Edith's Diary

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Summary: I never thought she was that mad...
Review: ...trying to make her life meaningful. - I read the book in one go as a 23 year old man. I interpreted it more as a tale of what it means to become an artist, especially a writer. Mrs. Highsmith's description of the inner life of Edith's son (down to his masturbation fantasies) convinced me once and for all that there is no barrier between the sexes when it comes to write about each other. "Edith's Diary" is for me one of the greatest American novels of this century, practically unknown in America.

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Summary: Highsmith at her claustrophobic peak
Review: Edith's Diary is by no means an easy book. But like all of Patricia Highsmith's novels is a masterpiece of claustrophobic suspense. I read it almost 15 years ago when I was a college student in Caracas, and believe it or not this story of a woman trapped in her home with a son from hell was a cult following novel for my generation, as well as almost all of Highsmith work. Our teachers couldn't understand our love for the american writer who choosed to live in Switzerland, she was to weird, too disturbing. I found that it was easier to find her novels in Europe and South America than in U.S.A. Now in 2000, thanks to Ripley's game and thanks to movie director Anthony Minghella, a new generation will know one of America's best and most underated authors.

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Summary: diary of a mad housewife..
Review: Edith's Diary is the personal account of a middle-aged housewife during the period of mid-1950s to mid-1970s where the woman, slowly but surely, suffers from a total psychological meltdown. Unlike similar stories, there is little in the way of soap operatic drama (no major fights between spouses, no lurid scandals). All the disappointments and frustrations in Edith's life affect her inwardly, with the only clear outward sign of her insanity being relected in her diary (..which is full of entries which relect how she would like life to be, not as it really is).

Edith's Diary is a slow moving novel, which often reads like an episode of the Donna Reed Show. But it does pull you in, thanks to Ms. Highsmith's excellent prose. And when the story is over you will think long and hard about Edith, wondering if you (or someone you know) is suffering from the same situation.

While Edith's Diary is a book which can be appreciated by either gender I suspect women who are over 40 would be most interested in the story, and can relate to American suburban life back some 30 years ago. It's not a happy story, but for some it might be cathartic.

Rating:
Summary: diary of a mad housewife..
Review: Edith's Diary is the personal account of a middle-aged housewife during the period of mid-1950s to mid-1970s where the woman, slowly but surely, suffers from a total psychological meltdown. Unlike similar stories, there is little in the way of soap operatic drama (no major fights between spouses, no lurid scandals). All the disappointments and frustrations in Edith's life affect her inwardly, with the only clear outward sign of her insanity being relected in her diary (..which is full of entries which relect how she would like life to be, not as it really is).

Edith's Diary is a slow moving novel, which often reads like an episode of the Donna Reed Show. But it does pull you in, thanks to Ms. Highsmith's excellent prose. And when the story is over you will think long and hard about Edith, wondering if you (or someone you know) is suffering from the same situation.

While Edith's Diary is a book which can be appreciated by either gender I suspect women who are over 40 would be most interested in the story, and can relate to American suburban life back some 30 years ago. It's not a happy story, but for some it might be cathartic.

Rating:
Summary: Must-read Highsmith
Review: I hope the movie The Talented Mr Ripley has brought new readers to the works of Patricia Highsmith. I started reading her books after falling in love with Hitcock's movie Strangers on a Train and hunting for the book it was based on. I have since read every Highsmith I have come across.

Edith's Diary is the one that has stuck with me. It is not like her other books which are more traditional psychological thrillers with male protagonists. It is certainly not like the Ripley books. Edith has none of the glamor and allure of Tom Ripley. She is a normal, everyday housewife who is increasingly disappointed with her life. She starts to keep a diary which becomes more real for her than her disintegrating daily life. Highsmith makes Edith's descent into insanity understandable, believable, almost inevitable, and just as creepy as any of her other stories. A beautifully written book by a great writer.

