Diary: April Bernard revisits Ripley

I don’t know another novel that can match its pleasing, tortuous, low hum of anxiety. Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley, first published in 1955, is a story of a petty thief and con artist whose entire journey is a series of escapes—from his past, whatever it may be; and, increasingly, from the dangers he brings upon himself, through greed, mischief, and impulsive violence. Its great innovation—and the novel is, even more than a tale of suspense, a character study—lies in what I would call Highsmith’s anti-psychological approach. Although we accompany Tom Ripley through every sentence of the novel, we remain perplexed, even as he is; unable to predict, and certainly unable to diagnose, his nature.