Beautiful Shadow: A Life of Patricia Highsmith (Hardcover)

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Review
The writer Patricia Highsmith prevented several attempts at a biography during her lifetime and was extremely unwilling to talk about herself or her writing, yet she left numerous frank and analytical diaries, notebooks and journals which have been used extensively in what is, therefore, a first biography. Wilson has also interviewed (often for the first time) many of the women who were her lovers or who inspired her in some way, as well as Highsmith's friends and colleagues. The information he has gathered has been put together to good effect to throw fascinating light both on Highsmith's often tormented personal life and her approach to her writing. A lesbian whose sometimes promiscuous love life brought her little happiness, Highsmith was often monosyllabic with other people and preferred the company of her adored cats - or even, when she was living in Suffolk, snails, which she carried around with some lettuce in a capacious handbag! As a prolific writer of 'noir' stories, she specialised in psychological insight into what drives a person to crime and is perhaps best known for the amoral Tom Ripley, who featured in several of her books, and Strangers on a Train, in which the psychopathic Bruno manipulates a weaker man and double murder is committed. From an early age she was intrigued by abnormal behaviour; together with her reactions to events or experiences, she would explore new ideas by putting them into print. Her bleak view of the world meant that until recently she was neglected in her home country, America; in the Europe of Sartre and of Camus's alienated heroes she has long had a following. Andrew Wilson's detailed and sympathetic biography of this strange and contradictory writer should encourage readers new and old to seek out her books. (Kirkus UK)

A closely drawn portrait of the writer who "celebrated irrationality, chaos and emotional anarchy, and regarded the criminal as the perfect example of the twentieth-century existentialist hero." British journalist Wilson uses Highsmith's diaries, notebooks, letters, and interviews to catch (in her own words) her "moods, fits, and daily activities." Perhaps best known for Strangers on a Train and her Ripley novels, Highsmith (1921-95) was never easy on her readers, says Wilson. Her work was often macabre and transgressive, noir and existential, drawing upon evil's banality and life's strange forces ("Each person carries around in himself a terrible other world of hell and the unknown," she wrote in her notebook). Highsmith herself comes across as a distinctive character: she was reserved ("This is the tragedy of the conscience-stricken young homosexual, that he not only conceals his sex objectives, but conceals his humanity and natural warmth of heart as well," she wrote, though she later became comfortable with her lesbianism); footloose; bereft of moral certainties ("I myself have a criminal bent. . . . I have a lurking liking for those who flout the law which I realise is despicable of me"); maybe even, as a friend noted, possessing "a form of high-functioning Asperger's Syndrome." Her relationships were many and urgent, and she had a quirky enough character to provide diverting stories, like the one of smuggling pet snails into France by hiding them under her breasts. But it's the dark side that most fascinates Wilson, the warped perspectives of Highsmith's central characters, their attractions and antagonisms, and her desire "to explore the diseases produced by sexual repression . . . like peculiar vermin in a stagnant well." Perhaps no one "can document a life in all its richness," but Wilson has come close, getting at Highsmith from a number of angles and showing the splinters of identity in his subject that she herself found so captivating. (Two 8-page b&w photo inserts, not seen) (Kirkus Reviews)

