Campaign for the American Reader: Five top sympathetic fictional psychopaths

Elizabeth Macneal's debut novel is The Doll Factory.

At CrimeReads she tagged five sympathetic fictional psychopaths, including:

Tom Ripley from The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith

I don’t think I’ve ever rooted for a character more than I’ve rooted for Tom Ripley. I yearned for him to get away with his crimes, and even felt relief when the tension of a situation was resolved by him committing murder. This did not make me feel good about myself. In fact, I finished the book utterly appalled at what I would forgive and even cheer on in his behavior, but also deeply impressed by Patricia Highsmith’s skill in constructing such a character.

How did she do it? Tom Ripley is the classic underdog—the character with whom everyone can empathize. Tasked with traveling to Italy to bring the privileged and extravagant Dickie Greenleaf home, we quickly learn that Tom has a difficult background and craves acceptance—to the extent he is willing to impersonate others to fit in. But it is not only this endearing awkwardness, but also his cleverness and his hardworking nature that makes him so likable, and makes us want him to succeed at any cost. What’s more, Highsmith only gives us his perspective—we understand his problems, his desires and his emotions, while the characters around him always feel at one remove, filtered through Tom’s eyes. I smarted at their dismissive treatment of him, and ultimately their deaths didn’t feel like a loss at all. It’s only fiction, I told myself when I was reading the book, though I felt uneasy, as if I’d been complicit in his crimes.