Superb Tension!

Patricia Highsmith does an amazing job of developing complex characters in beautifully described settings. She keeps a taut thread of tension throughout the entire novel. She does such a good job of "seeing" through the protagonists eyes that I did not realize the author was not a man until I was almost finished with the book!
The narration was spot on. There is very little graphic violence, no sex and no foul language. I was sorry when this story ended. I highly recommend this book, it is my favorite listen so far!

13 people found this helpful

a sociopathic dreamer

I have read several of Patricia Highsmith's books before, though this is the first audiobook of her work that I have listened too. She is wonderful at writing psychologically creepy thrillers, and that is relayed nicely in this production. What I had not gotten from the movie version was how much Tom Ripley was a dreamer. Yes, he was a sociopath, but he was also a rampant dreamer who created elaborate scenarios in his mind of what his life could be like, "if only......." Sort of like a sociopathic Walter Mitty. His lies were all about making his life easy, but he never knew how he would do that until the opportunity presented itself. When it did, though, he showed no hesitation, conscience, or guilt about what he had to do, and was a practiced and skilled liar.

The narration might be considered too slow for some, but I thought it created the slightly creepy and sly sort of environment that fit Highsmith's style of writing and characterizations.

20 people found this helpful

Feels Weird Giving Tom Ripley Five Stars

Like it felt weird knowing that he’d get away with everything (that’s not a spoiler; how else could there be four more books in the series?). And it felt even weirder when I caught myself kinda-sorta hoping he would get away with it (hey, I’m used to liking my protagonists, and we spend the entire book in Tom’s head, viewing everything and everyone from his perspective).

But most of the time, while I couldn’t stop listening, I also couldn’t ignore the knot of uneasiness I carried around in the pit of my stomach. Another reviewer has likened this book to watching a car wreck, and she’s right. I’d only add that it’s a car wreck in which all the innocent people are injured or killed, while the person who caused the accident walks away, haunted not by any guilt, but only by fears of getting caught.

On the other hand, it feels perfectly natural giving Kevin Kenerly five stars. Highsmith’s achievement is to make the inconceivable perfectly plausible, and our narrator brings it all believably, chillingly, to life.

7 people found this helpful

Stands up beautifully after almost 60 years

I saw the film when it came out about 15 years ago, but had not realized that the book was the first of a series until Audible advertised it that way. I bought the first and am so happy that I did. Patricia Highsmith's prose is flawless, her storytelling and character development without peer. The narrator, Kevin Kenerly, does a remarkable job, even elegantly mispronouncing the words that Tom mispronounces in his head. His voice is fluid, naive and arrogant - all perfect for this genteel madman. I'm definitely going to continue with the series. Highsmith had an astonishing gift for accurate portrayal of a sociopath, even while psychiatry was struggling with a medical definition. The book is so classic, as it exists within our lives of motorcars and airplanes and telephones, and yet so far removed. Could Tom Ripley have gotten away with anything had there been computers, DNA, Interpol? Fax machines? Video cameras? Cell phones? I'm so pleased that Audible is including such classics in its library.

47 people found this helpful

A high-wire, high-risk, high-reward masterpiece

Highsmith is amazing. She alludes to Henry James, plays with a Nabokovian style, throws in James Cain's dialogue, and blends it all with a Camus-like modern existentialism. Face it, pretenders, The Talented Mr. Ripley is an amazing psychological crime novel. This is one of those books which should be used as evidence to highlight the case that some of the best literature of the 20th Century came out of genre fiction. The novel is high-wire, high-risk, high-reward masterpiece. It leaves me amazed the Cure didn't just write their existential anthem to Highsmith:

I can turn
And swim away
Or I can raise up my oar
Staring at a boat
Staring far ashore
Whichever I chose
It amounts to the same
Absolutely nothing.

I'm alive
I'm dead
I'm lying Tom Ripley
Killing a Signor.

48 people found this helpful

Patricia, Phil, and Pathology

Well, Dr. Phil just wrote a book based on his belief that it's time we all knew *how the world really works* and how to become *street savvy;* claiming that he is offering a rare glimpse inside the mind of the "bad guys"....philling Dr. Phil's pockets with more cha-ching is fine, but Highsmith outlined exactly what you look out for over 25 yrs. ago, giving us much more than just a glimpse into the mind of one of the baddest. -- and he is the talented and sociopathic Mr. Ripley.

