Strangers on a Train by Patricia HighsmithMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Not having had the benefit of seeing the Hitchcock film, I had no idea what I was getting into, only that I had heard great things about Patricia Highsmith.
What an interesting ride. It is yet another example of the victim-villain paradigm I talk about with my students that we see in twentieth-century opera. I think there are places that are a bit heavy-handed with the philosophical musing, particularly as Guy Haines's own grip on reality starts to loosen, but the book manages to be satisfyingly creepy, even though we are privy to almost everything that happens, as it happens. That Hitchcock took an interest in the novel makes me think he had a thing about boys and their mothers ---I'm not just talking about Charles Bruno, either. Guy Haines also had sort of a weird relationship with his mother. Neither quite at the Norman Bates level, but there does seem to be a theme... Maybe it was just the 1950s/60s...
I had trouble understanding how whiny psycho Bruno could so get under Haines's skin -- this was perhaps exacerbated by Bronson Pinchot's performance. It was, on the whole excellent, but every time Bruno would go into whining mode, I had to turn down the volume. I do get the implication--that we all have this evil switch inside of us that just needs the right set of circumstances to trigger, but I think I'm far enough removed from the social nicety of sharing a train car that I didn't really understand how the ball got rolling in the first place.
Still, it is a really intriguing book where you read with a constant knot in your throat because you know what's coming next, but you aren't sure when or how. In some respects, this is a more artistic type of suspense than the walk down the hallway with dark corners and spooky music. The hallway in this case is our own potential psychotic path.
View all my reviews
No comments:
Post a Comment