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Image for the poem The Boy Who Followed Ripley by Patricia Highsmith (1980)

The Boy Who Followed Ripley by Patricia Highsmith (1980)

The fourth in the series about bon vivant criminal and murderer Tom Ripley, living his best life in the French countryside with his heiress wife Heloise and housekeeper Mme Annette, only occasionally drawn back into nefarious schemes. This time his path crosses that of Frank Pierson, the sixteen-year-old heir of a superfoods millionaire in the US. Frank has fled to France under an assumed name following the death of his father, who was watching the sunset when he appears to have lost control of his wheelchair and fallen over a cliff on the family estate. But Frank has an obsession with Ripley which suggests that he may not be as innocent as he appears…

The early sections where we get to know Frank and what he’s done are atmospheric and suspenseful, and I liked the depiction of Tom’s social tête-à-têtes with his neighbours. When one pops round Frank has to flee upstairs, which the visitor notices and remarks upon, enquiring as to the sex of Tom’s midnight guest. “Guess”, Tom replies.

The midsection set in Germany on both sides of the Berlin Wall is excellent, pacy and colourful. The Ripley novels can sometimes feel like travelogues, in a good way, and Highsmith makes use of the breadth of her research. The depiction of Berlin’s vibrant gay nightlife is a lot of fun, especially in a scene where Ripley dons drag so as to go undercover. This might be the book which leans in the hardest (no pun intended) on Ripley’s homosexual side. His friendship with Frank has an undertone to it, of course, but this is a story where he openly flirts with gay men and infiltrates their circles. (Again, no pun.)

The story also glances at the seedy and outright depraved areas of life in Berlin before the Wall’s collapse, such as child prostitution and kidnapping. Despite that, this might also be the most comedically toned novel in the Ripliad, with lots of amusing digressions on subjects such as “life-like” sex dolls and conversations overheard in gay bars. Frank feels charmingly innocent at times, at one point remarking what a surprise it is how the men in a gay bar can have so much fun without girls, and his friendship with Tom can be surprisingly sweet.

The book suffers from a rather aimless and disjointed plot, however. Once kidnapping is introduced as a plot point the book gathers pace, but we never get to know the kidnappers and the point is resolved with over a hundred pages to go. This is fairly indicative of the way in which Highsmith wrote, beginning with a premise and then sort of making the story up as she went along, exploring this or that avenue as complications to throw in her characters’ paths occurred to her.

The end result just feels a little more diffuse this time, perhaps partly because Ripley is in a much more passive role than usual. The last hundred or so pages amble around without much sense of why we should care what happens, given that the exciting bit of the plot is basically over, but I was drawn on by an interest in how Frank’s story would conclude. Overall, this entry in the series is a little ramshackle, but atmospheric and intriguing.
Written by Casted_Runes (Mr Karswell)
Published
Author's Note
SHAMELESS PLUG This and other reviews can be found at http://www.thelibraryatborleyrectory450016552.wordpress.com/
All writing remains the property of the author. Don't use it for any purpose without their permission.
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