I love Patricia Highsmith´s descriptions of her totally messed up characters. At first glance they seem to be perfectly ordinary people, until slowly, layer by layer, she reveals the sociopathic and psychopathic nature of her characters.
In some respects the main character David Kelsey reminded me of Tom Ripley, Highsmiths most famous character. Both feel entitled to certain things. Ripley to money, goods and social standing, David to a woman and both characters are mentally disturbed. But where I started to root for Ripley at some point throughout the novel (he is pretty ingenious, after all), David started to genuinly creep me out. In that respect David is an even more disturbing character than Tom Ripley (I never thought that someone would be able to kick him of the "most disturbing character" throne). This book is spine tingling.
The story is off to a slow start and Highsmith takes some time to develop the story, so especially in the beginning it´s not the most compulsive read. But once the actual plot has been set in motion, I couldn´t put it down.
I can´t exactly say that I enjoyed this novel, but it was an intense reading experience.
16 Tasks of the Festive Season: Square 16: December 26th-31st:
Book themes for Kwanzaa: Read a book written by an author of African descent or a book set in Africa, or whose cover is primarily red, green or black.
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 - Patricia Highsmith)
