5x Tom Ripley

The first novel featuring Tom Ripley was published by Patricia Highsmith in 1955 and given a title that might lead the reader to imagine a biographical book about an unknown artist rather than a detective story. The talented Mr. Ripley. The very title was an ironic provocation of the author, whose life, opinions and actions provoked and sometimes shocked her surroundings. For the talents which the little impostor Tom possessed, as he dragged out his insignificant existence from day to day in a shabby New York tenement, were no uplifting and noble abilities. On the contrary, if there is one thing Tom really excels at, it is lying, dissimulation, cynicism and crime.

Highsmith takes her antihero through a gradual transformation: The troubled young man turns out to be a cunning parasite who skillfully exploits his acquaintance with a young millionaire, then a ruthless criminal who kills with deliberation and for profit, and finally a master of disguise who has no trouble faking his identity. He once longed for a career as an actor and now he can finally realize his desire, except that the stage is life itself.

Tom plays the roles of his life with the effortlessness and conviction of a talented actor and, as well as the costumes and masks, he moves effortlessly through a variety of environments. In the five novels we find him as a respected citizen, a loving husband, a wealthy merchant or an art connoisseur. (Read: a con man, a murderer, a forger, a blackmailer and a mobster. ) We'll take him through the mundane places of the Italian Riviera, the bustling life of European metropolises and the tranquillity of the French countryside.

Tom Ripley novels are not detective stories in the true sense of the word, but rather crime stories. Highsmith, gifted with the art of psychologizing, which brings her close to the great authors of "serious" literature, allows us to see into the mind and motives of the perpetrator, for whom evil is a natural expression of his own existence. And if it's true that all of us have evil tendencies, it's definitely better to live them now in Tom Ripley's shoes and lock yours up in a hundred locks.