DEVILS, LUSTS AND STRANGE DESIRES

A critical examination of one of the 20th century’s most volatile novelists.

Bradford’s portrait of Patricia Highsmith (1921-1995) is occasionally compelling but largely consumed by an unsettling, didactic preoccupation with Highsmith’s same-sex promiscuity. Although many of Highsmith’s beliefs were morally reprehensible, notably her extreme anti-Semitism and later anti-Black racism, Bradford’s apparent distaste regarding her many lesbian encounters makes for an uncomfortable reading experience. The author develops some interesting and convincing parallels between Highsmith’s literary creations and real-life relationships, suggesting that she channeled her darkest neuroses and impulses into her most infamous characters. Her most well-known works, Strangers on a Train (1950) and The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955), are genre-bending stories with engaging, murderous protagonists. The blurred lines of fact and fiction between Highsmith’s diaries and her contemporaneous works of literature form the basis of Bradford’s examination of her erratic behavior. Throughout the book, comparisons between Highsmith and the criminally deranged, possibly gay Ripley abound—e.g., “Highsmith and Ripley are sexual predators, each manipulates the people in their lives and Highsmith transfers this to the relationships between her fictional creations.” What is concerning here is not their similarities but rather Bradford’s hyperbole in labeling Highsmith and Ripley as “sexual predators.” To be sure, Ripley is a predator and a murderer, but he does not overtly pursue Dickie Greenleaf sexually. More importantly, while Highsmith certainly had many affairs with women during her life, it is difficult to conceive of her actions as “predatory,” especially without known accusations. While she was certainly manipulative and struggled with relationships and alcoholism, labeling her a sexual predator is a mischaracterization. Here, as elsewhere in the biography, it is unclear which insights are gained from honest analysis of available material rather than authorial judgment.

The potential for a nuanced analysis of Highsmith’s complicated life is clouded by a sanctimonious tone.