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When a troubled young runaway arrives on Tom Ripley's French estate, he is drawn into a world he thought he'd left behind, the seedy underworld of Berlin and kidnapping plots, lies and deception.
Ripley becomes the boy's protector as a friendship develops between the young man with a guilty conscience and the older one with no conscience at all.
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I think that the darker undertones of the boy's relationship with Tom are set off starkly agaisnt the ordinariness of every day life that goes on around them. The precise nature of their mutual attraction is simply never set out starkly ...
I think that Highsmith may have used this book to add yet more depth and character to her anti-hero - strangely though the more she tells us about him, the more enigmatic he becomes.
A very subtle, excellent work.
If you have not read any Ripley books, I suggest that you start with The Talented Mr. Ripley instead.
Those who will be disappointed by this book will be people who wanted a book just like one of the first three in the series. Those who will be very pleased are those who want to think through the implications of Ripley's character and who he is becoming. I have graded the book as an average of the two likely reactions.
We see a new side of Ripley in this book. He takes a troubled American teen under his wing and mentors him in the way that a friendly uncle or much older brother might. In the process, Ripley reveals more of himself to the boy than to anyone else. Ripley also ends up musing and seeing his own marriage and history in a new light as he understands the boy's problems.
I'm sorry that I cannot go into the story in more detail. To do so would simply spoil the plot development for you.
If you like character development with long stretches of little plot development, this book will be a lot of fun. If you crave the constant action of The Talented Mr. Ripley, this book will drag slowly in long sections for you.
Unless you are ambivalent about the Tom Ripley character, I do suggest that you read the book . . . even if it won't be your favorite.
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