Rating: 
Summary: Highsmith at her best
Review: Sometime after Patricia Highsmith's death in 1995, my local bookstore moved her books from the "Mystery & Thriller" section to the more general "Fiction" section, a final irony for a writer who had been largely ignored in the U.S. (except perhaps by mystery readers). Why this was so is not clear at all. Did Hitchcock's filming of her 1950 "Strangers on a Train" fatally pigeonhole her as a mystery writer? Or did the expatriate nature of her life, living abroad in England, France and finally Switzerland for so many years, allow us to lose sight of her as a great American writer? For make no mistake about it, Highsmith was a great American writer, as evidenced by perhaps her most serious and ironic work, "The Tremor of Forgery" (1969)."Tremor" begins with novelist Howard Ingham's arrival in Tunisia, where he expects to spend a few weeks writing a screenplay with the film's director, who will be joining him shortly. The director never does arrive, leaving Ingham to begin working on a new novel while immersing himself in Tunisia, where everything in his life gets turned upside down. His new novel is "about a man with a double life, a man unaware of the amorality of the way he lived." Is this a description that fits Ingham as well? "In his book, he had no intention of justifying his hero." Could this be true of Highsmith too? Within a few pages, Highsmith introduces the kind of exotica found in the great expatriate novels: Cafe de Paris, Herald-Tribune, Pernod, jasmine. And by the end of the second chapter she has also introduced the novel's themes: identity, loneliness, male bonding, and cultural relativism. The latter figures prominently as Ingham begins to change, unable to make the decision to return home after realizing the film will never be made. Already in chapter 4 he is "irked" when he hears some "Germans" speaking "very American American." And soon the African sun makes difficult "the sheer effort of imagining New York's unwritten conventions." The backdrop for this novel is the June 1967 Arab-Israeli Six-Day War. While not a factor in the plot, this war, which coincides with the first couple weeks of Ingham's stay in Tunisia, provides a historical context for the reader. This is definitely not the world of Lawrence of Arabia. Nor is it really the world of Paul Bowles' "The Sheltering Sky" (1949). Rather, the world of "Tremor" is a precursor to our own troubled times. Which is not to say the novel could have been written yesterday. Some aspects of the novel make it almost a period piece. For even though the '60s can seem like only yesterday, those years were more like the previous century than like subsequent decades in many ways: international communication could be slow and unreliable, there were no cell phones, faxes, Internet, e-mail or credit cards. And in "Tremor" the characters still wear cufflinks. Highsmith is not a humorous or witty writer, nor is she much of a stylist. However, there are many things to like about her writing. Two of the characters that Ingham meets in Tunisia are especially well drawn. Anders Jensen, a homosexual Danish artist, provides a European point of view on the "funny" Americans, with their annoying consciences. Francis Adams, a retired American, represents contradictory America during the Vietnam War (which is also raging, just out of sight) and stands for everything that Ingham's nickname for Adams conjures up: OWL (Our Way of Life). The portrait of Ingham is also interesting. A successful young novelist who continues to write well even during periods of personal turmoil, Ingham wrestles with a number of demons. His meditations on identity, particularly cultural identity, have weight and significance for many of his decisions (or non-decisions). Is cultural identity tied specifically to place, so that Antaeus-like we lose our cultural moorings once lifted clear of our cultural origins? Or are there values and elements of character that are indelibly burned into us, unchanging regardless of setting? At one point, it appears that Ingham's "character or principles had collapsed." But this is followed almost immediately by an incident that contradicts this statement, where Ingham's character reasserts itself, one more bit of irony. Highsmith, in her mid-forties, was probably at her peak when she wrote this novel. Nearly every sentence is taut and firm. Her writing is like that of a "thriller" the way M. Night Shyamalan's movies are like those of traditional "horror" films in that much of one's enjoyment and expectations are based on knowledge of the genre, the more so the better. Would "Tremor" make a good movie? Highsmith has been filmed before, by international directors from Britain (Hitchcock, Minghella), France (Clement) and Germany (Wenders). Would the movie of this novel be too slow, too thoughtful, kind of an anti-thriller where what you expect to happen doesn't quite, ending with a mystery that almost isn't? Or could it be a nice quiet "psychological" movie, a period piece, in an exotic setting, containing foreshadowings of today's resurgent, militant Islam? It wouldn't have to be a Hollywood production. It might work as a PBS-type TV movie, assuming PBS one day expands its sense of "Masterpiece" to mean more than just "anglophile." Too obscure even for PBS? Well, PBS broadcast series made from Evelyn Waugh's "Brideshead Revisited" and Olivia Manning's "Balkan Trilogy" and "Levant Trilogy" and none of these is exactly a trendy or action-packed work. Highsmith might well have been thinking of her own novel when she describes Ingham's attitude toward his novel as "a difficult book for him to think of in film terms." But it's still fun to wonder about that possibility. And even more fun to read and re-read her novel whenever we need a bit of something exotic in our reading lives.
