The Talented Mr. Ripley (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard) (edit title)

• Rated 5 stars

“An incredible mystery. I found myself feeling bad for Ripley over and over again, but then realizing all of the horrible things that he was doing. Highsmith writes in a way that you actually feel compassion for this mass murderer and want to be his friend. That takes a lot of talent. ”

• Rated 4 stars

“Another crazy, Tom Ripley, takes on another's identity and moves forward through his crimes.”

• Rated 3 stars

“I'm not quite sure what to make of this book. In it, an American chancer (Tom Ripley) is asked to travel to Italy to try and convince an acquaintance (Richard Greenleaf, who is presented as a sort of sponger who lives off his trust fund by his father) to return to the US and live the life expected of the American working middle class in the 1950s, which is when this book is set.

The problem is that once he's there Ripley falls in love with Greenleaf's life himself. Ripley is superficially charming but isn't the sort of person you like if you know him in a profound way, so he decides to kill Greenleaf and assume his life because they look so similar physically.

From there Ripley has to use his skills as a chancer to convince:

1) People he's Greenleaf, so he can have Greenleaf's money.

2) The police that Greenleaf is safe (and then up to no good when he can't live as Greenleaf any more).

3) Greenleaf's family and former love interest that he really cares about Greenleaf.

So why do I feel this book is so dated? Ignoring the fact that there is no forensic trail for the Italians to follow, or the fact that there are no computers, what is it first thing that the police do these days when someone goes missing? They investigate the last person to see him. That doesn't happen here. Ripley is taken at his word all the time, when even the simplest investigation of him would have shown him to be a liar. That irritates me no end. To my mind the book might be better described as The Fortunate Mr Ripley because he certainly road his luck in this book.

If you can live with this issue read this book, you'll like it. If you can't, I probably wouldn't bother with this book. It might irritate you. ”

• Rated 4 stars

“Very intriguing story - hard to imagine someone pulling this off. I found it very entertaining to see how different it was before the days of the internet and instant access to information.”

• Rated 5 stars

“Absolutely loved this book. Fascinating and terrifying and incredibly well written. I need to reread it to determine whether it deserves favorite status.”

• Rated 0 stars

“I really enjoyed this book, it is much better than the movie, and I really enjoyed the movie.”

• Rated 3 stars

“incredibly dark”

• Rated 4 stars

“Overview: Editorial Review.

Ripley is back. This new publication of Patricia Highsmith's classic inaugurates the complete Ripley series.

Since his debut in 1955, Tom Ripley has evolved into the ultimate bad boy sociopath, influencing countless novelists and filmmakers. In this first novel, we are introduced to suave, handsome Tom Ripley: a young striver, newly arrived in the heady world of Manhattan in the 1950s. A product of a broken home, branded a "sissy" by his dismissive Aunt Dottie, Ripley becomes enamored of the moneyed world of his new friend, Dickie Greenleaf. This fondness turns obsessive when Ripley is sent to Italy to bring back his libertine pal but grows enraged by Dickie's ambivalent feelings for Marge, a charming American dilettante. A dark reworking of Henry James's The Ambassadors, "The Talented Mr. Ripley" --immortalized in the 1998 film starring Matt Damon, Jude Law, and Gywneth Paltrow—is an unforgettable introduction to this debonair confidence man, whose talent for self-invention and calculated murder is chronicled in four subsequent novels. ”

• Rated 2 stars

“I think the movie was better. Ha.”

• Rated 5 stars

“I absolutely loved this novel.

After slogging through How German Is It? by Walter Abish I felt I had suffered enough for a while and decided to read a captivating thriller. This book fit the bill.

I first heard about this on an NPR piece last August about novels featuring Americans abroad.

This entertaining story about a sociopath who the reader is surprisingly drawn to was written in 1955. It is funny that I found myself actually rooting for, and worrying about this serial killer.

I have not seen the movie but since Matt Damon was on the cover of my edition I envisioned him as Ripley. I have given this book to my wife, highly recommended, and we will rent the movie once she has finished it.

Most highly recommended.”