Nothing That Meets the Eye: The Uncollected Stories of Patricia Highsmith [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

*Starred Review* Most of the stories in this collection, written between 1938 and 1982, are almost sentimental in their brutal unsentimentality. With a hard, keen eye, Highsmith crafts beautifully warped creatures and dares us to step inside their minds. Most of the characters are misfits, some desperate to change their lives, others with no idea how to start. Even when nothing dreadful happens, as in the early "Where the Door Is Always Open and the Welcome Mat Is Out"--in which a Midwest transplant attempts to justify her busy-empty Manhattan life to a visiting relative (and to herself)--the stories nonetheless inspire a delicious sense of dread. And when terrible things do occur, they hit the reader between the eyes like a stockyard hammer: in "The Mightiest Morning," a man is driven from a town after innocently spending his days with a young girl who befriends him; in "The Car," another man is welcomed by a mother who fails to recognize his bad intentions toward her little daughter. Highsmith never asks us to sympathize with her evil characters, but she does show--through the petty, mean-spirited, thoughtless actions of others--that much of their hatred for society is justified. It's perhaps her most frightening, depressing motif. Frank Sennett
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The late, prolific Highsmith is best known to readers for the canny, resourceful, elegant, and amoral Mr. Ripley (from her books; forget the movie please!). And, to writers, for her elegant, crafted prose. The novel form aside, the short story might be her best medium, riveting attention on her twists (plot and psychological), her use of language, and her experiments with viewpoint. Of the 28 stories collected here, many were previously published, but none are readily available. Those in the first section (to 1948) show a surprising attention to women's viewpoints and a developing sense of the illuminative power of a single moment, as in "The Still Point of the Turning World." The second section (from 1952 on) is more male-dominated and characteristic, and the best stories here (like "A Girl Like Phyl" where the illumination is ironic and shatters a life) could really be said to burn with Pater's "hard, gemlike flame." Remarkable; highly recommended. Robert E. Brown, Minoa Lib., NY
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine andere Ausgabe: Gebundene Ausgabe .

A thrilling compendium of work full of surprises.--Ed Siegel

The Patricia Highsmith renaissance continues with this brilliant collection of 28 psychologically penetrating stories, a great majority of which are published here for the first time.

Twenty-eight psychologically penetrating stories span almost 50 years of Highsmith's career and establish her as a permanent member of the American literary canon.

Patricia Highsmith is the author of such classics as Strangers on a Train and The Talented Mr. Ripley. She died in 1995 in Locarno, Switzerland.