Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith

The tagline on the back of my paperback edition of this book reads, "The psychologists would it folie à deux . . ."

This book was recommended to me by a very sharp and intelligent woman who was thrilled to have a chance to "talk shop" to another reader, even while inebriated. She thrust a worn copy of the novel into my hands and I must admit, the cover is very cheesy: a bright purple glove laid out against a flask atop what appears to be a newspaper, with some kind of metal weapon also in frame. Ridiculous. She implored me to pay attention to Highsmith's writing style, as Strangers was mentioned in the context of 1950s crime novels and the recommender wanted me to note what happens to the same story elements while in the hands of a woman.

She did not need to point this out. Highsmith writes with a particular attention to pure psychology - that is, whereas a lot of other writers (male especially) resort to metaphors in order to describe a characters feelings, Highsmith describes them plainly and directly. Of course, those metaphors -- black coffee, empty shell casings, the smell of honeysuckle, a twist in bones, crushing pumpkins -- have helped shape the genre of noir and crime fiction, they have become hallmarks and expectations. There is nothing wrong with them; they are one of the genre's greatest appeals and delights.

However, Highsmith's ability to astutely present the downward spirals of our main characters, Bruno and Guy, makes their world simultaneously realistic and staggeringly unreal. This is really a great effect - one that you might normally expect from reading a romance: two people meet in an unlikely way and around them forms a universe that "normal" rules cannot penetrate.

Oh, you don't know the story? Of course you do, this is a classic, thanks in large part to Hitchcock's film of the same name, which (from my hazy memory) maintains much of the tension but loses the actual psychological fear and desperation involved. Two men meet on a train. One, Guy, is more "like us," you could say. He seems normal, he's having some marital troubles, but he's relatively calm about them, alternately optimistic and nihilistic. It seems normal. On the train, he meets Bruno, who we immediately assume is "the crazy one" - one huge shining pimple on his forehead, a strangely concentrated but distant gaze, a drinking problem, and a tendency to start talking to strangers (how dare he!). Bruno eventually suggests the outline of "the perfect murder" - two strangers meet on a train, each commits a murder "for" the other one. The proposition: Bruno murders Guy's obstinate wife so that Guy can move on with his career and marry his true love, and in exchange Guy murders Bruno's overbearing and unsupportive father so that Bruno's finances can be freed up. The two men have no connection to each other (besides having ridden the same train), so the crimes will, ostensibly, never be solved.

Due to a strange mood and an undue amount of alcohol, it's never clear if Guy actually agrees to this plan, or leads Bruno on in any way, but Bruno moves ahead with the plan and murders Guy's wife.

It's difficult to explain the effect of this book - it's a dance between two minds and dissecting them is impossible without quoting huge sections of the book or ruining fun plot twists. For Bruno and Guy, it's madness at first sight, and the simple idea that Bruno has dragged Guy into this can be dispelled or at least questioned thanks to Highsmith's scientific presentation of each character's mental processes.

Whatever, just read it. There isn't much I can say. The novel results in tunnel-vision, very effective. It drags you along with the characters and makes it difficult to treat the story as something apart from you. Highsmith puts such a fine point on certain psychological developments that you can recognize them in yourself, even though -you've- never arranged murders with some dude you met on the bus. But once you see yourself in Guy, or Bruno, it's hard to turn back. In the same way, once Guy sees himself in Bruno, he simply cannot turn back. Lucky for the reader, the book ends and you can put it away.