Reviews

The Tremor of Forgery by Patricia Highsmith

tom_beggerow's review against another edition

mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I read this on holiday in Tunisia so my enjoyment of this slightly biased as it is peppered with locations that I visited on my trip. Nonetheless, how tense this felt and how hooked I was on the outcome, is very impressive given that nothing really happens the whole time. Going to read more Patty soon!

p_t_b's review against another edition

4.0

things this book taught me:
-it's ok to just enjoy something (the book)
-i have no morals, at least regarding killing people
-i still hate the moneyed classes because i want money so that i can lift anxiety from my weary spirit
-patricia highsmith had a complicated and probably politically suspect attitude towards brown people

i recommend. read this in max of four hours.

wintertag's review against another edition

adventurous reflective tense slow-paced

5.0

pixiebailey's review against another edition

dark tense

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

hungry0uroboros's review against another edition

reflective relaxing slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

alundeberg's review against another edition

3.0

Combine the everyman of Eric Ambler and the existentialism of Albert Camus and you get Howard Ingham, the protagonist of Patricia Highsmith's The Tremor of Forgery. Ingham's world is turned topsy-turvy when he is sent to Tunisia to write a screenplay for a director and then learns the director committed suicide, his girlfriend made questionable choice, and that the Arab world that he now inhabits lives by a distinctly different moral code. It all comes to a head one momentous night that forces Ingham to examine his own morality. Set against the backdrop of the Vietnam War and a war in which Israel bombs its Arab neighbors, Highsmith renders all versions of "morality" fair game: what good are Western virtues when they try to bomb others into democracy? The longer Ingham stays in Tunisia, the more he wonders who he is: "Who am I, anyway? Does one exist, or to what extent does one exist as an individual without friends, family, anybody to whom one can relate, to whom one's existence is of the least importance?" (154-155). This is a slow-burn of a novel that does not provide easy or satisfactory answers. 

dena_m88's review against another edition

reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

bluestarfish's review against another edition

4.0

"Under the hot desert sun nothing is quite as it seems." Quite. This one is a quasi-crime novel and follows author Howard Ingham sent to Tunisia to start writing a film script. Most of the "action" is in the form of the thoughts of Ingham or his conversations with others at the hotel resort he's staying at. In exploring the Tunisian culture around him the novel also explores the relative (?) nature of morality in given situations and it is a gripping read even given that nothing much "happens"...

It's my first Highsmith that I've actually read as I got put off by the creepiness of the film adaptation of the Talented Mr Ripley, but I do find it a lot more palatable in book form so I'll be looking out for more of her work.

readingtentacles's review against another edition

3.0

3.5/5

patti_pinguin's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

4.0