If you like Highsmith read this one. Also do not miss A Dog's Ransom, The Cry of the Owl, Found in the Street, Strangers on a Train.... etc. I am still looking for a Highsmith book I don't like. She was a genius.

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Summary: Nelson
Review: I just finished the book.It's not amazing,but it gives you a subtile thrill that continues even if you try not to think about it.Patricia Highsmith can't give you the delight of a perfect prose,but she can tell a story.You can't forget the siamese cat Nelson wandering round the house of Edith while her mind slowly changes.No way you can call her mad.This book seems to concentrate mainly about madness,without giving us a hint of what it is.

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Summary: ultimately unsatisifying
Review: i took this book out of the library interested in the work of patricia highsmith. it was jacketless, so i had no idea what it was about, and just read it knowing it would probably be a slightly creepy, unsettling read. and it was, to a degree, but it also seemed like an odd parable about the opression of men, (which is perfectly fine) that bordered on the silly. i won't give the ending away, but i was sorely dissappointed on the heavy handed metaphoric insinuations the book made.

because of the palapable distance between the reader and the main character, it was difficult for me to not see her as being a bit of a nut job from the start. in fact, all of the characters were odd, and i thought, impossible to identify with. identification isn't the point necessarily, but i longed for something more, i felt like the novel needed to draw me in more or push me further away with the creepy factor.

i would give it only 2 stars instead of three, but admittedly it was a quick, kind of fun read. not a waste of time, gripping in it's way... not too good, but not bad either.

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Summary: Highsmith delivers: may not action-packed as Ripley series.
Review: Starts slow. Not much excitement till toward the last few chapters. But Highsmith delivers the intense and compelling conclusion to her novel. This novel was first published in Great Britan in 1977 when she was 56 because American publishers shied away... In a sense, Edith is more memorable than Tom Ripley.

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Summary: DIARY OF MADNESS, DIARY OF SADNESS
Review: This book covers an 18-year time span, covering the years 1956 - 1974. Edith is an unfulfilled housewife whose husband ignores her, whose son Clifford is a fat, indolent no-account and whose infirm relative George takes up a good portion of her time, ruling his limited kingdom, his room.

Edith's cat, Mildred is renamed Mildew by Clifford. This seems especially significant as Edith's life appears to be decaying and the infirm George is described as a singularly foul man despite his illnesses.

Her other cat, Nelson appears to be a symbol of her own rapidly deteriorating mental health. Nelson circles the periphery of a place, just as Edith circles the periphery of madness before finally taking the plunge. An unemotional divorce, an ineffectual son and the pressures of maintaining a normal facade get to be too great for Edith. Her husband's departure appears to be somewhat anticlimatic, as does the start of his second family. Clifford, too, remains on the periphery of life. Never an able student, Clifford seeks refuge in fleeting relationships and is dismally disappointed by every woman he ever tried to woo.

Edith finally plunges into fantasy. She writes of a fictious life, one she wished she had. Edith starts by creating a fictional university background for Clifford, although the boy barely got through high school. She invents an engineering career for him and a brilliant career in that field. She creates an imaginary wife for Clifford, an imaginary wedding, imaginary children and equally imaginary lives involving all of them.

Things take a drastic turn when she begins knitting for her fictional grandchildren, making clay busts of their heads and fully retreating into her diary. The line between reality and fantasy finally merge for Edith and she cannot turn back to reality.

This is a very sad, gritty book about how one woman succumbed to madness. It is well written with very sympathetic characters and one cannot help wondering what if Edith had had that fictitious life she wrote about in her diary.

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Summary: What a read!
Review: This is my first Highsmith novel, after loving her short stories. And it is fabulous! As Edith begins to crack, Highsmith never describes her physical appearance -- until a line 3/4's of the way through about having her teeth pulled! Suddenly the reader realizes this woman must look like the town loon. The book is so well written and so finely crafted that it is haunting.