unabridgedchick's reviews
1395 reviews

Grabbed this for Reader Harder 2022 - bio of an author you admire -- but my affection for Highsmith's books are obliterated in light of her absolute awfulness. Bradford doesn't disguise or avoid her terrible anti-Semitism, racism, and otherwise appalling behaviors, but he often suggests that they're manifestations of a persona she's choosing rather than deeply held beliefs -- as if that negates the impacts of her behavior and all that. 

Bradford's bio tries to shoehorn Highsmith's life into her books which is a biographical technique I hate so I'm not taken with this book. [book:The Talented Miss Highsmith: The Secret Life and Serious Art of Patricia Highsmith|6424007] is a veritable bookstop of a biography so I appreciated a far more slender one, but found Bradford didn't take time to dive into the who of things in favor of pulling out plot elements from Highsmith's novels and overlaying them on her life. But the overlap never clicked and it didn't convince me of anything other than Highsmith is a horrible human and channeled it into her art. 

I wondered for a long time why Highsmith never got her sapphic resurrection but she's pretty irredeemable. Anyway, this book quashed any love for her books that I had -- she's up there with Lovecraft for her vocal, vile beliefs.

A mix of Shirley Jackson, Otessa Moshfegh and Patricia Highsmith -- high on ambiance but frustratingly vague on other details. A character study in paranoia? I was so excited for what could have happened but the last 25% just pffft'd flat. Puzzled by the given name reveal and if it's supposed to be significant...