Daily Mail
‘Excellent and outstandingly readable … Brilliant and compelling’ --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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14 Reviews 5 star:  (10) 4 star:  (3) 3 star:    (0) 2 star:    (0) 1 star:  (1)           Average Customer Review 4.5 out of 5 stars (14 customer reviews)		Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews   24 of 25 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars Remembering Pat, 9 Sep 2003 By  Vivien De Bernardi (CH-6678 Lodano, Ticino Switzerland) - See all my reviews When the young journalist, Andrew Wilson, came to interview me for his book about Patricia Highsmith, I couldn't imagine how he would ever be able to capture the emotional volatility, the piercing intellectual focus, and the utter simplicity, almost transparency, of her powerful and often disturbing presence. Amazingly, Wilson has carried off this herculean task and given us a Highsmith almost as brilliantly complex and perplexingly ingenuous as the woman herself. Surely the next best thing to having actually known her is to read this superb biography. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)   9 of 9 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars An exceptional talent!!!, 22 Aug 2003 By  Sis Ofeel (New York) - See all my reviews Andrew Wilson is a wordsmith extraordinaire. His natural and unique talent for captivating the reader with quick paced and incisive narrative together with what seemed to be a genuine interest and understanding of Patricia Highsmith made this outstanding biography a gripping read and a real page turner from start to finish. For anyone who enjoys top notch writing as much as a compelling story - this is the book for you. Definitely my top pick for 2003. Wilson is going to be a huge talent in the literary world - move over Martin Amis and co - Wilson is coming! An excellent and truly exhilirating read....!! Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)   7 of 7 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars At Last!, 5 Jan 2004 By  R. P. Sedgwick "Grim Rob" (UK) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)       As a long-time fan of Patricia Highsmith, who I have been reading since I was a teenager, I was looking forward to reading this book to find out about the author, of whom I knew very little other than the basic details of her life. I wasn't disappointed. Beautiful Shadow interweaves the life of Highsmith and her books almost as one, and demonstrates how the two are so closely interlinked. It's hard to believe from her books that Highsmith was most contended of individuals, and this proves to be the case. Her story, which Wilson (although he never met her) has put together with the help of her journals and interviews with friends and contacts, is a masterful account of a tragic and tortured individual, who led a lonely life interrupted really only by the joy she gained from writing and painting. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this) Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review › See all 14 customer reviews...		Most Recent Customer Reviews 5.0 out of 5 stars the talented mr. wilson This is a wonderful book, a real must-have for all Highsmith fans. Thoroughly researched, based on Highsmith personnal diaries and cahiers, this is a literary biography as they... Read more Published 2 months ago by bagoas 5.0 out of 5 stars good book well-i disagree wholeheartedly with the person who slated andrew wilson(and no,i'm not related!)-i thought this book covered miss highsmiths life in depth and in an interesting... Read more Published 3 months ago by snailtank 4.0 out of 5 stars stuart pe-win I am not a big fan of literary biographies but I found this to be very readable and insightful. A "must by" for fans of her work. Published on 22 Oct 2006 by Laclos 4.0 out of 5 stars Weird, Unkind, and Dissolute "She was a weird, unkind, dissolute person." This is how her goddaughter remembers Patricia Highsmith, and after reading Andrew Wilson's biography, I think so, too. Read more Published on 6 Jan 2004 by takingadayoff 5.0 out of 5 stars a beautiful shadow As a long-term fan of Patricia Highsmith's dark prose I was delighted to read Andrew Wilson's accomplished biography. Read more Published on 15 Jul 2003 5.0 out of 5 stars The wait is over This is probably the most insightful, compulsively readable, scholarly biography I’ve ever read. Read more Published on 14 Jul 2003 4.0 out of 5 stars Not bad! Not a bad biography, actually quite captivating! Not worthy of five stars, with a few grammar errors (though not many), and not the best writing I've ever read; but not below... Read more Published on 11 Jul 2003 by Kenneth Hand 5.0 out of 5 stars Biography of the year - from Kate Crowndale I've been waiting for this book for years and it's everything I wanted - and more. Much more. Highsmith was a highly secretive, enigmatic woman who never revealed herself while... Read more Published on 30 Jun 2003 5.0 out of 5 stars At Long Last About the book: It’s a warts-and-all, cradle-to grave portrayal of Pat Highsmith and I found it gripping from start to finish. Read more Published on 17 Jun 2003 5.0 out of 5 stars Praise from PD James This is probably the most insightful, compulsively readable, scholarly biography I’ve ever read. Read more Published on 9 Jun 2003 by muse@wilsonaw.demon.co.uk Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews › See all 14 customer reviews...

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