Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith (Epub)

Description

The world of Patricia Highsmith has always been filled with ordinary people, all of whom are capable of very ordinary crimes. This theme was present from the beginning, when her debut, Strangers on a Train, galvanized the reading public. Here we encounter Guy Haines and Charles Anthony Bruno, passengers on the same train. But while Guy is a successful architect in the midst of a divorce, Bruno turns out to be a sadistic psychopath who manipulates Guy into swapping murders with him. “Some people are better off dead,” Bruno remarks, “like your wife and my father, for instance.” As Bruno carries out his twisted plan, Guy is trapped in Highsmith’s perilous world, where, under the right circumstances, anybody is capable of murder.

The inspiration for Alfred Hitchcock’s classic 1951 film, Strangers on a Train launched Highsmith on a prolific career of noir fiction, proving her a master at depicting the unsettling forces that tremble beneath the surface of everyday contemporary life.

User’s Reviews

Review “An incredible study of psychological torture and how fine the membrane is between normality and the underlying darkness.” – Tana French“Strangers on a Train is a moral-vertigo thriller: Crime and Punishment for a post-atomic age.” – Tom Nolan, The Los Angeles Times“Strangers on a Train is filled with paranoia and anxiety, and through its twists and turns, we, like poor Guy Haines, are also drawn into psychopath Bruno’s web.” – Sarah Pinborough, author of Behind Her Eyes –This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Reviews from Amazon users, collected at the time the book is getting published on UniedVRG. It can be related to shiping or paper quality instead of the book content:

⭐ This particular edition is not the complete novel, but a very abridged version. The description on Amazon does not state this.

⭐ !!! SPOILERS BELOW !!! !!! SPOILERS BELOW !!!!!! SPOILERS BELOW !!! !!! SPOILERS BELOW !!!Guy’s from Texas but lives in New York. He has dark hair and is 29. He’s been separated from his 23 year old wife for three years and she’s in Texas. She’s pregnant by her boyfriend, Owen Markham.Charles Bruno, who goes by ‘Bruno’ throughout the entire book, is a 25 year old blond and slightly overweight alcoholic who has wealthy parents, with the money being from his mother’s side of the family. He’s from New York. He dropped out of Harvard during his second year and doesn’t currently work. He hates his father for not giving him money and for cheating on his mother multiple times. His parents may own Bruno Transforming Company, and they make AC-DC gadgets. He’s drunk in most of the novel.Needless to say Bruno is seriously disturbed. He admitted to himself that he likes crises and creating them. He thinks the planning of Miriam’s demise gives him a sense of purpose and will fulfill a desire once she’s gone. He’s even thought about suicide. He misperceives things and believes that Guy is his friend early on when they barely know each other. When Guy wants nothing to do with him he says he was ‘used’ by Guy, when he wasn’t at all. When he feels he’s been rejected by Guy he seems to have a mental breakdown. His character’s so much more fleshed out in the novel. He’s more whiny too, and has outbursts. It’s assumed by some, myself included, that he’s gay, based on his obsession with Guy and always wanting to be near. Bruno’s a character who definitely needed his backstory told and I don’t know why it wasn’t. We only know he’s a mama’s boy who likes to stay drunk.Guy really tried his best to cut Bruno out of his life but in the end, gave in. Oddly, he began to see Bruno as a friend near the end of the novel when before, he couldn’t stand to be around him. He got real loose-lipped too, which made no sense.Anne is blonde in the book and brunette in the film. She’s extremely bland. There’s a scene where Bruno sends her an anonymous letter telling her that Guy knows more about Miriam’s death than anyone knows. She asks Guy about it and doesn’t seem at all concerned when Guy denies it. She’s pretty nonchalant in regard to Bruno and I feel she should have been suspicious of him always showing up uninvited or inviting himself places. Anne is different in the film, brighter. Based on not much of anything other than similarities in her sister’s eyeglasses and Miriam’s, she figured out Miriam’s murder. Someone else figured it out in the novel, a detective named Arthur Gerard.After Miriam’s death in the film, the similarities between book and film pretty much end. I wish I knew why the film was so different. The film doesn’t show how much Guy cares for Anne. It doesn’t delve into Bruno’s obsession with Guy, with not letting him go after the bad deeds are done. In the film Bruno’s cigarette lighter plays a part but not in the novel. The film has nothing at all on the novel. Novel spans over 1 1/2 years.I haven’t been real excited while reading a book in awhile. I loved this except for the last twenty pages. I had no thoughts on how the story would end and I’m not happy with it at all. A little more thought should have gone into it and one of the two things wasn’t believable.

⭐ First of all i went ahead and gave it 4 stars because it did keep me reading. There was a lot in the book that could have been left out. The movie was far better with Alfred Hitchcock at the helm. It didn’t drag it out as much as the book. The writer does a good job of keeping you in suspense. To me, the endings of her books just leave things hanging and you just can’t like the characters. The protagonist does need a psychiatrist. I could not figure out what Guy’s love interest saw in him. Go ahead and read it, it will keep you involved.

