Publishers Weekly
01/11/2021
In this provocative account, Bradford (Orwell: A Man Of Our Time), an English professor at Ulster University, shows the symmetries between the life and art of Patricia Highsmith (1921–1995). The author uses diaries, interviews, and previous biographies to support his premise that Highsmith’s novels exemplify how “fact filters into fiction.” Bradford asserts that the staples of Highsmith’s fiction—“deranged, murderous individuals” and double identities—are derived from Highsmith’s childhood, marked by strife, potential abuse, and her a contentious relationship with her mother. He details how all-consuming (and often overlapping) lesbian affairs in Highsmith’s adulthood invoked “love, envy, and fantasy” and perpetuated the “Grand Guignol homoeroticism” of her best-known work including Strangers on a Train (1950), The Price of Salt (1952), and the career-defining The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955). Bradford’s psychosexual interpretations of Highsmith’s “sadomasochistic catastrophes,” however, sometimes strain credulity, as when he writes that “we have to take seriously” that Highsmith’s affair with civil servant Ellen Blumenthal led to Highsmith’s “casual,” self-proclaimed anti-Semitism becoming “visceral.” Still, fans of Highsmith’s work are sure to gain a deeper appreciation for the exceptional writer and her complicated life. (Jan.)
From the Publisher
This book is as snappy as an alligator … those who wish to see Patricia Highsmith devoured will no doubt applaud it.” —Mail on Sunday
“What makes the present biography poignant, is that there's no redemption for a life of restlessness, despair, and torturous, doomed affairs.” —Los Angeles Review of Books
“Serial biographer Richard Bradford has written a captivating biography that carves out its own space... Bradford entertainingly deduces aspects of her literary characters from Highsmith's own experiences… His lucidity is evident, his research thorough and his writing always immensely readable. Anyone interested in Highsmith would enjoy this book...” —The Sydney Morning Herald
“Bradford's comprehensive investigations into the devils, lusts and strange desires in the works and life of Patricia Highsmith inspire further reading of her masterpieces.” —Out in Perth
“Bradford writes in this engrossing biography, “an incomparable individual,” for she was-among other things-an alcoholic and an equal-opportunity hater (…) he gives careful attention to her individual books, praising some, criticizing others (“ponderous and fatiguing”). Though it breaks little new ground, the book is a happy mixture of biography and criticism. Near its end, Bradford, in judgment, refers to Highsmith's "execrable true self.” Readers will find it hard to disagree.” —Booklist
“Bradford's caustic wit helps to make this shortish book an entertaining summary of Highsmith's life.” —Daily Express
“In this centenary year of her birth, her satisfyingly ruthless biographer Richard Bradford sets out the essence of her character and lifestyle in four-and-a-half withering introductory pages, to whet (or perhaps stifle) our appetites.” —Daily Mail
“Tom Ripley, described by Richard Bradford as 'one of the most fascinating exercises in autobiographical fiction ever produced', is a fraudster, psychopath and murderer who remains remote from the suffering he causes and gets no evident pleasure from his achievements. The Ripliad, as the series is known, makes bleak and compulsive reading, and so too does Bradford's biography... Bradford is less concerned with making sense of Highsmith than with making sense of her novels, and in this he succeeds handsomely.” —Oldie
“The outrageous stories Professor Bradford chooses to tell about her have all been told before, by her previous biographers, but are well worth hearing again, like a much-loved album of greatest hits.” —The Mail on Sunday
“There have already been two significant biographies of Highsmith - Andrew Wilson's Beautiful Shadow (2003) and Joan Schenkar's The Talented Miss Ripley (2009). Bradford thus covers a lot of already familiar ground but benefits from producing a book in the centenary of Highsmith's birth as well as a more concise biography.” —The Canberra Times
“Devils, Lusts and Strange Desires is certainly an engrossing book.” —The New Criterion
“Bradford's biography employs a more critical approach than previous studies on Highsmith.” —The Dallas Morning News
"Drawing on her lifelong diaries, Richard Bradford's biography is the first to closely examine the relationship between Highsmith's troubled life and her brilliant, daring fiction. [...] this well-researched book is a must for any fan of film noir or crime fiction." - The Lady
OCTOBER 2021 - AudioFile
With the publication of STRANGERS ON A TRAIN (1950) and THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY (1955), author Patricia Highsmith came roaring onto the worldwide literary scene, giving murder mysteries and psychological thrillers a dark, intelligent sheen. Sadly, her personal life was a mess, fraught with alcoholism, anger, and shattered relationships. Narrator Daniel Henning’s upbeat, almost cheerful, delivery seems at odds with the many detailed and bleak accounts of an abusive childhood, often cruel relationships with both male and female lovers, and racist/anti-Semitic political leanings. Henning’s voice reflects the author’s attempts to find a balance between the celebrated writer and her life, but it’s difficult to listen to the story of a “genius” who hated the world and herself so much. B.P. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2020-10-13
A critical examination of one of the 20th century’s most volatile novelists.
Bradford’s portrait of Patricia Highsmith (1921-1995) is occasionally compelling but largely consumed by an unsettling, didactic preoccupation with Highsmith’s same-sex promiscuity. Although many of Highsmith’s beliefs were morally reprehensible, notably her extreme anti-Semitism and later anti-Black racism, Bradford’s apparent distaste regarding her many lesbian encounters makes for an uncomfortable reading experience. The author develops some interesting and convincing parallels between Highsmith’s literary creations and real-life relationships, suggesting that she channeled her darkest neuroses and impulses into her most infamous characters. Her most well-known works, Strangers on a Train (1950) and The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955), are genre-bending stories with engaging, murderous protagonists. The blurred lines of fact and fiction between Highsmith’s diaries and her contemporaneous works of literature form the basis of Bradford’s examination of her erratic behavior. Throughout the book, comparisons between Highsmith and the criminally deranged, possibly gay Ripley abound—e.g., “Highsmith and Ripley are sexual predators, each manipulates the people in their lives and Highsmith transfers this to the relationships between her fictional creations.” What is concerning here is not their similarities but rather Bradford’s hyperbole in labeling Highsmith and Ripley as “sexual predators.” To be sure, Ripley is a predator and a murderer, but he does not overtly pursue Dickie Greenleaf sexually. More importantly, while Highsmith certainly had many affairs with women during her life, it is difficult to conceive of her actions as “predatory,” especially without known accusations. While she was certainly manipulative and struggled with relationships and alcoholism, labeling her a sexual predator is a mischaracterization. Here, as elsewhere in the biography, it is unclear which insights are gained from honest analysis of available material rather than authorial judgment.
The potential for a nuanced analysis of Highsmith’s complicated life is clouded by a sanctimonious tone.
