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  • The Oldie

    Patricia Highsmith: Her Diaries and Notebooks 1941-1995

    Nov 17, 2021 3 minutes
    Edited by Anna von Planta

    Weidenfeld & Nicolson £30

    Patricia Highsmith was recently described by a leading American literary critic, Terry Castle, as ‘everyone’s favourite mess-with-your-head morbid misanthrope’ and a ‘mind-blitzingly drunk and hellacious bigot’.

    She was also the novelist who achieved early acclaim with Strangers on a Train (1950) and later made the murderous sociopath Tom Ripley into the quasi-hero of five novels.

    The existence of intimate diaries is a surprise, too. In her lifetime, Highsmith defended her

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