⭐ This is an excellent book, and I would have given it 5 stars (or 4.5 if that was allowed), except for the ending. I won’t spoil it, and I don’t know that it’s predictable to readers, but that’s the only part I really didn’t like. The plot is interesting (although that part is a little predictable), and the two main characters are so well-developed, I felt as if I knew them & understood their emotions, actions, & motivations. There’s an element of homosexual love or at least lust (in my view) that’s pretty strong in parts. The dynamic between the characters is interesting, as in the dilemma the “good”‘one faces–how to be free of the “bad” one, or if that’s even possible. The author does a beautiful job of exploring that. The pace is good, & I didn’t want to put it down. Part of what was hard about the end is that it felt somewhat unresolved–I think I’d hoped for more closure or a different kind. I also didn’t want the book to end in a way because it was so good. Great page-turner, suspense, & writing.

⭐ I downloaded a sample of this book which was a rich and beautifully written excerpt. I purchased the kindle version and noted immediately that huge portions were missing and it read like a made for TV adaptation. This IS NOT the novel as advertised. It should be removed.

⭐ The whole book is about a brilliant idea of two people that meet randomly, and decided let’s kill the person we hate the most for each other.Okay, what’s the problem? Well for one the protagonist, never really seemed like there was a good enough reason for him to go on with the master plot. I love morally ambiguous characters, but it seemed more of a light switch. He will be good, then bad without a real clear cut reason why. Seemed like it just wasn’t explained.I read this wanting to see the movie for the first time after, and well I wonder if the movie will let me down like the book did.Other nitpicky would be there was a lot of them just thinking and assuming things in rooms by themselves, never seemed to go anywhere interesting. But like I said, I might just being picky over nothing. Not terrible, but nothing special.

⭐ This an abridged version that takes all of the drama out of the story and gives you the plot twists and turns with no subtlety at all. Chopped by almost 200 pages, the bare bones feel to the story reads like I imagine the pitch for the movie might go and not like the rich, fully-developed novel Patricia Highsmith wrote. Buy the paperback or hardcover and skip the Kindle version all together.

⭐ A simple ride on a train and meeting with two strangers begins this tale. The scenario: a perfect murder. One man, Guy Haines, begins to discuss with another man, Charles Bruno, about topics as they ride to their destination. Bruno seems to have a way of sizing up Guy from the get go, and eventually he pushes the discussion to how much he hates his father and Guy, in turn, reveals too much about his own struggles with his wife. Bruno, laughing, comes up with the perfect plan, which he suggests to Guy: let’s bump off each other’s “problems”, murder for each other. Guy, not fully taking Bruno seriously, “agrees” with the plan, more to get away from him than anything else. However, Bruno follows through with his side of the plan, and now expects Guy to do the same…Perhaps Strangers on a Train’s biggest strength is simply its deep psychological aspects. Once the “deed” is done, Guy’s world turns inside out and there is a sense that he, psychologically, is no match for Bruno. Charles Bruno is one of the most relentless and manipulative sociopaths one may encounter in crime fiction. While not physically imposing, Bruno emotionally breaks down the will of Guy at many points.Another interesting angle explored is the nature of duality within the individual. There seems to be made a case from the author that duel aspects exist in individuals, as is suggested by the character of Guy Haines. Much of the novel focuses on his internally conflicted self: “The anxiety had always been within himself, a battle of himself against himself, so torturous…”Highsmith lets you in to Guy’s mind and lets you stew around a bit, and see how the turn of events takes its toll on him. What is fascinating is that one side there is a seeming normalcy to events within Guy’s life, yet under the surface there is constant disarray and chaos.Besides this, Strangers on the Train is just a cleverly plotted psychological thriller that builds with each chapter. As much a study in crime as it is the aftermath of a crime, Highsmith’s novel edges its way towards a tension-filled conclusion as Bruno pushes his way further and further into Guy’s life. Definitely a read for the fan of psychological thrillers.

⭐ A solid crime novel. I noticed many differences from the Alfred Hitchcock movie. This story is much darker than that tale and well, Guy is not the nice, innocent victim so much in this one. Both characters are believable. I must say that I liked Bruno less than in the movie. He seemed more redemptive in the movie where as in this one he seems only callous and well, possibly homosexual. All in all the book moves well, but compared to modern reads, readers should expect more retrospective scene where each has to deal with what’s bee done and move forward. It is a gripping tale I would certainly describe as somewhat existential. Could be a touch of Camus in there. The premise is the same and the story essentially starts out the same as the movie but does not end the same way at all. I definitely have appreciation for both. The book provided the blueprint which books always do, but Hitchcock added a lot of great personal touches the book lacks. However, I definitely recommend this one to any crime reader. You won’t be disappointed but you might be disturbed.

⭐ I think this story itself was a good one. The problem I have was the way the author tried to frame it. For one thing, she dragged it out too much, and the story suffered because of that. And there was very little drama, and hardly no climax to speak of. I gave up on STANGERS ON A TRAIN about half way through. At that point it became unbearable and I just moved on to my next novel: The classic Agatha Christie novel I got in the mail today! Lol

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