I’ll add to something you said in these comments, about the portrayal of Europe viewed through American eyes: it struck me in the books that although Ripley’s opinion of America is low and he chooses to live the privileged life in Europe, he is still distinctly American. I don’t agree with the critics who say that Ripley is Highsmith, but they did have their similarities, and this is one of them. I’ve already mentioned that my favorite Ripley film is “The American Friend” with Dennis Hopper, who a lot of people claim is the worst Ripley. As I said in the other article: “He may wear clothing that Highsmith’s Ripley would despise (a mechanic’s jumpsuit and a cowboy hat), but he nails the character.” I think he’s the only actor who has managed to capture the feeling of Ripley’s distinct “Americanness.”

(The director, Wim Wenders, says on the DVD commentary that Highsmith initially hated the film but changed her mind when she saw it a second time, saying that Hopper had captured the essence of Ripley. I agree with her.)

As for the gay subtext of the novels, perhaps my own homosexuality has informed my point of view, but I didn’t think the subtext was all that strong to begin with, and I think too much is made of Ripley’s sexuality. I added the “Tom Ripley” section to the “Ambiguously Gay” article on TVtropes.com, and I’ll just quote that here:

>> In “The Talented Mr. Ripley,” he claims not to know whether he likes men or women, and jokingly says that he’s going to give up both. In the same book, his obsession with another young man seems borderline sexual, although he ultimately becomes disillusioned with him and kills him to get his money. In later books, Tom is married to a woman, but his sexual attraction to her seems minimal at best. They sleep in separate beds and rarely make love, and he seems to treat her more as a trophy wife than an object of love. In “The Boy Who Followed Ripley,” he’s clearly attracted to the 16-year-old “boy” of the title, but nothing ever comes of it. He rescues the “boy” from kidnappers while dressed in drag, but he seems more amused by this than sexually thrilled. Tom ultimately has little interest in sex of any kind, although he’s clearly attracted to other men occasionally. <<

In short, the subtext is absolutely there — Highsmith even described Ripley as "a little bit homosexual" in an interview — but I think anyone reading "The Talented Mr. Ripley" for the gay subtext is going to be disappointed. And if the subtext is dropped in any of the sequels, it's in "Ripley Under Ground" and "Ripley Under Water," but I felt that whatever minimal subtext was there in "The Talented Mr. Ripley" is just as prevalent in "Ripley's Game" and "The Boy Who Followed Ripley."

Depsite my status as a hardcore fan of the Ripley novels, I still haven't read anything else from Highsmith, which makes me feel slightly ashamed. Jonathan Lethem, whose opinion I can usually trust, wrote that "Highsmith's greatest work is in the non-Ripley novels" and he cited "The Cry of the Owl," "The Blunderer," "This Sweet Sickness," "The Tremor of Forgery," "Deep Water," and "A Dog's Ransom" as her best work. I suppose I'll get to at least some these books eventually, but I've got a serious problem reconciling the number of books I want to read with the time and money I have.

As I said in the other article, my opinions of the individual Ripley novels changed slightly when I read them a second time. "The Talented Mr. Ripley" was my favorite the first time, but "Ripley's Game" is now my favorite. Who knows how I'll feel when I read them a third time? Regardless, you're in for a treat with the third book; even when it wasn't my favorite, I still felt it was better than "Ripley Under Ground." It's downhill from there, unfortunately, although "The Boy Who Followed Ripley" and "Ripley Under Water" certainly have their moments. To make a good film based on those two books, however, I think a screenwriter would have to combine them.

I hope to get to The Talented Mr. Ripley sooner rather than later, but have no plans to speed through her oeuvre. “Some years from now…”: exactly.

Chandler and Hammett always call for revisiting.

I have read a couple of Tim Parks ( Dreams of Rivers and Seas and Europa) and enjoyed them — he fits another one of my sub-categories, English authors writing from Italy. I’ll keep the two you recommend in mind (I see they were published under a pseudonym) but warn that it might be a while before I get to them. I don’t visit the genre that often and with more Highsmith on the agenda, together with Andrea Camilleri’s Montalbano books (Guy Savage recommended the DVDs and we loved them, so I’m going to try the books), it is already crowded. Not to mention, that Chandler and Hammett do call for the occasional revisit.

For me the sequels to The Talented Mr. Ripley were solid novels but nothing great. The gay subtext to the original seemed just entirely dropped which made the character quite different and generally he just seems more accomplished. In the original he’s a pathetic character driven to kill from inadequacy. In the sequels he’s a cool sociopath who kills to protect a glamorous lifestyle. For me it was almost a change of genre (almost, it isn’t – it’s more a change of tone).

That said, I did enjoy them. I just didn’t find them that special and while I might reread Talented I wouldn’t personally reread the sequels.

If you like these though you might want to check out Cara Massimina and it’s sequel Mimi’s Ghost both by Tim Parks which are similar in theme but which aim more for comedy than suspense. I don’t think either is Parks’ best, but they’re both fun reads and Parks is a talented writer.

I’ll confess that I do love it when I encounter an author that I know I will be still exploring some years from now.

I have really enjoyed the discussion above. All the opinions make me want to read some Highsmith so I can have one too.