Rating: 
Summary: Fantastic Times 3!
Review: Pour yourself a glass of wine and curl up with this wonderful trilogy. Constantly engaging, these three exciting and delightful stories of murder and mayhem will delight discerning readers! Highsmith paints such vivid pictures with her words that you'll be sorry when they final chapter is complete!!
Rating: 
Summary: Brilliant Characters, Philosphical Questions and Great Plots
Review: The character development of Tom Ripley is what makes The Talented Mr. Ripley one of the great crime novels of the 20th century. Ms. Highsmith is an acute observer and is able to translate her sensitivity into a multidimensional portrait of a successful criminal in a way that is virtually unmatched. One of the most astonishing qualities of this book is that you will find yourself pulling for Ripley, even though he is as amoral a character as you will read about.
Ripley is an immensely capable man who floats like a newly cut wood chip on the surging tides of life, always buoyant regardless of the circumstances. He is extremely impulsive. He also has so little invested in who he is that he can even be happier pretending to be someone else. He is also unattached to the world's judgments. Solitude suits him well.
The story opens as the father of a casual acquaintance tracks Ripley down. The father wants to persuade his son to return from Italy to take up a career in the family business. Through this contact, Ripley finds himself sent off to Europe as a paid emissary. Once there, Ripley makes no headway but does develop a friendship with his casual acquaintance before strains start to develop. What follows is one of the most interesting and intricate plot lines that it will ever be your pleasure to read.
The book's largest theme is about identity. Who are we really? Can we be someone different from whom we seem to be? How do we misjudge one another? I don't remember any other crime novel that explores such subtle questions so well.
I recently reread this novel for the third time. I found depths in the themes and story telling that I had missed before. Even if you have read it before, I suggest you do so again. If you haven't read any of the Ripley novels, you have a great treat ahead of you.
The next book in the series is Ripley under Ground which suffers in comparison with The Talented Mr. Ripley. By comparison, Ripley Under Ground could be renamed Ripley in Slow Motion with a Yawn. Character development is much less in this book and the plot is much less intricate and exciting.
As the book opens, we find that the sexually neuter Ripley from The Talented Mr. Ripley has turned into a married Ripley who has a wealthy wife on vacation in Greece. A scam that Ripley started before he married and after The Talented Mr. Ripley has come back to haunt him. Ripley had helped set up a ring to forge portraits by a dead artist and to pretend the artist is still alive. A collector is challenging the authenticity of a painting he bought which is a forgery. Ripley decides to come to London to impersonate the artist. But that doesn't work so Ripley has to find some new method to solve the problem.
One of the weakest elements in this book is the heavy use of impersonations. It's just too much to be credible. That was the weakest part of The Talented Mr. Ripley, but here Ms. Highsmith goes off the deep end in that regard.
I did like the little character development that occurred. Ripley starts to develop some feelings for other people, even if they are not deep ones. He's not quite the amoral monster he was before, but he certainly looks out for number one first. He also starts to trust others for the first time.
The premise for Ripley's Game, the third book in the series, is the most interesting of the three: How will a dying man look at morality when he knows his days are numbered? Ripley's Game has a second advantage over The Talented Mr. Ripley and Ripley Under Ground, there are no plot devices where Ripley fools the same person over and over again with alternate disguises. Another advantage over Ripley Under Ground is that Ms. Highsmith has a new character who can be totally developed in his many complex facets.
As the book opens, Tom Ripley's criminal friend Reeves has come up with an implausible idea -- encourage the Italian mafia to run itself out of Hamburg by starting a war between rival families. To do this, Reeves needs an untraceable, innocent-looking killer who will quickly disappear. Reeves spots the possible targets, but cannot think of anyone to do the killings. Although Ripley has nothing at stake, the problem intrigues Tom. He remembers a local owner of a framing shop, Jonathan Trevanny, who has an advanced case of incurable leukemia. How might making the man afraid of dying sooner affect his willingness to kill? The story proceeds from there with many twists and turns that are more realistic than in The Talented Mr. Ripley or Ripley Under Ground. Before the book is over, you learn a lot about how people create their own situational morality. You will find yourself surprised by the reactions of Ripley, Trevanny and Trevanny's wife. It makes for very interesting reading. I especially enjoyed seeing Ms. Highsmith go back to do more with developing new dimensions of Ripley's character.
The book's main problem with the book is that it usually moves at the wrong pace. The leisurely, untroubled sections are developed at about the same pace as the dangerous action sections are. As a result, the book feels like Beethoven's Ninth Symphony is being played at the exact same average tempo throughout. The contrasts don't work as well with such an approach. In addition, the leisurely parts are too fast and the action parts are too slow.
After you finish this book, take time to honestly think about what you would do if you had been Trevanny. It makes for a series of fascinating speculations to consider.
Rating:
Summary: Well written
Review: The novel is well written and I enjoyed reading it. I think the story has something very extravagant and is, psychologically seen, such a great work of art. The story is interesting because of the variability of the different people. The different characters are well constructed but in a way not as realistic as in the book.
Tom Ripley is a man with too high ambitions but he can't realise his dreams so easily in this world.
I think the aspect of seeing through the eyes of the protagonist is nothing special but through the eyes of a criminal. It's very interesting and a great challenge not to lose sight of the right side of life and the importance of the relations between important and true friends. In a way the story aims at the global world constellation because of the relations among the various points of power in the world, like the "good" and the "bad" people or the way how you succeed in your life.
But altogether it's a thrilling story which I can recommend to read.
