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A review by justinkhchen
Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith
4.0
4 stars
Beautifully written, with possibly the most fascinating villain I've read in awhile, Strangers on a Train is surprisingly lax on thrills, but makes up with a deep dive into character psyche with a profound focus on guilt.
It's fair to say Strangers on a Train is all about Charles Bruno, the obsessive psychopath who gradually ropes in the protagonist (involuntarily) for his murderous plot. A functioning alcoholic, sometimes boyishly needy and others full-on manic (or is it an act?), the unpredictability of his character is effectively disturbing, and make the reader completely sympathize with the protagonist's helplessness predicament; how do you release yourself from someone who doesn't understand social cues? The much talked-about homoerotic subtext is definitely present, though one can argue if it's truly a defined sexual orientation, or the result of an obsessive love disorder (that just happens to target on a subject of male sex). As a cherry on top, the committed performance of the audiobook narrator fully brought this complex character to life.
Everything else seems pale in comparison. The protagonist Guy Haines can be annoyingly timid and self-loathing at times (just open up with someone already!), however I do appreciate him being depicted as a rising architect (and how that metaphorically juxtaposes with his crumbling mental state), which is a detail that was switched in Hitchcock's excellent film adaptation. The ending is disappointingly anticlimactic, with a lengthy 'confessional' session that derails into existential discussion on law and judgment. Even though it's thematically appropriate, the preachy tone paints too clear of a picture, and lessens the moral ambiguity presented before it.
It's stupidly impressive when you put into context Strangers on a Train being Patricia Highsmith's first novel, who then went on to write even more memorable characters that still resonate today (Tom Ripley from The Talented Mr. Ripley, and her lesbian romance novel The Price of Salt which was made into Carol in 2015). Even though I'm not as blown away by this source material as anticipated (Hitchcock really cleaned up some of the sluggish narrative elements), it is still an worthwhile experience.
Beautifully written, with possibly the most fascinating villain I've read in awhile, Strangers on a Train is surprisingly lax on thrills, but makes up with a deep dive into character psyche with a profound focus on guilt.
It's fair to say Strangers on a Train is all about Charles Bruno, the obsessive psychopath who gradually ropes in the protagonist (involuntarily) for his murderous plot. A functioning alcoholic, sometimes boyishly needy and others full-on manic (or is it an act?), the unpredictability of his character is effectively disturbing, and make the reader completely sympathize with the protagonist's helplessness predicament; how do you release yourself from someone who doesn't understand social cues? The much talked-about homoerotic subtext is definitely present, though one can argue if it's truly a defined sexual orientation, or the result of an obsessive love disorder (that just happens to target on a subject of male sex). As a cherry on top, the committed performance of the audiobook narrator fully brought this complex character to life.
Everything else seems pale in comparison. The protagonist Guy Haines can be annoyingly timid and self-loathing at times (just open up with someone already!), however I do appreciate him being depicted as a rising architect (and how that metaphorically juxtaposes with his crumbling mental state), which is a detail that was switched in Hitchcock's excellent film adaptation. The ending is disappointingly anticlimactic, with a lengthy 'confessional' session that derails into existential discussion on law and judgment. Even though it's thematically appropriate, the preachy tone paints too clear of a picture, and lessens the moral ambiguity presented before it.
It's stupidly impressive when you put into context Strangers on a Train being Patricia Highsmith's first novel, who then went on to write even more memorable characters that still resonate today (Tom Ripley from The Talented Mr. Ripley, and her lesbian romance novel The Price of Salt which was made into Carol in 2015). Even though I'm not as blown away by this source material as anticipated (Hitchcock really cleaned up some of the sluggish narrative elements), it is still an worthwhile experience.