| Patricia Highsmith |
A lover, not a liker
Natasha Walter is intrigued by Andrew Wilson's portrait of the contradictory Patricia Highsmith, Beautiful Shadow
Beautiful Shadow: A Life of Patricia Highsmith
by Andrew Wilson
288pp, Bloomsbury, £25
by Andrew Wilson
288pp, Bloomsbury, £25
Patricia Highsmith's readers already know that she was a woman of many voices. She managed to produce works that are each so different it can be difficult to believe they are written by the same person. If you think that is an exaggeration, try reading her early romantic novel Carol and then her late short stories, Little Tales of Misogyny; you'll find yourself absolutely stumped as to how one person could move from such engaging charm to such vicious black humour. And both of those works have very little to do with the novels that are usually associated with Highsmith, since she made her name with sparely written suspense tales that centre on ordinary men who turn to murder - above all, the ever-intriguing Tom Ripley.