Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith ISBN: 0-393-32198-3 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: August, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.47 (17 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: An American Dostoyevsky
Comment: Patricia Highsmith's "Strangers on a Train" came out in 1950, attaining prompt bestseller status and intriguing filmdom's master of intrigue, Alfred Hitchcock, enough to fashion a film around it which was released one year later. Highsmith jolted readers with her gripping realism, taking a basically simple but clever plot and carving out something much more.
Highsmith's book focuses on two men in their twenties, Charlie Bruno and Guy Haines. The former is of great New York wealth, but is troubled and is headed for cataclysmic disaster, which he appears eager to reach fast through his alcoholic dissipation and all-purpose troublemaking. The latter has worked his way upward from a modest, middle class background in his native Texas to become one of America's premier architects before reaching his thirtieth birthday.
Under normal circumstances these individuals would probably never cross paths, but fate intervenes when they travel on the same train and meet as a result of the extroverted Bruno forcing himself on the more introspective Haines, who does not want to appear rude. When Bruno learns that Haines is faced with an unpleasant divorce situation in dealing with a promiscuous wife, the inebriated Bruno jolts his more stable traveling companion by suggesting that they swap murders. Someone who avidly reads mystery books, Bruno states that they would each perform a perfect crime since they would each be killing total strangers and there is nothing to link them to their victims. Bruno wants Haines to kill his father, who is standing in the way of his getting access to the family wealth. The reason for his hatred of his father is also linked to his slavish devotion to his mother, who is seen as a quasi-deity to the troubled young man.
Haines leaves the compartment when Bruno is sleeping off his drinking, convinced he will never hear from him again. He does, and under the most frightening circumstances. Highsmith has such a brilliant penchant for plotting mystery that no more will be given away, except to say that the psychological currents and cross-currents put readers squarely into the picture. The author forces the reader to make judgments of their own about life and death, and how we deal with each, and how authority is correlated with society. Are the two in opposition to each other? This is one of the probing questions she asks mainly through the interactions of the characters.
Highsmith could be referred to as an American Dostoyevsky. Just as the great nineteenth century Russian author probed the inner mind and the dimensions of guilt within the framework of someone who has taken a human life, the American touches those same roots in an atmosphere of chilling suspense. Bruno and Haines are characters fastened indelibly into the mind after reading Highsmith's explosive novel.
Rating: 5
Summary: ...I repeat, do NOT talk to strangers!
Comment: It is so rare to pick up a book expecting mild entertainment yet getting so much more. Strangers on a Train is not just a mystery novel (..made into a Hitchcock film), it is a tautly written analysis of how criminals cope (psychologically) after committing a heinous crime (eg, murder). People who have read Crime and Punishment, and especially those who would like to but "couldn't get into it", will love this book. Patricia Highsmith's little gem couldn't have been written any better.
As an example dialogue in the novel,..
"Of course I don't think he arranged it," Bruno replied. "You don't seem to realize the calibre of the person you're talking about."
"The only calibre ever worth considering is the gun's, Charles."
============
I agree with the previous reviewer's comments about how unfortunate it is for Strangers on a Train to be no longer in print. Maybe with the success of the film The Talented Mr. Ripley other works of Ms. Highsmith, such as this, will be reprinted. For those who can't wait I direct you to www.amazon.co.uk where you will find multiple editions of Strangers on a Train available.
Rating: 4
Summary: Classic suspense
Comment: This is the author's highly acclaimed debut novel. Two men, an architect, Guy Haines, and a psychopath, Charles Bruno, meet on a train to swap murders. Charles will kill Guy's wife Miriam and Guy will kill Charles' father. A chance meeting and a rash conversation will trap Guy Haines, almost against his will, in a nightmare. This is a cunningly plotted melodrama and I read it with thorough enjoyment. Alfred Hitchcock shot a film baring the same name and the movie is equally thrilling. Classic suspense is still the best in my view!
 |
Title: The Talented Mr. Ripley, Ripley Under Ground, Ripley's Game by Patricia Highsmith ISBN: 0375407928 Publisher: Everyman's Library Pub. Date: 12 October, 1999 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
 |
Title: Ripley Under Water by Patricia Highsmith ISBN: 0679748091 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 02 November, 1993 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
 |
Title: A Suspension of Mercy by Patricia Highsmith ISBN: 0393321975 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: August, 2001 List Price(USD): $11.00 |
 |
Title: The Boy Who Followed Ripley by Patricia Highsmith ISBN: 067974567X Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 02 November, 1993 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
 |
Title: The Blunderer by Patricia Highsmith ISBN: 0393322440 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: November, 2001 List Price(USD): $11.00 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
