The Talented Mr. Ripley

Most people know of the all-star Hollywood film made of this a few years ago, starring Matt Damon, Jude Law, and Gwenyth Paltrow. I've never seen the film, but knew that Patricia Highsmith had written three or four books featuring sociopath Tom Ripley, and that this was the first.

The plot revolves around the 25 year old Tom, an obviously intelligent young man with some serious, for lack of a better word, issues. He is grifting his way through life in New York, scamming people out of tax money they think they owe to the IRS and sponging off friends. He runs across the father of an acquaintance, Mr. Greenleaf, who offers Tom a free trip to Europe if he'll go to Italy and try to persuade Greenleaf's son Dickie to give up his artistic lifestyle and come home to the family business and an ill mother.

Once Tom encounters Dickie and his casual girlfriend, Marge, in the little seaside town in Italy, he knows he has his work cut out for him. Dickie has no interest in returning to the States, and is living comfortably off of an independent inheritance. A major subtext of the novel is Tom's ambiguous sexuality, and it soon becomes apparent that Tom is obsessed with Dickie, much to the discomfort of Marge. Eventually, Tom murders Dickie and steals his identity (I'm not giving anything away; it is at this point that the book really gets going).

Tension mounts as Tom's seemingly impossible ploy threatens to go off the rails again and again. There is amazing suspense in trying to figure out how on earth he's going to pull this off. If you're a fan of detective or crime fiction, you'd be well off to pick this one up. It was highly unusual for Highsmith to write a book featuring the 'bad guy' as the protagonist. Tom Ripley is a fantastic creation and I'll be anxious to read more books in this series.