Saturday Samplers to Discuss Short Stories by Patricia Highsmith

Bernardsville Library’s book group, Saturday Samplers, will meet on Saturday, December 9 at 10:30 am to discuss "The Snail-Watcher and Other Stories" (1970) by Patricia Highsmith who died in 1995. Ms. Highsmith was an American novelist known mainly for her psychological crime thrillers from which more than two dozen film adaptations were made over the years.

"The Snail-Watcher and Other Stories," the collection of short stories under discussion, presents a gallery of bizarre characters, each driven by strange unspoken urges, whose cumulative effect is at least as unsettling as any of Highsmith's previous novels: a man who keeps snails for a hobby; a young boy fascinated by the terrapin his mother brings home; a woman seeking psychiatric aid for her troubled husband; a young governess eager to show her affection for the family that hired her. These are a few of the seemingly ordinary people who fill these eleven stories by this master of psychological suspense. With skill and perception, Ms. Highsmith reveals the secrets that may be hidden behind even the most sane, civilized facade--the sometimes terrifying possibilities that lurk in the dark corners of the human mind.

Ms. Highsmith's first suspense novel, "Strangers on a Train" published in 1950, was an immediate success with public and critics alike. The novel has been adapted for the screen three times, most notably by Alfred Hitchcock in 1951. In 1955, her anti-hero Tom Ripley appeared in the "The Talented Mr. Ripley," a book that was awarded the Grand Prix de Litterature Policiere as the best foreign mystery novel translated into French in 1957. This book, too, has been the subject of a number of film versions, and was followed by four more books in which Ripley appeared.

Along with her acclaimed series about Ripley, Highsmith wrote 22 novels and eight short story collections plus many other short stories, often macabre, satirical or tinged with black humor. She also wrote one novel, a non-mystery, under the name Claire Morgan.

Saturday Samplers is a book discussion group dedicated to sampling various kinds of literature, including short stories, nonfiction, new and old novels, and teen fiction. Its goal is to search out interesting, noteworthy, and sometimes overlooked literary and narrative works. No sign-up is needed to join the discussion. Call the library at 766-0118 for more information.