Rating: 
Summary: James? Nabokov? Nah.
Review: Are Italy's police really the world's worst? Is Dickie's dad really that stupid? Is Marge really that naive? Who hires a detective who can't speak Italian to solve a murder in Italy? It's pretty hard to swallow. Not bad, but there's much more interesting stuff out there than this.
Rating: 
Summary: A new twist at every turn
Review: This is the first book of its kind that I have read. I was never really into crime novels, but when a woman gave me a box of books and I found this in the box, It looked good enough to read.
You are grabbed right away, and taken into the crazy life of Tom Ripley, and finding that there is much more to him than you would expect at first. This is a fun, thrilling novel that will keep you on your toes.
I deducted a star only because there are some chapters that just seemed to lag on. Highsmith did a great job of describing scenes in this book, but some of it went on a bit to long, and got boring. Other than this, it is a wonderful book.
I can't wait to read the others in the series.
Rating: 
Summary: Join me Psycho!
Review: This story is not just out there in the ethers of book reading, this story, polevaults right over that dimension into you. Inside, the psychopath Ripley, was a welcome guest in my mental hospitality suite. I rooted for him in his twisted murderous escape through Euorope, laughed when he smashed the life out of victims and hoped he'd do a few more in before it was done.
This is a first- Ripley will rip up your moral traditions and the best thing about it is that its a guiltless pleasure. Ripley is a must read! Savor it.
Rating:
Summary: The Talented Mr. Ripley: Can U truely be someone else?
Review: Have you ever wanted to be someone else? So much that you can do anything for.
Thomas Riplay is so sick of being himself. He doesn't like the way he lives his life. He hates his friends. The condition of the living is so poor and hopeless that he is always dreaming of a better one.
One day, the opportunity comes....
He is asked by a stranger to go to Europe and do a very simple job: try to persuade that guy's son named Dickie to come back to State. All expense will be covered.
Tom immediately grabs it. A chance of going away from sucking places. The chance to change his boring life.
Tom goes to Europe and get to know Dickie, he feels to Dickie more than a good friend. But after his feeling is denied, everything is not going the way it's supposed to be. Tom thinks of being Dickie himself. So he can do anything Dickie does, own everything that Dickie has, and more importantly, he can keep Dickie within himself forever.
So Tom kills Dickie and presumes to be in Dickie's position. Everyday passes; he is more and more Dickie Greenleaf and less and less Thomas Riplay. He is so much happy with the convenience and affluence he has that he will do anything to keep this secret still. Pretending, lying, making up the story and finally his hands are full of blood again.
Patricia Highsmith brings the reader through the internal world of Thomas Ripaly, a complex character who is the center of story. It's inevitable to compare the book with the movie. Tom in the movie is more humanized and pitiful. He kills Dickie unintentionally. Homosexuality plays a bit more important role there than in the book. The character in the movie is more interesting. However, the book is better in describing the emotion inside Tom. Patricia has done an incredible job of creating a character that readers feel along and even sometimes symphatize.
Some part of the book especially when describing the traveling and places is slightly boring. But overall this is a page-turner book. I would highly recommend to anyone: both book and movie.
Rating:
Summary: Book versus movie
Review: The book is very interesting and very well-written but I liked the movie more. In the interest of not giving things away to someone who has not read the book, I will only say that I found the characters more believable in the movie version and the action more dramatic. Now it could be due to the fact that I saw the movie first and therefore was coming into the book with preconcieved notions, but Ripley seemed like a more insecure, more flawed and eventually more interesting character in the movie than he was in the book. I still give the book 4 stars because it is very well-written and worth reading. Read the book, see the movie, and then draw your own conclusions. Okay, Highsmith fans, you can stone me now.
Rating:
Summary: Great Novel
Review: If you like the film, you will love the book. The book is much more mysterious and thrilling.
Rating:
Summary: Dramatic Departure from the Modern Film
Review: I purchased this volume over a year ago, but just got to reading it recently. In that time, I also saw the modern film version of the same title. Seeing the film, I already knew the premise, characters, and subject matter of the story. The book, however, is significantly different - and better - than the film. The film seems hardly to capture the true noir characterization in Tom Ripley and his actions. The book, however, focuses in detail on these actions and his twisted psyche. The point of view and narration are right on for this subject and setting. After I realized how different and engaging it would be (versus the film), I read faster and with more zeal and interest. I recommend this volume to anyone interested in crime, European travel, or social psychology (and studies in personality)
Rating:
Summary: Crime Noir at its best
Review: This is a fine example of the crime noir genre; Highsmith gives us a character we are forced to feel ambivalent toward and puts him in an intriguing and deeply disturbing story. A fast and satisfying read.
Rating:
Summary: 100 proof
Review: A cocktail of midcentury jetset cosmopolitanism--slip on those dark sunglasses, kick off your loafers, gaze out at the nearest sea, and let Highsmith's medicine warm your bones.
Rating: 
Summary: Believe it or not, the movie was better...
Review: I bought this book after seeing the movie and, I have to say, was actually disappointed. Very, very rarely do I find a movie to be better than the book it was based on but in this case I'll make an exception. The book starts with a bang but fizzles toward the end; it's nothing more than one "hey, eluded them again" chapter after another. Overall, it became repetitive and should have ended much sooner than it did.
| 
