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Strangers on a Train
  
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Strangers on a Train (Hardcover)

by Patricia Highsmith (Author) "The train tore along with an angry, irregular rhythm ..." (more)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 320 pages
  • Publisher: William Heinemann Ltd; New impression edition (April 1966)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0434335029
  • ISBN-13: 978-0434335022
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 1,206,597 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #70 in  Books > Crime, Thrillers & Mystery > Authors, A-Z > H > Highsmith, Patricia

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Product Description

Product Description

From the moment that he constructs a perfect alibi, Guy Haines is trapped in a nightmare of shared guilt and an insidious merging of his personality with that of his conspirator.


From the Back Cover

‘A gem… A magnificent suspense’ Daily Mail

The psychologists would call it folie a deux…

‘Bruno slammed his palms together. “Hey! Cheeses, what an idea! We murder for each other, see? I kill your wife and you kill my father! We meet on a train, see and nobody knows we know each other! Perfect alibis! Catch?”’

From this moment, almost against his conscious will, Guy Haines is trapped in a nightmare of shared guilt and an insidious merging of personalities

‘A writer who created a world of her own – a world claustrophobic and irrational which we enter each time with a sense of personal danger’ Graham Greene --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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The train tore along with an angry, irregular rhythm. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews

7 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars dark, disturbing and sophisticated., 25 Nov 2003
By S. Hapgood "www.sjhstrangetales.com" - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)      
This review is from: Strangers on a Train (Paperback)
"Strangers On A Train" bears many comparisons with Patricia Highsmith's other great work "The Talented Mr Ripley", in fact it can almost be seen as a precursor to it. Both introduce central characters that are incredibly dark and complex, and both show extreme obsession ending in murder. The character of Charles Bruno in this must surely rank as one of the greatest psychological profiles of a villain/misfit/outsider (take your pick) ever committed to paper, comparable with Graham Greene's portrayal of Pinky in "Brighton Rock", or Alex in Anthony Burgess's "A Clockwork Orange". We know he is a disturbed young man right from the outset, when he meets Guy on the train and indulges in a fatal and macabre "what if?" game with him. There is something almost Faustian about all this, as Guy gets drawn into a deadly game with someone who could almost be the Devil in human form.

As the book goes on and Guy gets himself deeper and deeper into Bruno's web, you find yourself asking if Guy is perhaps as innocent himself as he would like you to believe. That this isn't a simple case of a variation on the good twin/evil twin plot, but that Bruno is bringing out a dark side to Guy's character that he deep down wants to indulge. Bruno's own derangement, his alcohol-fuelled deleriums are disturbing, as is his infantile dependance on his awful mother, who wants to keep him forever as her spoilt little boy.

There are many classy touches to this book, including Bruno's seeming ability to be able to appear supernaturally inside locked rooms! And I can't see a fairground carousel anymore without thinking of Guy's wife and "The Girl With The Strawberry Curl", or whatever it was. There have been a few attempts to film this, (including a perfectly abominable t.v film in which Guy and Bruno's characters were done as women instead), but Alfred Hitchcock's is the only one worth seeing.

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars excellent, 8 Aug 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: Strangers on a Train (Paperback)
Highsmith's ability as a writer is clear in this novel. Her depiction of Guy and Bruno and the claustrophobic atmosphere she creates throughout Strangers on a Train combine to make a compelling read. Read this book, its what crime writing is all about!
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Cool, dark and compelling, 30 Jun 2002
By A Customer
This review is from: Strangers on a Train (Paperback)
This may be Patricia Highsmith's first published novel but it shall certainly not be my last. I love everything about Highsmith's style. I love her straight, confident story-telling manner. I love her settings (here it's New York City and other American cities). I love her characters: affluent Americans from another age and the people they rub shoulders with, and I love the chilling world she creates of dirty deeds, guilt and temptation.

Until the closing chapter, I really did not know how this story would end, nor did I know how I wanted it to end. I was completely in the hands of the writer, entrapped in her strange world.

This book has a lot in common with Robert Louis Stevenson's "The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde". The haunting of the 'good' character by his 'evil' twin is the guts of the novel.

In summary, this is a cool, dark, stylish thriller. Highsmith is in excellent form here. This book is perfect summer holiday reading!

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars Rubbish
SPOILERS

Right, I must be missing something here because no other reviewers have mentioned the glaring plotholes in the book. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Wiggles

4.0 out of 5 stars William Robert's great reading
In this audiobook, Mr William Roberts reads Patricia Highsmith’s “Strangers on a Train” with plenty of enthusiasm and I enjoyed his voice very much. Read more
Published on 8 Jan 2004 by Philippe Horak

4.0 out of 5 stars Classic suspense
This is the author’s highly acclaimed debut novel. Two men, an architect, Guy Haines, and a psychopath, Charles Bruno, meet on a train to swap murders. Read more
Published on 8 Jan 2004 by Philippe Horak

5.0 out of 5 stars Most brain taxing book I've read in a long time!!
This book provides a lot of answers and the interesting part is it has also given you a lot of questions. Recommended for future philosophers!
Published on 23 Nov 2000

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