Patricia Highsmith

Guy Haines loses his own identity after he is drawn into a plot to commit murder, in a new edition of the first novel by the author of The Talented Mr. Ripley. Reprint.

Strangers on a Train

Sarah Sammis

Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith is another of those books I discovered because of its film adaptation. In this case, it's one of my favorite Alfred Hitchcock films, taking turns with Psycho and Rear Window for the honor of being THE FAVORITE of the moment. The novel, though, also has the honor of being Highsmith's debut and damn, what fine debut it is.

Two men — Bruno and Guy — meet on a train bound for Texas and New Mexico. Bruno is a youngish playboy who wants nothing more than to get rid of his father so he can have more access to his mother's money. Guy is an architect (not a tennis player as he is in the film) wants a divorce so he can remarry. Bruno sets things in motion by taking care of Guy's problem.

Here, then is the big point of departure of the book and the film. Hitchcock makes Guy, his girlfriend and her family the indisputable heros. Guy is a victim of a deranged killer.

Not so for Highsmith's Guy. Although Miriam's death still comes at Bruno's hand, Guy's reaction is cold and calculating. Though reluctant to participate in Bruno's experiment, he's not against it on moral grounds — more out of a combination of laziness and a fear of getting caught. While he's not as unhinged as Bruno, he's not innocent — he's cold and calculating and perhaps the scarier of the two.

Maurice FitzGerald

Great book. This audiobook version is really awful due to the narration by Bronson Pinchot. I usually like it when a narrator "acts" the parts but Pinchot almost makes a joke out of the book.

Plot twist might not be the strong side of this, but oh god, the suspense and mind games are amazing!

High Fidelity

Plot twist might not be the strong side of this, but oh god, the suspense and mind games are amazing!
A classic of this genre worth reading.

Wynter

My first ever Patricia Highsmith and I'm craving for more. What drama, what tension...What a character study of a sociopath and a chance meeting on the train. Bruno was a brilliant character: half-villain, half-whimpering child. He seemed to enjoy to trot on the edge of being found out. I thoroughly enjoyed this one.

Jeannette Ordas

I was reading this book while on holiday and then when stopped in a hotel in Montreal, Hitchcock's version showed up (in French) on morning television. I had seen the movie years ago, so it was kinda neat to see the characters I was reading about on screen while they were so fresh in my head. While reading I kept thinking, "Guy, stop this madness!" (which I always think of the good guys drawn into the web of evil while watching film noirs). This book is as it should be. Pretty thrilling ride.

Not "enjoyable", strictly speaking, but it kept me up at night and gave me horrible dreams so there’s something to be said for that.

Liz Dollmeyer

Trever

Highsmith here comes off like a secular Graham Greene who spent too many nights drinking. The anxiety is hyper-present here in Guy Haines, and Bruno is one creepy son-of-a-bitch. The main difference between the two is that Highsmith offers no solution, which in a way gives it an interesting, almost apocalyptic spin. I'll be reading more from her.

The inspiration for Alfred Hitchcock s classic 1951 film, the novel that established Patricia Highsmith as a master of noir fiction."

Barbara Williford

I’m embarrassed to say that this is the first time reading this classic (and no, I have never seen the infamous movie). I’ve heard so many people reference the book.

Two strangers, Guy and Bruno, meet on a train. After that meeting and a drunken night of confessions, things spiral out of control. Murders, blackmail, and more deaths is the storyline for this must read.

Jeff Brown 

One of my favorite Hitchcock movies, I really can’t believe that a book can surpass the movie master. But the original did. Normally the development over many pages would be tedious. But in the book, it just added to the suspense. A throughly outstanding novel!

Audiobooks are going to make me raise my reading goal this year at the rate I'm going.

Anyways, this would have been better as a short story. I think Highsmith knew it, and lost her focus at the end. The story itself is well known but I think what could have been told in about half of the time, was instead dragged out for the reader to muddle through self anguish of characters that really aren't that likeable.

That, and a long discussion about an investigation that was suddenly called off or otherwise not there, and the ending combined just made me feel like it was partially a waste of time to read it. I think this might be a case of a movie being better than the book, but I haven't seen the movie either.

Strangers on a Train

Reviews