The Talented Miss Highsmith: The Secret Life and Serious Art of Patricia Highsmith

by Joan Schenkar

I hadn't read The Talented Mr. Ripley, Highsmith's most famous book, but I was drawn to this biography because of its sheer size.  Wow, what author contributed enough information about themselves to inspire the creation of such a behemoth?  The answer?  Not Ms. Highsmith.  It was her infatuated biographer who was dazed enough to write details like what was eaten for breakfast and even what the writer's thoughts had been.  How can one do this, exactly?  But studying the minutia of a life, that is how.  I finished about half of the book before having enough without getting anywhere.  Yes, a very interesting and one-of-a-kind life Patricia Highsmith had but under the pen of Schenkar I was bored as if she were an acquaintance droning on and on about a lost love.