As I posted in a status update yesterday afternoon on goodreads (at page 209),"I just love Patricia Highsmith's work. I'm sitting here reading this today, and my tension level has been ratcheted up more than a few times throughout this story. I so want to peek at the end to make sure everything comes out all right, but this is Highsmith, so I know it won't."and as things turned out, I was right. But that's Highsmith for you: things don't always go the way you think they should in her books. She often does a 180 in terms of reader expectations; in this case, she ended up leaving me a lot more unsettled at the end than I was throughout the story.The Blunderer examines three different men in terms of two of Highsmith's favorite themes, guilt and justice. The first, Kimmel, is a bookstore owner who specializes in obtaining pornography. He's also a murderer [which is not a spoiler since you see the whole thing unravel right away upon opening the book and it's on the back-cover blurb] who believes he's gotten away with killing his wife and feels no remorse; the second is an attorney, Walter Stackhouse, whose neurotic ballbuster of a wife Clara is driving his friends away little by little because of her disapproving attitude and crazy imagination. Unlike Kimmel, Walter only thinks about getting rid of his wife, and on reading the story of Mrs. K's death, becomes obsessed with the way the job was done. At the same time, he also becomes more and more convinced of Kimmel's guilt, becoming fascinated with Kimmel himself, and trots off to his bookstore to take a look at him. When Clara turns up dead (also on the back-cover blurb) in much the same fashion as Kimmel's wife, enter the third party of this strange triangle, the overzealous, overreaching, and over-aggressive police detective investigating Mrs. Kimmel's death. While Kimmel sails along sure of himself as far as the law is concerned, Walter isn't so fortunate -- he is the titular "blunderer," whose stupid mistakes he's made along the way are enough to cause havoc for Walter in so very many ways.While there are definite similarities between this novel and Strangers on a Train (as in an examination of guilt, the psychology of the individual, and the doppelganger-ish, growing obsession between two men), unlike SOAT, the ending of this one is a definite shocker. But before reaching that point, what I find most interesting about this book outside of the story itself is the way in which the reader is pretty much manipulated the entire way through.As in the cases of both The Talented Mr. Ripley and Strangers on a Train, I found myself constantly being thrown off kilter while reading, but that's what makes Patricia Highsmith such a fine writer, and it's likely why her books are still quite popular half a century or more after they were first published. I don't want just crime, investigation and solution in my reading, and she more than satisfies my need for dark inroads into the psyche. The Blunderer is one I'd most certainly recommend to readers of darker fiction.
Η Πατρίσια Χάισμιθ είναι πολύ δυνατή συγγραφέας. Ένιωθα σαν να διάβαζα μια πολύ καλή Αγκάθα Κρίστι. Αγωνιώδες, ανατρεπτικό. Αν και φλύαρο ως προς την ψυχολογία των ηρώων και τις καθημερινές τους κινήσεις είναι έτσι γραμμένο που δεν το βαριέσαι. Ακριβώς στο ψαχνό! Είμαι λίγο διστακτικός ως προς το εξής: δεν είναι ξεκάθαρη η υπόθεση και το τέλος είναι πολύ μπερδεμένο. Αν ισχύει αυτό που σκέφτομαι, ναι είναι αξιόλογο βιβλίο, αν είναι γενικό και σκέψου ό,τι θες δε μου άρεσε καθόλου. Κατά τη γνώμη μου λοιπόν ο δολοφόνος της πρώτης γυναίκας (που έκανε και το έγκλημα, άλλωστε γι' αυτόν διαβάζουμε στην αρχή) νομίζει ότι ξέφυγε από τον νόμο. Τυχαία όμως δολοφονείται και μια δεύτερη γυναίκα κατά τον ίδιο τρόπο, οπότε ο αστυνομικός που αναλαμβάνει τις υποθέσεις χρησιμοποιεί τον σύζυγο της δεύτερης, τον γεμίζει υποψίες και τον αναγκάζει να έρθει σε επαφή με τον δολοφόνο, με τον οποίο τον ενώνει το κοινό στοιχείο της δολοφονημένης συζύγου. Κι οι δυο παίζουν δηλαδή το παιχνίδι του αστυνομικού, που θέλει να αναγκάσει με αυτόν τον τρόπο να ομολογήσει την ενοχή του ο δολοφόνος. Άρα ο δεύτερος άντρας δε σκότωσε τη γυναίκα του. Ναι αλλά ποιος τη σκότωσε; Και γιατί μένει αναπάντητο το ερώτημα; Αν ισχύει λοιπόν αυτή μου η σκέψη είναι πολύ καλογραμμένο και από τα δυνατά ψυχολογικά βιβλία. Αλλιώς.... :( (απογοήτευση). Ρίξτε του όμως μια ματιά. Και μετά βουτήξτε στη σειρά με τα βιβλία του Ρίπλεϋ. Στα ελληνικά από τις Ροές το 2003 (Θανάσιμα λάθη).
What do You think about The Blunderer (2001)?
Liked this Highsmith much less than anything else I've read by her. I like the premise, I like the story and it was gripping, strange, and dark enough, but somehow the characters never came alive for me. which has never really happened to me in a highsmith book. the hardest thing for me was to understand walter-- he seemed so ugly and unattractive, yet he was supposed to be a young, successful and attractive lawyer. someone who a mild-mannered and pretty musician could fall in love with. but, it is still a highsmith book with its weirdness and odd pointed darkness.
—aya
I think Highsmith was an excellent writer but this one was not her best effort. Walter Stackhouse sees a notice in the paper about a woman who was killed near a rest stop when she got off a bus. He figures her husband probably followed the bus and lured her into the woods to kill her so decides he wants to see what the husband looked like and goes to his bookstore. Walter is unhappy in his own marriage and wants to divorce his own wife and when she decides to take a bus trip, he decides to try the same MO as the previous death. But when he gets to where her bus pulls over, he arrives a few minutes late and cannot find her. When her body is found at the boss of a cliff near the stop, a policeman begins to connect the two and begins an intensive investigation. The novel shows how someone can blunder their way into crime, whether they act on their fantasies or not. Enjoyable but the writing was not realistic and the plot a little too contrived.
—Ronald Wilcox
This lesser-known Highsmith was mentioned in an '09 Guardian article on her work. The title is subtly understated, considering what the protagonist, a well-to-do lawyer in an unhappy marriage, gets himself into. The narrative drive is supercharged, and she never lets the tension lag. An odd and inconsequential thing I've noticed in Highsmith books is her relative disregard to geographic distance between points. In the Ripley books, Ripley is forever dashing off from "Bel Ombre" to London or Berlin in no time. In "Blunderer" the drive from Nassau County to Newark or Philadelphia seems like a drive to the next town.
—Erin
