A Highsmith Reader
Review of the W.W. Norton & Company hardcover edition (2010) edited with an Introduction by Joan Schenkar and collecting "Strangers on a Train" (1950), "The Price of Salt" (1952) and a selection of 13 short stories (Various publication dates 1939 - 2002).

In Highsmith Country, good intentions corrupt naturally and automatically, guilt often afflicts the innocent and not the culpable, hunter and prey reverse roles at a moment’s notice, and life is a suffocating trap from which even her most accomplished escape artists cannot find a graceful exit.

Along with her many published works, she left 250 unpublished manuscripts of varying length as well as 38 writer’s notebooks (or cahiers, as she rather grandly called them) and 18 diaries in five languages – four of which she didn’t actually speak. - excerpts from the Introduction to Selected Novels and Short Stories.

I started a recent Patricia Highsmith (1921-1995) mini-binge through a chance Kindle Deal-of-the-Day with The Tremor of Forgery (1969) and from discovering several recent biographies such as Devils, Lusts and Strange Desires: The Life of Patricia Highsmith (2021) and the graphic novel Flung Out of Space: Inspired by the Indecent Adventures of Patricia Highsmith (2022). With the upcoming Ripley TV-series (2023? 2024?) starring Andrew Scott as Highsmith's infamous character Tom Ripley, it seemed a good time to discover further unread Highsmith.

See photograph at https://i0.wp.com/f.i.uol.com.br/folha/ilustrada/images/10057306.jpeg
Patricia Highsmith in an uncharacteristic laughing pose from the 1940s. Image sourced from Memphis Necromancer WordPress.

I had never read any Highsmith short stories and Selected... seemed like a good place to start as it was compiled by biographer (The Talented Miss Highsmith: The Secret Life and Serious Art of Patricia Highsmith (2009)) and authority Joan Schenkar (1942-2021). Flung Out of Space writer Grace Ellis bemoaned in her own introduction to her graphic novel that Schenkar had passed away and had not been available to write it.

Given the opportunity, I did re-read the classics Strangers... and The Price..., maybe for the 3rd or 4th time. I was less impressed by the former now and more impressed with the latter. The alcoholic Bruno seemed sadly incompetent and much less of a figure to inspire a murder-trade with the hapless Guy. The romance of Therese and Carol was more compelling though, especially after having read its somewhat fictionalized real-life background in Flung Out of Space.

The short story selection was odd. Schenkar doesn't present them in chronological order except for grouping them as either "Early" or "Later". Some of the dating could be discovered by reading the end copyright credits where most (but not all) of the original magazine publications were listed. The selections lean towards the "Uncollected Stories" with 7 of the 13 being from that posthumous collection. Only 4 of the 13 deal with actual murderous crime (the inclusion of the 1 & 1/2 page cavewoman murder of Oona... is a bizarre choice), 1 implies the horror of a possible future child molestation, 1 relates to art forgery, 1 finds a person disturbed by the discovery of their primitive basket-weaving skill, and the 6 others deal with people being unkind to each other (although one of those involves birds and not humans). Schenkar's brief one sentence summaries (quoted as the "JS synopsis" excerpts below) hardly describe the reason for their inclusion.

So one is left with the question of whether these are really Highsmith's most interesting short stories or was there some other reason for their selection. Presumably Highsmith didn't rate 7 of them very highly if she excluded them from the several collections published in her own lifetime. Schenkar may be making some sort of demonstration of the variety of Highsmith's tales of apprehension and human unkindness which were not necessarily those of murder and crime.

This was still a 4 rating though, even if it left a lot of mystery in its wake. I do need to read some of Highsmith's own collections to get a better idea of whether this selection is truly representative.

Short Story Synopses and Publication History WARNING: Some may consider the synopses to be spoilers.
Early Stories:
1. A Mighty Nice Man (First published in Barnard Quarterly, vol XV, no. 3, Spring 1940, first collected in Nothing That Meets the Eye: The Uncollected Stories of Patricia Highsmith (2002)) JS synopsis: “A mother and daughter who seem to cooperate with a prospective pedophile.”