Rating:
Summary: Very good, but needs more character development
Review: The Tom Ripley originally written by Highsmith (i.e., the character in this trilogy as opposed to the character in the film version) seemed to me to lack the ambiguity and moral uncertainty of the character portrayed by Matt Damon in the film. Highsmith's Ripley (at least as he appears in this trilogy -- I understand there are two other Ripley books not included here) is somewhat flat and one-dimensional, and it is hard to really understand what motivates him to commit the string of crimes (both petty and serious) that provide something of a plot structure for the novel. The only exception to this general observation is on the matter of Ripley's sexuality: in the book, it is much more ambiguous -- while he cetainly is not the straightest character in print, he is not the (more) obviously gay character played by Damon. (Part of the overtness of the film is likely due to the fact that the first book was written in the 1950s, while the film premiered about 50 years later.)Unlike the recently-released (and very good) Highsmith short story collection, this trilogy is very plot driven, with character development somewhat neglected. Nonetheless, it is an interesting read, especially if you enjoyed the movie.
Rating: 
Summary: Doesn't live up to the hype (nor the movie.)
Review: This has been the only time I actually like a movie better than the book. I enjoyed the movie, so I wanted to read the book to get a better taste of Mr. Ripley. Unfortunately, the movie develops Mr. Ripley's character better than the book. The movie ads a love interest for Mr. Ripley, and better evolves Mr. Ripley's seduction to the good life.I've read the entire series. Overall, they are mildly interesting. I really don't understand all of the positive press this mediocre lot of books is getting. The pacing of the books is slow. While the detail to the European countryside and cities ads some spice to the story, overall the book plods along slowly. You are not rewarded by the time you're done reading; instead, you're glad you're done. Furthermore, and most frustrating, are the errors and leaps in logic in the storyline. Mr. Ripley actions (and those of his opponents) are screwball in nature. For instance, in "The Boy Who Followed Ripley", Mr. Ripley attempts to single handedly rescue a kidnapped boy from a gang of kidnappers at their hideout. Mr. Ripley attacks the place, (by himself against this gang of crooks, who are also similarly as stupid as Mr. Ripley) with only 4 bullets in his gun, breaking through the door, while dressed in drag! (Is that something you'd ever attempt?) Furthermore, the mother of this kidnapped boy entrusts Mr. Ripley with the entire ransom, sight unseen, without ever having a direct conversation with him - Ripley is just handed a suitcase full of money. In, "Ripley Under Water", a total stranger is searching the rivers and lakes to find a body that he suspects Mr. Ripley killed and dumped. So what does this person do after all of this searching when he actually finds the body? Instead of calling the police, he just retrieves the body and dumps it on Ripley's front doorstep! (Leaving Mr. Ripley to once again hide the body. The story gets even stranger after this point.) I don't want to give away other relevant plot points in the series, but these examples are par for the course. The author stretches the believable in an attempt to compose an interesting story, and fails. Mr. Ripley is not a mastermind of crime - he's a nimwit. Too bad the author didn't develop a story for Dickie Greenleaf. At least he led an interesting life as playboy in Italy!
Rating:
Summary: DEOVINDICE
Review: This stories of this book is of a lost art. Highsmith's styleis never seen in todays books. A very entertaining read
Rating:
Summary: A review of the Tom Ripley series
Review: Tom Ripley is probably the most unique...and compelling...murderer in literature today. This is no serial killer like Hannibal Lecter; this is a man who defies description. The most relevant fact about Ripley is he's NOT an evil man. He just has some strange views on the importance of human life. When you read the Ripley novels as a body of work, you realize that he doesn't kill anybody that the reader has much sympathy for. His victims tend to be more self-centered and insensitive than Ripley himself. Ripley also never kills for pleasure; he kills when someone backs him into a corner. In "The Talented Mr. Ripley", Tom is a confused young man trying to find an identity, no matter whose he has to steal. By the second book, "Ripley Under Ground", he has his own life, a home, an income, and a beautiful wife. And he is more than willing to kill to keep all this safe. "Ripley's Game" shows what Tom can do when angered, and what he does when he feels he's gone too far. "The Boy Who Followed Ripley" has him taking a protege, and the final novel, "Ripley Under Water", pits Tom against someone even stranger than he is. In all of this, we find ourselves, against our better judgment, actually pulling for Tom. These novels are must-reads for any devotee of suspense, but fair warning: they are not for the weak of heart or the impressionable of mind.
Rating:
Summary: a man who tries to erase his past
Review: Tom Ripley... Perhaps he's the poorest novel character in the world. He has nothing to be happy. No love, no family , no money...etc. And he doesn't belong to anywhere. Tom is just a talented man who doesn't mean anything for other people. Sometimes i wanna erase my past like he wanted to do. Think what crimes he did: Murdered Dickie and Freddie, satisfied teh beautiful Marge, take dickie's all money. You think he won? No, he still feels sorry. I've read all Ripley books and watched the movie.Have to say if you've nothing to lose you'll feel yourself closer to Tom.
Rating:
Summary: 3 Excellent Novels in One Volume
Review: What a way to get to know Tom Ripley. Read this one first and you'll be sure to look for the other Tom Ripley books. The 1st novel (THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY) is quite exciting while forming a question within you, "Can you really trust anyone?". The 2nd novel (RIPLEY UNDERGROUND) keeps the crime-mystery going even further. It will bring you into the misgivings of the 'art gallery' world. The 3rd novel (RIPLEY'S GAME) merged a bit of Italian Mafia and even more Hitchcock suspense together. The author had a great talent for writing crime and mystery that keeps you on the edge of your seat. A few favorite lines from the books: 'There was a faint air of sadness about him now.' 'This evening--today--can we just do nothing?' 'There's no such thing as a perfect murder,' Tom said to Reeves. 'That's just a parlor game, trying to dream one up...'
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