Loving Highsmith
Friday, September 2, 2022 6:46:23 AM | (Age Not Specified)
Patricia Highsmith made a lasting impression upon us even as a small child. The curious fascination which gripped us as a child has only become stronger since we begin to examine Patricia Highsmith’s life more closely. This mysterious attraction is also something that many of her readers are unable to escape from. Various episodes from Highsmith’s life stand out, how she was stalked by admirers, how fans would break into her house, how one of her later lovers gained access to her by adopting a false identity. And here we're already in Highsmith Country, as her work was known due to it's curious, unique nature: a land of obsessions, double identities, secrets and desire. Highsmith’s image is determined to a great extent by the last years of her life in Switzerland, and by her reputation as a grim, misanthropic crime writer. We discover a completely different person behind the familiar image, a beautiful young writer with an extremely romantic streak and a poetic style who led an incredibly active love life in the wild New York of the post-war years.
Love is a permanent theme, not only in her unpublished novels and diaries. Highsmith’s famous psychological thrillers are also interwoven with themes of obsessive love which disrupts identity. In the final analysis she always writes about love, though most of the times encoded. Most of these ended in disappointment. And Highsmith destroyed herself with long-term alcoholism. The women who had relationships with Highsmith, though open about their homosexuality in lesbian circles and with friends, were often forced to lead a double life with their families. "Loving Highsmith" is therefore intended also to be a plea for the women of Highsmith’s generation who fought it for the right to live and love in accordance with their true identities. The life and work of the incomparable Highsmith thus provided a completely new face for lesbian women.
Written by Gregory Mann
