Books like Patricia Highsmith by Harrison, Russell

Russell Harrison’s book is the first full-length scholarly examination of Patricia Highsmith’s literary oeuvre. It evaluates her most successful and representative works through clear, accessible prose, noting how Highsmith’s fiction incorporates existentialist ideas linked to Sartre, Camus, Dostoyevsky, and Gide. Harrison traces the author’s engagement with sociopolitical concerns spanning the Cold War of the 1940s and 1950s, the politicization of the 1960s and 1970s, and the gay‑and‑lesbian issues of the 1980s and 1990s. The study also discusses Highsmith’s portrayal of interpersonal relationships—particularly family dynamics—and her focus on objects as central to her characters’ lives. Separate chapters offer biographical background based on previously unpublished material from Highsmith’s friends, and they examine her mid‑century works, political dimensions, queer writings, and short stories.

First publish date: 1997