves, hates, strange desires, enemies ghostly and real, the army of memories, with which I do battle — may they never give me peace.” (Patricia Highsmith, 26 anos, Passagem de Ano de 1947, 2:30h)__patricia-highsmith _feira-do-livro-2011 _na-minha-estante ...more6 s Jimmy R35 1 follower

I honestly don't think I've read this one before, which surprises me. (May just be my failing memory.) This novel ranks right up there with STRANGERS ON A TRAIN and TALENTED MR RIPLEY. All of Patty's usual motifs, quirks and neuroses are on full display here. Reading Patty can be dangerous.

Patty is a misogynist lesbian, or vice versa. The ultimate misanthrope, she shows contempt for most of humanity, but she has a special animus towards women. Look at the nasty homophobic speech she puts into the mouth of the only female character of note in this novel. Or her vicious depiction of Marge Sherwood in TALENTED.

Her main (male) character is nearly always some version of herself--esp the more successfully depicted ones. Ergo, her depictions of heterosexual relationships always strike me as a little "off." (Not that I would know much more on the subject than she did.) Patty reminds me of certain gay men of her era, her "attitudes" (which define character, accdg to her). The sex scenes in this one really ring false. Howard and Ina are so formal, distant and uptight with one another. ( Patty had no idea how to play out the scenes; hence, simply unbelievable.)

Of course, the only intimate relationship in the book is between Ingham and Jensen. They actually trust each other, each other, are at ease in the other's company. These closety, vaguely referenced quasi-gay "friendships" pop up regularly in her novels (and are often the strongest human connection), but this time the subject that "dare not speak its name" is more directly acknowledged than usual. Ina's accusations. The sexual "hints" (which grow a bit heavy handed with all the talk of underpants and heat and reclining together under the desert stars). Can one of these Highsmith heroes go on and make it with a guy just once! None of these guys ever successfully comes across as a hetero male: they just come across as Patty cross-dressing.

Gotta give Patty credit, though: She knows her neurotics. And her books obsess me.6 s D526 76

Interesting story. Nothing much happens but a growing unease about an ambiguous incident. The writing is superb and highly effective to enforce a sense of unease. See this review for more details. Recommended.6 s Mar Martinez Ripoll545 58

2'5?
Lectura para el reto #200libros200paises que nos lleva a Túnez.
He leído que es el mejor libro de la autora, que es una mezcla de novela negra y psicológica... Pues he terminado el libro sin saber que buscaba contar la autora.
Quizás nos plantea como nuestro orden de valores puede verse alterado por vivir en una cultura distinta de la nuestra, pero tampoco tengo muy claro que quisiera tener ese mensaje este libro200libros200paises lc-empieza-por-leer5 s David558 115

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