Sunday, April 09, 2017

Eight of the best books about love and obsession

Olivia Sudjic's debut novel is Sympathy. One of her eight favorite books about love and obsession, as shared at Publishers Weekly:
The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith

Another literary Dick that becomes the object of infatuation (Chris does mention Dickie Greenleaf in one of her I Love Dick letters), but this time as the product of homosexual desire. Tom Ripley is the amoral protagonist of five Highsmith novels, often diagnosed online by fans as suffering from a narcissistic personality disorder. The brief, intense attention of Dickie makes Tom feel like a somebody, but Tom’s desire for Dickie is not returned. “Anticipation! It occurred to him that his anticipation was more pleasant to him than the experiencing.” Tom’s fetishization of Dickie causes him to withdraw from Tom. Tormented by Dickie’s silence, Tom kills him and steals Dickie’s identity. Highsmith is excellent on paranoia and this means Dickie’s murder (which Tom convinces others to be suicide) sets in motion a psychological exploration of longing and guilt.
Read about another book on the list.

The Talented Mr Ripley is on Roz Chast's six favorite books list, Nicholas Searle's top five list of favorite deceivers in fiction, Chris Ewan's list of the ten top chases in literature, Meave Gallagher's top twenty list of gripping page-turners every twentysomething woman should read, Sophia Bennett's top ten list of books set in the Mediterranean, Emma Straub's top ten list of holidays in fiction, E. Lockhart's list of favorite suspense novels, Sally O'Reilly's top ten list of novels inspired by Shakespeare, Walter Kirn's top six list of books on deception, Stephen May's top ten list of impostors in fiction, Simon Mason's top ten list of chilling fictional crimes, Melissa Albert's list of eight books to change a villain, Koren Zailckas's list of eleven of literature's more evil characters, Alex Berenson's five best list of books about Americans abroad John Mullan's list of ten of the best examples of rowing in literature, Tana French's top ten maverick mysteries list, the Guardian's list of the 50 best summer reads ever, the Telegraph's ultimate reading list, and Francesca Simon's top ten list of antiheroes.

--Marshal Zeringue