I thought it was too long—my Norton paperback weighed in at 281 pages, small print—but wow, for 1950, this was some crazzzzzzy writing. Or 2021 for that matter. 😐 I think the one thing that stuck with me was the message that good and evil are not on opposite ends of a spectrum, but with enough pressure or the right circumstance, a saint can be pushed into doing a dastardly evil thing. The story line built by Patricia Highsmith did have some plausibility to it. It’s almost like: There but for the...

Instagram || Twitter || Facebook || Amazon || PinterestSTRANGERS ON A TRAIN has been on my list forEVER so when I found out that I could get an ARC of a new edition, I was like, hmm, let me think, um yes please! Because I am one of those unbearable people who refuses to watch film adaptions of things until I have read the book thing, so now I can watch the movie version of the thing!Rife with m/m subtext and dramatic tension, STRANGERS ON A TRAIN is the tale of a Faustian bargain conducted b

Find all of my reviews at: http://52bookminimum.blogspot.com/In order to prove that NO, I DON’T ONLY READ PORNOS THANK YOU VERY LITTLE I begged Steve to pull me out of my downward spiral and buddy read this one with me. When my husband asked his nightly question “what are you reading????” I was so very proud to say a classic rather than smut. I also jumped at the chance to say it was a book written by the author of The Talented Mr. Ripley and that this novel became one of my favorite Hitchcock f...

“My mistake was telling a stranger my private business.” — Guy HainesThis is my first Highsmith book, which is a shame because I have seen most movie adaptations of her novels. Throw Mama from the Train is one of my all-time favorite movies, and now I’ve finally read the book that the movie is loosely based on.The book itself is far from comedic. Written in 1950, this gritty noir novel is mostly set in New York. Guy Haines, an up and coming architect, meets Charlie Bruno on a train bound for

When Guy Haines and Charles Anthony Bruno meet on a train, they discover they have one thing in common: each of them has someone they would be better off without. When Haines' estranged wife winds up strangled, he finds himself caught in Bruno's psychotic, alcoholic web...Yeah, that makes the book sound really gripping. It wasn't. The Hitchcock film Strangers on a Train is legendary so I thought I'd give the book that inspired it a shot. I would have been better off watching Throw Mama From the

When I was in my 20s- living in Toronto and traveling on the train to visit my parents 4 hours away- I always thought there was nothing worse than trying to read my book while having some annoying fellow passenger try to start a conversation...but then I watched Alfred Hitchcock's STRANGERS ON A TRAIN and realized- Nope it could have been worse. I usually have a hard time reading the book once I have watched the movie, but Patricia Highsmith's novel is very different than Hitchcock's adaptation

4.5 Stars. This book had me spellbound right from the beginning. Highsmith slowly built up the tension and never broke it.Two men, Guy Haines and Charles Bruno meet on a train. A night of drinking and sharing of their lives ensues. Bruno comes up with what he thinks is a fail proof plan of murder. Guy becomes ensnared in his plan, and his life slowly starts unravelling.“He had merely to crush the other part of himself, and live in the self he was now.”There are so many psychological elements tha...

“He didn’t look like a murderer, he supposed, in his clean white shirtsleeves and his silk tie and his dark blue trousers, and maybe even his strained face didn’t look like a murderer’s to anyone else. ‘That’s the mistake,’ Guy said aloud, ‘that nobody knows what a murderer looks like. A murderer looks like anybody!’”- Patricia Highsmith, Strangers on a Train Patricia Highsmith’s Strangers on a Train is a novel that almost needs no introduction. It is the very definition of high concept, an irre...

***ALL SPOILERS HIDDEN***Nightmare on a train. The premise is simple enough. Two men meet on a train and have a weird discussion about swapping murders. Patricia Highsmith’s intriguing but imperfect tale is definitely a chilling portrait of obsessive psychopathy. It also asks an unsettling question: Do we all have a dark side?This book is short and mostly to the point, but it could have been shorter, perhaps even a novella. Told in third person omniscient point of view, Strangers on a Train feat...

“People, feelings, everything! Double! Two people in each person. There's also a person exactly the opposite of you, like the unseen part of you, somewhere in the world, and he waits in ambush.” ― Patricia Highsmith, Strangers on a Train I put off watching the great Hitchcock's take on this Highsmith classic until I actually read it. The book has a neat narrative symmetry and logic to it. It contains a lot of the early hints of some of her later, great Ripley novels: obsessiveness, insanity, met...

