A review by marajoy
The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith

medium-paced

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

5.0

this was such an interesting interrogation of what makes identity.

i started off joking about not being able to tell if tom wanted dickie or wanted to kill him to take over his life, and i was shocked to be right on some level about both. tom becomes dickie with such ease and unfolds his plots to cover up the murders so well that at points i even lost track of the true events. and as he lives completely as dickie, he occasionally puts the tom costume back on, too. this made me wonder if tom ripley was even his original identity or if he was already a life overtaken, especially since tom expresses a tendency to do this with nice, charming men he meets when he's talking to peter. what, then, makes his original identity the "real" one? he's only tom ripley if he calls himself that, speaks in that voice, uses those mannerisms. the persona of tom ripley isn't genetically coded into him. so if he's acting as dickie down to every detail, what's to say that isn't his real identity?

tom slips in and out of identities as easily as clothes, which makes the emphasis on clothes throughout the story a very interesting motif...i've got some analysis work to do! also so impressed by the complexity of tom's schemes. and the comment about coming into greece like the heroes sailing across the wine-dark sea...delicious, down to each word on every page.