Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Strangers on a Train
Book Review: Hitchcock over Highsmith!
Summary: 3 Stars
Yes. I realize that the book is usually better than the movie. "Strangers on A Train" is the exception to the rule. I was elated when the paperback came back into print. Perhaps my expectations were too high after reading "Those Who Walk Away". My basic complaint is that the book is too long: The reader will quickly realize that neither of the principal male characters, Bruno or Guy, are wrapped too tightly. The authoress devotes too much time and space in establishing that blatantly obvious fact. The story could easily have been shortened by 50 pages. The Hitchcock movie, at least the American version, concentrated on Guy's potential problems with the police. Highsmith chose to utilize a now you see him/now you don't private investigator. (Ineffectual police work is a recurring theme with the authoress, while the director was usually the opposite). I believe the authoress further lost her way when she decided to write "SOT" as a psychological tale rather than a straight crime story. I must acknowledge that the book is being held against a very high movie classic standard. Such comparisons are not completely fair to Ms. Highsmith, but they are also irresistible.Book Review: I felt like the characters were strangers to me.
Summary: 3 Stars
"Strangers on a Train" is a little known classic that tampers with the standard hero-wins, bad-guy-loses-formula. Because of this, I feel cheated. I saw Alfred Hitchcock's "Strangers on a Train" before reading the book, and I only read it because I enjoyed the movie so much. I was amazed at how little the book and movie correlated. I had to force myself to not compare the two, but that is so hard to do since the movie is so much better, in my opinion. Hitchcock took unlikable characters and plots and turned it into something one could cheer for. I do applaud author Patricia Highsmith for making Bruno such a slimy character, but I do not applaud her for Guy Haines. I could not feel anything for him, and his radical and constant personal changes kept me out of the loop. I think the movie is better, but the book does hook you in. I "sorta" recommend.Book Review: Intriguing Low-Key Book
Summary: 4 Stars
The plot alone makes this book a worthwhile read. Two men meet on a train and eventually, murder occurs. This is my first Highsmith book and it is not the fast-moving, slam-bang kind of thriller we're used to in modedrn times. This book was written in the '50s and the writing style is more mannered, more formal. Nevertheless, the pace of the book is part of its success as it darkly explores an enigmatic bargain between two strangers on a train.Book Review: It's Pointless...
Summary: 4 Stars
... for me to review this very successful 'murder' novel. There's no question that it's several cuts above most genre fiction in writing quality, though it lags and sags at times. But 'murder' novels ain't mah thang, dudes and dudettes! The first murderer of Patricia Highsmith's literary career, Charlie Bruno, declares that 'anyone could murder'. The stranger on the train to whom he makes his declaration has some 200 pages to reluctantly come to agreement. And I agree, intellectually. I've read Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment, and Dreiser's An American Tragedy. The first novel I tried to write myself was about a lawyer who crusades against capital punishment yet murders an abortionist in the last paragraph. But perhaps, to paraphrase the poet, "after the first murder novel, there is no other." Anyway, I found myself deadly bored through most of Stranger on a Train, for which I knocked off a star. Neither Patricia Highsmith, who died in 1995, nor her adoring fans will give a [...] d^mn.Book Review: Murder And Mayhem
Summary: 5 Stars
A fantastic and imaginative plot. Two men, one a brilliant architect and the other a neurotic, alcoholic, misogynist, psychopath meet on the train, develop a strange friendship, and one can easily guess troubles ahead. Bruno, the alcoholic rich dilettante, makes an offer to Guy over dinner with plenty of Scotch. He volunteers to kill Guy's estranged wife, if Guy would return the favor by murdering Bruno's hated father. Guy is shocked and revolted by the casualness and matter of fact tone of the proposal. Little did he guess that Bruno would fulfill his end of the bargain and blackmail Guy to go though with his.
It is a story reminiscent of Crime & Punishment, Les Miserable, which deal mainly with human frailties, conscience, morality, society at large, guilt and redemption. Guy duels with himself and the good finally prevails and he confesses.
It is a classic page turner with panache.