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davidb71 's review for:
Deep Water
by Patricia Highsmith
I don't know if I've read too many books featuring psychopathic, or to some extent sociopathic, protagonists lately - from Highsmith and also several books by Peter Swanson - but maybe this was just one book too many of this type for me at the moment. I didn't really warm to it. I still thought it was decent, but it just felt so miserable. It's a portrait of a horrible marriage, and I didn't like either the main character Vic, or his wife Melinda. Of course, I don't need to like characters in order to enjoy a book, but I need to feel invested in them in some way, I need to find the story engaging. This felt too heavy and depressing and just plain miserable to me. I just wanted them to split up. Quite aside from the murders, I just didn't enjoy reading about this awful marriage.
It is still nicely done, though. It is interesting to think about the psychology of the people involved, and why they do the things they do, and the story is vividly told. And it does in many ways feels fresh and - to my mind - quite modern. There are some attitudes, behaviours and details that ground it in its time (1957, I think) but the core of the novel felt surprisingly modern to me.
I like novels that are dark and challenging but this just didn't quite hit that spot for me and it veered more into being a bleak, miserable and heavy read. But maybe I'm at fault here and it was just the wrong book at the wrong time for me, and I wasn't in quite the right mood for it. I still think this is a smart, accomplished and thought-provoking novel.
It is still nicely done, though. It is interesting to think about the psychology of the people involved, and why they do the things they do, and the story is vividly told. And it does in many ways feels fresh and - to my mind - quite modern. There are some attitudes, behaviours and details that ground it in its time (1957, I think) but the core of the novel felt surprisingly modern to me.
I like novels that are dark and challenging but this just didn't quite hit that spot for me and it veered more into being a bleak, miserable and heavy read. But maybe I'm at fault here and it was just the wrong book at the wrong time for me, and I wasn't in quite the right mood for it. I still think this is a smart, accomplished and thought-provoking novel.