Rating: 
Summary: Tremor of Forgery
Review: The current volatile and tragic situation in Israel today makes the mesage of Patricia Highsmith?s ?The Tremor of Forgery? even more relevant to the American observer of the Palestinean/Israeli conflict (regardless of political alignment). As Howard Ingham gathers information in the largely Arabic land of Tunisia, the war of 196? between Israel and Palestineans is at its apex. Through an encounter with another American who is dedicated to spread the American, capitalist way of life throughout foreign, communist lands, the often arrogant, didactic American attitude is critically examined by Ingham. More specifically, Ingham looks at the differences of the incongruous moral codes of his native land and new home. Through a serious transgression of his own (one that would put him behind bars for some time in America); Howard examines the nature of morality. Are moral values internal and absolute, or are they simply a mirror to the moral values of the social context? Highsmith, who spent much of her life abroad, rather than in America, does an excellent job of dramatizing this question, as well as making the answer more ambiguous than most people are apt to consider. This is a necessary read, especially at a time when certain world leaders are painting political lines in the absolute terms of morality.
Rating: 
Summary: Not what you would Expect
Review: The essence of Highsmith's novel is a mystery that goes way beyond that of visible circumstance. Reading the back of this book would give readers the impression that there is some sort of complicated tie between the events occurring to the main character, writer Howard Ingham. Once immersed in the story, however, it becomes clear that the mystery at work involves elements totally separate from the plot. Issues ranging from homosexuality to xenophobia to conscience are all examined in depth as the reader struggles to make sense of what really matters to the thrust of the story.
While on a work venture in Tunisia, Ingham must deal with shocking news concerning his employer John Castlewood and wife Ina. In response, the writer buries himself in his work all the while trying to make sense of what is happening. Fellow comrades Francis Adams and Anders Jensen offer their ear and in the process educate Ingham on their political opinions and various "recreational" activities. As time goes on, each character proves to have secrets that are clearly important, yet still obscure in their purpose to the story. Unsurprisingly, the chain of events does not lead to the neat and satisfying conclusion for which the reader would have hoped. Highsmith is trying to convey a political and moral message concerning a social malady that she feels pervades society still. Seemingly it is only by letting the strands of the story remain loose that she motivates her audience to attempt an understanding of that message. In summary, this book would not be an ideal choice for those seeking an easy read.
Rating:
Summary: Quiet and bizarre tremors
Review: The title was the key for me in reading this novel. It's about "tremors"--the little twinges of doubt and guilt that affect everyone. The question that Highsmith poses is whether her protagonist is going to ignore those tremors, and thus lead something of an amoral (even evil) life. The answer to this is very ambiguous, but in a good way. In many ways this novel reminded me of The Stranger by Albert Camus--the same North African dolor, the same detached protagonist with few moral qualms. The reading was s-l-o-w and a bit dry in places, but oddly alluring and page turning. It propelled me through, even when nothing was "happening". I don't understand why people said the writing was bad; it was clean and understated. All in all, it's worth picking up--if you're in the mood for some existentialist food for thought.
Rating:
Summary: Very near perfect, but maybe not a good "first Highsmith."
Review: The two negative reviewers below demonstrate why a lot of Highsmith's admirers don't like her being described as a mystery/thriller writer, a description which often does her a disservice by pigeonholing her too narrowly and misdirecting reader's expectations. This book has few suspense mechanics in the usual manner, but I was gripped anyway; the queasy suspense is like an ominous murmur underneath an ordinary conversation, and you have to listen hard for it. The suspense is generated by the question "Will he do the right thing?", and also, as usual in Highsmith, by the reader's guilty identification with a morally compromised character. And I always find her spare, cool prose a pleasure to read (I like to compare it to the edge of a scalpel, even though those are not a pleasure). This may not be the best Highsmith book to start out with, since it's minimalist even by her standards (try "Cry of the Owl," maybe, since it has a tight thriller storyline). But I have to agree that out of the several of her works I've read so far, this is the best at conveying her theme of quiet evil existing within the mundane. (The five Mr. Ripley books come close.)