Highsmith's Ripley is like a textbook study of a blooming sociopath/psychopath--along with the personal narration of the processes taking place, and that's what makes this so wonderfully chilling and entertaining. Imagine a film of Ted Bundy's crimes with a lucid Bundy narrating the thought processes going on; fascinating. I worked with more than a couple of budding Mr. Ripleys in my former profession and Highsmith has done her research. True, the story might have a few moments that require you suspend belief, and it may be considered slow by some, but the action is the smooth unfurling of the petals on our psycho flower. (And this guy puts an extra *o* in the word smooth.) I'm tempted to continue on with the 5 series *Ripliad* just to shake my head and see "how's that working for you Mr. Ripley?"

51 people found this helpful

Like watching a car wreck

Having seen the movie years ago, there was no surprise for me as to the outcome of the story. What made this a good listen was the view into the mind of a narcissistic sociopath. He is the ultimate unreliable narrator because he manages to convince himself that the world has become what he imagines it to be, and then through his "talented" acting, succeeds in convincing others as well. Is the apparent shallowness of the other characters real, making them susceptible to his manipulations, or is the shallowness merely Ripley's perception that convinces him that they deserve his disdain?

The first 2/3's of the book are the best, as that is where the actions of the story take place. The last 1/3 drags just a bit as the cat-and-mouse becomes redundant, and living exclusively inside Ripley's head gets a bit claustrophobic. That may actually be the point, but after a while, for me it became somewhat tiresome. Unlike some other reviewers, in spite of finding him psychologically facinating (like watching a car wreck), I did not find myself rooting for Ripley. I enjoyed this outing, but I'm not sure I want to continue in the series, as I suspect subsequent entries will likely be new verses of the same song, and I don't like Tom Ripley well enough to want to make him a regular companion. Well narrated by Kenerly who succeeded in giving Ripley the required furtive, paranoid internal voice, alongside the more open and naive public facade.

25 people found this helpful

A great, engaging listen

What made the experience of listening to The Talented Mr. Ripley the most enjoyable?

Not knowing if he would get away with it or not, the entire time.

What other book might you compare The Talented Mr. Ripley to and why?

Something like a W. Somerset Maughn novel, or F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Which character – as performed by Kevin Kenerly – was your favorite?

Tom, the dastardly villain.

If you could take any character from The Talented Mr. Ripley out to dinner, who would it be and why?

Tom, so I could get him into a state where he tried to stab me with a fork, just because I would know it was coming, and could stop him.

Any additional comments?

I liked it, and found it very difficult to not keep listening for hours and hours on end.

4 people found this helpful

Beautiful Prose, Annoying Narrator

Highsmith is known for her wonderful command of the language and a creepy mind. Her sociopaths (Ripley, as well as Bruno from Strangers on a Train) could be characterized as asexual misogynists or repressed homosexuals, depending on your viewpoint. That they don't understand the nuances of male/female relationships enrages them and ultimately drives them to murder. Highsmith writes beautifully, and though Kenerly's narrative tone carries the appropriate sense of underlying malice, I was several times startled out of an emersion in the story by his mispronunciation of Italian and French words, and by the hard "g" that he gives to such words as "ring" and "long." If that weren't bad enough, he often turns statements into questions with a rising inflection at the end of a sentence.

3 people found this helpful

The Anti-Social Protagonist

Any additional comments?

This was an interesting book and of the genre that doesn't normally attract me. However, it passed the simplest true test for me - it made me look forward to listening more and more.

Although narrated in the third person, it is told as if the author is just over the shoulder of Tom Ripley. It is a subtle seduction where the reader/listener, observing this character soon gets the notion that something isn't quite right with this guy. He engages in some bizarre behavior, that at first might seem to be harmless mischief, but hints at some deeper psychosis. Before long, we are given glimpses into Ripley's thought processes, and any doubts about his sanity are erased.

Tom Ripley travels to Europe at the request of the wealthy father of one of his

9 people found this helpful