Everything has its opposite close beside it. Why don't people write thrillers like Patricia Highsmith anymore? This, her first novel, boasts an iconic plot, gruelling tension, characters with psychological complexities, and plenty of intellect to balance out murderous actions. Plus, a psychopath. She's so good at the psychopaths.I'm not surprised Alfred Hitchcock found this book worthy inspiration for his 1951 film. It's clever. Two men meet on a train journey. Guy, our 'hero', on his way to

Architect Guy Haines is on a train to Texas to see his estranged wife Miriam to discuss their divorce. Before long Charles Bruno, a rich n'er do well, sits down opposite him. Haines talks about his problems with Miriam and Bruno talks about his hatred for his father. Before long Bruno makes a suggestion: the two men should "exchange murders." That is, Bruno should kill Miriam and Haines should kill Bruno's dad - and having no demonstrable motive - neither man will be suspected. Haines strongly o...

Budding architect Guy Haines is currently in the process of trying to divorce unfaithful wife Miriam, during a train journey he meets Charles Bruno a playboy how’s father won’t allow him to have access to all of he’s money in fear of wasting it.Bruno strikes up the idea of him killing Miriam, whilst Haines returns the favour of murdering Bruno’s father.Two deaths - No motives.Guy laughs the suggestion off until Bruno confirms that he has killed Miriam whilst Guy was away in Mexico.I’d already se...

Warning: Mild spoilers ahead.As I have said earlier, it is a dicey affair to one-star a classic on GR. Some people may see it as blasphemy: and maybe, one can expect a lynch mob. But what to do? I did not like this book: could not bring myself to finish it even; so one-star is the only option.My only acquaintance with Patricia Highsmith before this novel was The Terrapin, a terrifying short story. So I was pretty sure I would like this novel, even though the story was familiar to me from Hitchco...

After Eight Perfect Murders and rewatching Hitchcock’s classic and my favorite comedy version of Throw Momma from train ( Devito was so brilliant, if you haven’t watched it, I highly recommend it) I decided to read the original story that inspired those brilliant movies. Overall: the thrilling idea about each person’s capability to take a life when the evil side sits on the driver seat and take you to the darkest highways is brilliant but I found the changes at the scripts were necessary and gre...

"And Bruno, he and Bruno. Each was what the other had not chosen to be, the cast-off self, what he thought he hated, but perhaps in reality loved."Strangers on a Train is another case where most people have seen the movie but haven't read the book or didn't know there was a novel behind it. In this case, if you've seen the movie, and then go to read Highsmith's book, you end up with two different entities. The basic plot is the same -- two men, total strangers, meet on a train; one (Bruno) is a

[7/10] Any kind of person can murder. Purely circumstances and not a thing to do with temperament! People get so far - and it gets just the least little thing to push them over the brink. Anybody. Even your grandmother. I know! A disturbing proposition that I happen to strongly disagree with, but I can't think of a more able writer to raise doubts in my mind and to argue the merits of the case. According to her biographical notes, Patricia Highsmith started her study of perverted human nature at...

This was Patricia Highsmith’s first novel, initially published in 1950, and most often credited as being the first “Murder Swap” novel! It inspired the Alfred Hitchcock movie, by the same name but if you THINK you know this story, because you watched the movie, you don’t!Mr. Hitchcock actually changed quite a bit after the initial conversation between two strangers on the train, where a suggestion was made that the men “swap murders”.“Some people are better off dead”, Bruno remarks, (to Guy) “li...

Possibly I have been reading too many Cornell Woolrich and Jim Thompson gutter noir novels, tightly constructed, no waste, down and dirty, but I thought this was both elegant and about 1/3 longer than it needed to be. Patricia Highsmith imo gets high marks for this book that Hitchcock made into a classic movie, but it is also full of too many rather dull and sophisticated suburbanites. And yes, I am also reading #34 of Agatha Christie’s Hercules Poirot so I have a fairly high tolerance usually f...

3.5 stars. After reading The Talented Mr. Ripley, I confess I really did want to like this book more. But, given this was her debut novel it's pretty darn good and does make one think: Could a manipulative psychopath really drive one to this kind of evil by the arousal of fear?? A seemingly normal “Guy” and psychopath Bruno are strangers on a train whose secrets revealed lead to Bruno suggesting they create the “perfect murder". Guy doesn’t take him seriously, just wants to be rid of him, and is...