Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith (Book Review)

"The train tore along with an angry, irregular rhythm."

Review: What an amazingly well written, spellbinding, rollercoaster ride of a book! And for all the reasons I usually end up not liking a movie that is based on a book too!

Usually I try to read a book before I see the movie. So far my record is heavily sided with reading the book first, but if it's a classic such as Strangers on a Train, it bound to happen that I've seen the movie first. The same thing happened with To Kill a Mockingbird, but I'm digressing. Going back to this book, let me start by saying, except for the title and character names the book and movie are polar opposites! Oh, and the starting plot, such as the discussion that takes place between the "strangers" on the train (see what I did there?) is the same. And I think it's because of the liberties (or lack thereof) that Alfred Hitchcock took in directing Strangers on a Train, that I can love both equally and appreciate them separately without taking anything away from each other.

As you all may know, this is was a collaborative read between myself and Alaina. And because she has recently undertaken reading the hefty Game of Thrones as a collaborative effort with another college friend of ours, it might be a while before we endeavor to do another. Although I will say, her pick was so awesome this go-round that I'm inclined to entrust her with the next pick! With the caveat that William Shakespeare's The Empire Striketh Back obviously be among one that we do soon!

After discussing our favorite Hitchcock films we promptly began dissecting the novel thusly:

@NYCBookWorm84 Um, the major flaw being himself?? #TheCollaborators
— Alaina Patterson (@WillBeFunOrElse) May 1, 2014

No matter how you look at it, this book is an excellent guide on what could be the perfect crime of murder. Provided one of the two parties involved is not a complete and total schizo! I think Alaina would agree with me there?

@NYCBookWorm84 He was so obsessed with Guy that he endangered the both of them. #TheCollaborators
— Alaina Patterson (@WillBeFunOrElse) May 1, 2014

We seemed to have very little to say about the women in the book, of which there were four of! See, the main point to this suspense novel is that Bruno (the schizo) dreams of killing his father. He has come up with the perfect way of doing it where no one will get caught. How, you might ask? Simple. He'll meet a complete stranger, say, on a train. This stranger will, like Bruno, have someone in his life that, if they were eliminated, would make his life better. That's where Guy comes in. He's got a wife who also happens to enjoy fooling around on him, but won't divorce him. Guy wants the divorce so that he may marry Anne, a woman he actually loves and cares for deeply, and who, unlike Miriam, isn't sleeping around on him. The other two women are the mothers' of each of our main characters.

Bruno's mom, to me, seemed to have a sort of Norma & Norman Bates kind of relationship going on. I always felt like there was something just not right with that mother-son dynamic. Then there was Guy's mother, who is there for her son, caring, nurturing, but more of a mother than a best friend.

Of course there's a bit more to the story, but the whole idea is what happens inwardly to both Guy and Bruno after murder is committed. To make one more analogy, that I just thought of now, Bruno reminds me of that dude in The Tell Tale Heart and how he would have behaved if that short story dragged out much longer.

This is the kind of book that should be used in some creative writing college course. Analyzed and torn apart for self-reflection. I think I would have enjoyed comparing Guy and Bruno as some sort of thesis.

Synopsis: With the acclaim for The Talented Mr. Ripley, more film projects in production, and two biographies forthcoming, expatriate legend Patricia Highsmith would be shocked to see that she has finally arrived in her homeland. Throughout her career, Highsmith brought a keen literary eye and a genius for plumbing the psychopathic mind to more than thirty works of fiction, unparalleled in their placid deviousness and sardonic humor. With deadpan accuracy, she delighted in creating true sociopaths in the guise of the everyday man or woman. Now, one of her finest works is again in print: Strangers on a Train, Highsmith's first novel and the source for Alfred Hitchcock's classic 1953 film. With this novel, Highsmith revels in eliciting the unsettling psychological forces that lurk beneath the surface of everyday contemporary life.

