I think my last Highsmith review accurately described my ambivalence toward her work: With Highsmith, I generally feel that I haven't been left with very much. People are brought together by random circumstances; their weaknesses are their downfall, or the downfall of others; innocence is corrupted, either by encounters with evil or by a drive to do good that goes awry; right and wrong are blurred and muddled; and in the end, someone dies. Her stories, even the Ripley stories, leave me unsatisfied.This novel conforms to the pattern and disrupts it enough to avoid seeming formulaic. Sydney and Alicia have been married for a short time. He an aspiring writer and she a desultory painter, they live on scant means in a country cottage. The mix of poverty, artistic frustration, and perhaps genuine incompatibility has led to sniping and it seems likely this union will not last. Alicia takes a trip to give them both a break. During this trip, Alicia encounters Edward Tilbury, a man who flirted with her at a party months ago. Alicia is attracted. When she returns home, things are no better, so she decides to leave for an extended break; she will be gone for weeks, perhaps even months. The husband and wife agree not to contact one another, and Sydney has no idea where his wife plans to go. He'll tell people she's with her parents, but she might go to London or Brighton, or anywhere. Sydney habitually exercises his imagination, pretending that perhaps he will kill Alicia, or that he has killed Alicia. How does it feel to be a murderer, to be suspected? Lost in these imaginings, Sydney buys a new rug; he rolls up the old rug and carries it to the car the morning after Alicia leaves, pretending he is disposing of her body. He drives to a wood and buries the rug deep in the ground, as deep as he would bury a body. Sydney's manner becomes nervous and guilty. He knows his story about Alicia's absence, although true, sounds implausible. He appears jumpy when questioned by friends, neighbors, and, eventually, the police. Alicia is playing a game of her own: house. She and Edward have begun an affair. Even once the lovers realize that Alicia is being sought and that foul play is suspected, Alicia can't face the whole world finding out about her infidelity. She changes her appearances and uses a false name, moving from one small village to another. Suspicion is weighing on Sydney. The kindly elderly woman living next door has felt obligated to tell the police that she saw Sydney carrying something that seemed quite heavy to his car. But when the police dig up the empty carpet, unstained by blood, he believes he will be cleared. Instead, the police keep digging, figuratively and literally. Sydney decides that he must find his wife, and he realizes that she is likely having an affair. Recalling a man who flirted with her at a party, he travels to Brighton to look for the pair. He spots Edward, follows him, and spots Alicia. He hopes to give Alicia a way out. He writes to her using her alias, suggesting that she go to her parents. He also sends a telegram, insisting that she must reveal herself and that he will come to fetch her if she does not. Alicia panicks. She dashes from the cottage she shares with Edward in a frenzy; the next day, she is found dead. Has she fallen from the cliff, or was she pushed? Sydney is cleared of his wife's murder, but in a Highsmith novel it's never that simple. Sydney goes to Edward's home to confront him. Edward says he tried to save Alicia, but even if he didn't push her, he abandoned her, and Sydney is implacable. He forces Edward to swallow an overdose of pills and Scotch. As an actual rather than an imaginary murderer, Sydney isn't nervous or hesitant...or suspected. Sydney leaves London a free man in every sense, unencumbered by suspicion or by a wife.
Este es uno de esos libros en los que no tengo idea de como calificar, por una parte el argumento es un chiste,apenas se sostiene y podría fácilmente ser resulto en 5 páginas si sus personajes no se rehusaran a usar sus neuronas,pero por otra parte todas las tonterías que leí no me hicieron odiar el libro o sus personajes,de hecho me reí la mayoría del tiempo porque todo era tan tonto que llegaba a ser gracioso.Sidney es quizás el personaje con menos sentido común que he leido, pero era tan divertido verlo ahogarse en un vaso de agua y hacer un drama por todo,ademas su mente morbosa y violenta era interesante,sobre todo cuando mezclaba realidad con ficción y pensaba que por fin había terminado de volverse loco.Alicia es un personaje menos interesante,tiene la inteligencia emocional de un bebé y no tengo idea de como es que puede vivir siendo tan inmadura,pero como dije no la odio,porque el libro no intenta que simpatice con ella sino que muestra lo disfuncional que son ambos,Sidney y ella,como pareja y como individuos. Lamentablemente como misterio no me atrajo tanto,no sentí ninguna clase de tensión porque nosotros sabemos desde un principio que es lo que sucede y porque todos esos problemas se podrian haber solucionado si la gente hubiese hablado cuando se supone que debían en vez de innecesariamente hacerse los misteriosos.(view spoiler)[Creo además que un final mas chistoso y acorde con el resto del sin sentido que es este libro es que a Sidney lo terminaran enjuiciando por el crimen que el no cometió pero que pensó que seria muy gracioso fingir que hizo. (hide spoiler)]
What do You think about A Suspension Of Mercy (2001)?
This has all the typical Highsmith ingredients: guilt, not guilt, murder, not murder. But it's a novel explicitly about the (inner/outer) life of a writer. Intellectual and cool.Happy that I still loved this, because it was my favorite Highsmith novel when I was, I think, 31. My other favorite of hers, This Sweet Sickness, I found overlong when I re read it (still good, but not great like I'd thought). This is why I think it's important to re read things. I try not to think in terms of opinions I formed a decade ago (and, as I write this, it's only been seven or eight years since I was 31).
—Carla Remy
Ever since my recent discovery of Highsmith, I have been continually impressed with her writing style and excellent character development. "Suspension" is another example of Highsmith's ability to grab the reader by the scruff of the neck, and drag them through the twisted world of a criminal mind. Additionally, it appears that Highsmith always forces her readers to ask a common question; "Will the guilty character be caught and face justice, or slip away freely?" That ingredient in her stories always compound the suspense. For readers who enjoy tales of suspense and the macabre of Hitchcockian tradition, Highsmith will never disappoint.
—columbialion
I enjoyed this book while I was reading it but I was never compelled to read it unless there was just nothing else to do. What is it with the novels lately? I burn through non-fiction but the novels drag like a swollen ass. Highsmith was a very wicked lady and I enjoyed Ripley's Game and The Blunderer quite a bit. Plus, I want to read the rest of the Ripley books and Strangers On A Train some day. This one has a cool plot I just wish it picked up the pace and it's only just over 200 pages. Maybe books written before a certain time are just paced differently because I have this problem with a lot of Fleming too. Maybe I was just too distracted but this just slogged. Shame because point to point it was interesting and very dark.
—Ed
