Patricia Highsmith

I did a lot of lazing about this winter, huddled up under the blankets against the chilliness of my South Side flat (I like it like that...Booo! forced heat!). When I laze about, I listen to all kinds of radio. One sleepy afternoon, this interview caught my attention. In particular, the fact that the subject of this author's new book is Patricia Highsmith, whom I have heard of because of her book STRANGERS ON A TRAIN, or perhaps due to the fact that I've seen the Hitchcock movie based on the book, caught my attention. Check it out. Turns out Ms. Highsmith was quite the player:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1303128

So, I grow tired of the radio and move on to other media. I quickly re-read STRANGERS ON A TRAIN and a couple other novels by Highsmith, having found them in abundance at our fabulous downtown library. I watched STRANGERS ON A TRAIN here:

Haven't gotten around to digging up THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY, but I noticed today that
THE CRY OF THE OWL just hit the streets here in the States.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cry_of_the_Owl


Hollywood will forever have a boner for the remake, of course, and guess what!
The French derived a film from her novel way back in 1987:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Cri_du_hibou

As you might expect, I like the twisted, pathological characters in her work (and the fact that she was an ex-patriot almost as soon as she was able to arrange to get the fuck out of here.

So, give her a read.
Even Matmos is hip to her:

...of course, not everybody is a fan: