Willa Magland
Strangers on a Train (June 2024)
Strangers on a Train
Title: Strangers on a Train
Author: Patricia Highsmith
Published: 1950
Medium: Kindle (epub)
Rating: ⭐⭐
I'm going to be honest: I didn't enjoy this book. It was well written, but my god, it was boring! I kept waiting for it to pick up until around the middle when both murders happened and then I gave up hope. I did finish the thing, but it sure was a slog. And talk about a disapointing ending!
I don't have too many thoughts about it. I wouldn't exactly classify it as a psychological thriller, because the character's minds were too boring to really get lost inside. The aspects of Guy's guilt and atonement just didn't hit because I really didn't care about him.
I agree with a goodreads review that it could have been a Novella.
Here are some notable quotes:
Perhaps God and the Devil danced hand in hand around every single electron! He threw his cigarette at the wastebasket and missed.
"I could break you down and make you kill someone. It might take different methods from the ones Bruno used on me, but it could be done."
"My point is, that if society hasn't the right to take another person's life, then the law hasn't either."
And more specifically, some subtly gay ones:
He might have been Bruno's lover, he thought suddenly
Not only hadn't he ever fallen in love, but he didn't care too much about sleeping with women. He had never been able to stop thinking it was a silly business ... Once, one terrible time, he had started giggling.
Bruno stared at him in terrified surprise. "Guy, what's the matter?" Bruno followed him. "Guy, wait! You don't think I'd do a thing like that, do you? I wouldn't in a million years!" "Don't touch me!" "Guy!" Bruno was almost crying.
If he could strangle Anne, too, then Guy and he could really be together.
Overall, I give it...
⭐⭐
Two stars.
Now for some Woolf!
Current Status ☕