Strangers on a Train

by Patricia Highsmith

256 pages

W. W. Norton & Company, 2001

mystery / suspense

Read in 5 days

Rating: ★★★★

Amazon | BN

To learn more about Patricia Highsmith visit her Wikipedia page here.

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne (Book Review)

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

by John Boyne

215 pages

David Fickling Books, 2006

historical/post modern

Read in 1 day

Another Review

My Rating: ★★★★

Amazon.com | BN.com

"One afternoon, when Bruno came home from school, he was surprised to find Maria, the family's maid - who always kept her head bowed and never looked up from the carpet - standing in his bedroom, pulling all his belongings out of the wardrobe and packing them in four large wooden crates, even the things he'd hidden at the back that belonged to him and were nobody else's business."

Review: Meet Bruno, a 9 year old boy who is precious, to say the least. He is opinionated, nosey, but most importantly, he is smarter than he seems. We see the world around him through his eyes and if you didn't read the synopsis of this book or take the time to learn anything about it you'd wonder, for a moment, where this story was headed exactly. I'll even admit that I believed the name of the house this German family moved to was actually called "Out-With" as Bruno constantly called it and heard others around him calling it. I forgot we were seeing as well as hearing and experiencing his surroundings through his eyes. Even when it becomes obvious to the reader that this is a time when Nazism is on the rise and his father is clearly a highly ranked official since the "Fury" as Bruno calls him actually visits their home! That is something I would imagine Adolf Hitler did not do very often during that time period?

In any event, Bruno's world comes crashing down around him and his older sister, when they are told they'll be moving to "Out-With." The place is much smaller than the house he's lived in all his life and both children instantly take a disliking to it. They leave their close friends behind and are then homeschooled. Upon looking out his window Bruno discovers a fence that stretches as far as his eyes can see. And on the other side of that fence he sees a lot of men as well as boys his age all wearing what he describes as "striped pajamas." Of course his curiosity takes over and his constant need to explore. 

The story is all about Bruno's understanding of who exactly his father is, learning to respect him, as well as understanding who those people on the other side of the fence in the striped pajamas are and why they are being treated the way they are. At first he envies those people because he sees all those male children and longs to go have fun with them on the other side of the fence. Even when his older (and supposedly wiser, but just as immature) sister tries to explain to him that Jews are an inferior race and they, Germans, are the superior race, therefore they need to be kept separated for the sake of their superiority, he does not understand. In a way, his child-like view on a simple matter of questioning why their should be this separation, could easily be applied to the days of segregation here in the US or any other oppressed minority at any given time. It made me wonder just how the children understood what was going on around them. Because, for some headstrong children like Bruno, no matter how hard and how often you might tell them one thing, they will believe what they want and think outside the box. While all this questioning goes on inside Bruno's head he makes an unlikely friend who resides on the other side of the fence. They quickly become best friends for the better part of a year even though their friendship, at the age of 9, revolves around nothing but conversation! Is it plausible to think these two boys can talk and talk and talk without feeling the need to play? You decide.

This is a book for young people and I suppose it can be taken in two ways: One, that questioning and curiosity isn't always a bad thing. And two, that questioning coupled with curiosity CAN lead to a bad thing. A lesson all children will learn in time.

I won't divulge any spoilers here because this is a book that can be read in a couple hours in one day and should be read by people of all ages. You might learn something about yourself.

Summary: Berlin 1942

When Bruno returns home from school one day, he discovers that his belongings are being packed in crates. His father has received a promotion and the family must move from their home to a new house far far away, where there is no one to play with and nothing to do. A tall fence running alongside stretches as far as the eye can see and cuts him off from the strange people he can see in the distance.

But Bruno longs to be an explorer and decides that there must be more to this desolate new place than meets the eye. While exploring his new environment, he meets another boy whose life and circumstances are very different to his own, and their meeting results in a friendship that has devastating consequences.

To learn more about John Boyne, visit his site here.