Rating: 
Summary: Not impressed
Review: This was my first Patricia Highsmith novel, and I have to say that I was not impressed. From all that I've heard about Highsmith being one of the great mystery and suspense writers, this book did not live up to her reputation. The story seemed to just muddle along. I was hoping for a plot with more depth, but was disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Forgery in American Culture
Review: True to form, Patricia Highsmith's creation of _The Tremor of Forgery_ plunges the reader into the abnormal adventure of an American as he experiences the land of Tunisia, on the North African tier of the Mediterranean coast. Once a french colonial possession, Highsmith's Tunisia becomes a hybrid cultural space, demanding that its inhabitants not only speak a number of different languages, but also that they encounter the moral divergences of culture that clash when societies disagree on the value of a human life. The persevering character Francis Adams desperately hopes to embody the essence of America as he lives neatly tucked away in a comfortable, seemingly impenetrable bungalow on the beach, lecturing his fellow countrymen on the need to impose western morals on a decidedly non-western culture and producing an illicit radio broadcast that portrays the american "way of life" via the airwaves for the educational benefit of the non-western world. The Danish Anders Jensen exhibits stark refusal to buy into the moral code of the western world, declaring that the lost life of a member of the Tunisian native crowd "wasn't worth [his] dog." Howard Ingham strikes the balance between these two perspectives, refusing to totally accept the societal distinctions and prescribed moral codes of either world, while at the same time desperately trying to come to grips with the value of life. The secret that Ingham desperately wishes to hide forces him to question the notion of legitimacy in the american way of life - whether the western notion of morality truly permeates the lives of its inhabitants or whether the concept of american culture represents little more than a forgery, a mélange of the world's societies that has been badly duplicated, carrying no more value than a pair of badly counterfeited Levi's jeans.
Rating:
Summary: Exotic beneath the surface mystery
Review: Tunisia, its blazing desert and ocean side hotels, is a land of many scents and sensations. The writer, Howard Ingraham, witnesses an incident from which he then is forced to confront himself stripped of all, albeit illusionary, protective devices. Within this jasmine scented, bloody and sordid terrain, Ingraham is exposed as a haunted and uncertain man, a man who is incomplete morally and whose attempts at intimacy and love have been, in retrospect, as deformed as the cat's broken tails, a fixation, it so happens, of the Tunisian populace. Highsmith has written some of her finest ambiguous characters into this novel. The blaze of the desert sun and the atavistic Tunisian forces suspend that pretense of American self-assurance that so often drapes those travellers.
This is a gorgeous setting, a camel ride and an evening under the desert sky suggests there are some parts of Ingraham's sexuality that have not been fully realized. Highsmith portrays the tensions of life as they are- subtle, mysterious and always in a state of flux. The alienated Westerner in the midst of third world contempt and superficial graciousness. Israel has just won the Six Day's War, and there is news that an American's car was overturned in a neighboring city. Are they plotting, these Arabs who seem to talk loud all the time, and whose language is alien. Ingraham by turn, moves within the Arab neighborhood, below his artist friend, his confidant and his moral interpreter. Looking for a clean tying up of the mysteries? As in life, that is far more an interpretation and an acknowledgement of the nature of the human heart- and its reluctance to show itself.
Rating:
Summary: Exotic beneath the surface mystery
Review: Tunisia, its blazing desert and ocean side hotels, is a land of many scents and sensations. The writer, Howard Ingraham, witnesses an incident from which he then is forced to confront himself stripped of all, albeit illusionary, protective devices. Within this jasmine scented, bloody and sordid terrain, Ingraham is exposed as a haunted and uncertain man, a man who is incomplete morally and whose attempts at intimacy and love have been, in retrospect, as deformed as the cat's broken tails, a fixation, it so happens, of the Tunisian populace. Highsmith has written some of her finest ambiguous characters into this novel. The blaze of the desert sun and the atavistic Tunisian forces suspend that pretense of American self-assurance that so often drapes those travellers.
This is a gorgeous setting, a camel ride and an evening under the desert sky suggests there are some parts of Ingraham's sexuality that have not been fully realized. Highsmith portrays the tensions of life as they are- subtle, mysterious and always in a state of flux. The alienated Westerner in the midst of third world contempt and superficial graciousness. Israel has just won the Six Day's War, and there is news that an American's car was overturned in a neighboring city. Are they plotting, these Arabs who seem to talk loud all the time, and whose language is alien. Ingraham by turn, moves within the Arab neighborhood, below his artist friend, his confidant and his moral interpreter. Looking for a clean tying up of the mysteries? As in life, that is far more an interpretation and an acknowledgement of the nature of the human heart- and its reluctance to show itself.
|
