The killer is pretty lionized in our society. I for one find this to be pretty concerning, because there seems to be weird implication there. Netflix makes a Jeffery Dahmer series and people just start fawning. I can do you one worse. Hungary has an Elizabeth Bathory musical. That’s fucking weird.
Some spoilers beyond.
I didn’t think I was affected by this, and then I read Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley. The book follows the Tom Ripely, a struggling New York confidence artist who is asked to travel to Italy by a wealth American captain of industry to convince his son to return home. From the paragraph above it should be clear that this ultimately leads to him commingling a murder. In case you’ve not read it, I won’t go into much detail aside from saying that none of the murders are per-meditated. That’s the difference that makes a difference – modern literature is bloated with the over-competent meticulous planners whose plans go exactly to schedule. Modern literature does this to a point of stupidity and cliche, and it perpetuates a whole lot of unhealthy myths in society. That is why seeing the opposite here – a nervous, almost bumbling Ripley who seems to stubble into things on a sort of ‘plot armor’ blind luck, seems so refreshing. Mind you, this might be a ‘patient zero’ of the ‘sympathetic killer’ genre, having been released back in 1955. All the books that came after this likely built upon this one, and the modern bullshit we have today is a result of this power creep. To really home in on one spoiler, I loved how at the end of the novel not only is Ripley terrified of being caught, but also realizes that this is his life now. He will forever be afraid of being caught.
Tom Harris’ Hannibal Lecter is near omnipotent. Tom Ripley is human.
Ripley also does not solve every singular problem with violence, as other characters would. This too was a breath of fresh air.
What he isn’t, is talented. While I enjoyed this book, by it’s end I war rather frustrated by how it was coming together. I didn’t feel like Ripley’s confidence man past really led to a life of check forging that we see here. Transferable skills, I suppose. But too much of the story relied on some of the secondary characters being about as dumb as the proverbial sack of hammers. It worked in the novel’s favor, as it constantly left you with a massive feeling of unending tension, right up until the end. The novel concluded with Ripley getting away with it all, and managing to convince everyone of his innocence despite his seemingly obvious guilt.
I have to confess that the setting of the book did a lot for me. Watching this person tramp around Italy, bouncing around a lot of places I have visited or even lived in was kind of nice. But that is a subtlety.
I enjoyed this. I also found that there are others in the same series. I am considering reading those as well.
Failures in Polymathy 