2. The Still Point of the Turning World (First published as “The Envious One” in Today’s Woman, March 1949, first collected in Nothing That Meets the Eye: The Uncollected Stories (2002)) JS synopsis: “a matron whose jealousy of another mother afflicts her infant son.”

3. Where the Door is Always Open and the Welcome Mat is Out (First collected in Nothing That Meets the Eye: The Uncollected Stories (2002)) JS synopsis: “A career girl is humiliated by the disparagements of her married sister.”

4. Quiet Night (The short first version published in Barnard Quarterly, Fall 1939, revised 2nd version as “Screams of Love/The Cries of Love” published in Woman’s Home Journal, January 1968 and then collected in Eleven (1970)) JS synopsis: “Two elderly roommates and their unquiet cruelties.”

5. In the Plaza (First collected in Nothing That Meets the Eye: The Uncollected Stories (2002)) JS synopsis: “A heterosexual Mexican prototype for Ripley.”

6. The Great Cardhouse (First published in Story, vol. 36, issue 3, no. 140, May-June 1964, first collected in Nothing That Meets the Eye: The Uncollected Stories (2002)) JS synopsis: “A collector of forgeries, whose own body parts are prosthetic.”

7. The Baby Spoon (First collected as “The Silver Spoon” in Slowly, Slowly in the Wind (1979)) JS synopsis: “A vaguely homosexual poet who robs and murders his vaguely homosexual patron.”

Later Stories:
8. Oona, the Jolly Cave Woman (First collected in Little Tales of Misogyny (1975)) JS synopsis: “A cavewoman whose violent death makes romantic and artistic history.”

9. Two Disagreeable Pigeons (First published in Harper’s Magazine, vol. 305, no. 1829, October 2002, first collected in Nothing That Meets the Eye: The Uncollected Stories (2002)) JS synopsis: “A female pigeon with marital problems.”

10. Not One of Us (First collected as “He Wasn’t One of Us” in The Black House (1981)) JS synopsis: “A toxic social group that engineers the suicide of its least desirable member.”

11. Woodrow Wilson’s Necktie (First collected in Slowly, Slowly in the Wind (1979)) JS synopsis: “An expressionist serial killer whose cartoon crimes are inspired by celebrity waxworks.”

12. The Terror of Basket-Weaving (First collected in The Black House (1981)) JS synopsis “A press representative permanently upset by her only act of creation.”

13. The Trouble with Mrs. Blynn, the Trouble with the World (First published in The New Yorker May 27, 2002, first collected in Nothing That Meets the Eye: The Uncollected Stories (2002)) JS synopsis: “A dying stranger patiently watching her mean-spirited nurse.” ( )

All great, particularly "The Price of Salt" and "Strangers on a Train" of course. ( )

You may not have heard about Patricia Highsmith but her top novels, Talented Mr. Ripley and Strangers on a Train speak for themselves. Most of her writing is a macabre mashup of Poe meets Hitchcock meets reality tv. This collection highlights the hard reality of humanity (two novels and several short stories). It begins with Strangers on a Train then picks up steam as it includes a surprising tale 'The Price of Salt', which highlights a semi-autobiographical tale of her infatuation with another woman (stalker romance). Exquisite writing. ( )

I listened to the unabridged Audible version of PATRICIA HIGHSMITH: SELECTED NOVELS AND SHORT STORIES. I originally downloaded the book to listen to STRANGERS ON A TRAIN, and listening to the complete novel did give me greater insight into the characters I had first met in the Alfred Hitchcock movie of the same name. The book that shone the most of me in the collection was THE PRICE OF SALT. The book is famous because it is the story of two lesbian lovers, and it was a ground-breaking novel for the 50’s. We expect murder and mayhem from Ms. Highsmith, but THE PRICE OF SALT is an incredibly tender love story. Highsmith’s young, naïve protagonist, Therese, became incredibly real for me. The book did keep me reading to see how Therese and her lover Carol would weather the complications brought on by same-sex love, but it was the language of love for love’s sake alive in Ms. Highsmith’s prose that won my respect for her as a writer. The short stories in the collection were nice, but the two books made this Audible program worth the listen. ( )