I would like to reiterate my previous point: Highsmith makes people empathise with sociopaths. She is bad for you! Damn her compelling prose style. I like your character assessments very much, you have Ripley down brilliantly, though you know I disagree very slightly with your stance on Bruno... But he is much, much more likeable than Ripley, despite his extreme childishness/selfishness. I found Ripley really quite antagonising, I don't think he's actually likeable enough to quite work as a Charming Sociopath (a character genre that surely deserves a post of its own, considering its importance to the subculture...). But it's a while since I read any Ripley.
Carol drives me to pronounce her name Carole through pure irritation, Therese is a different matter. That book is sweet, but not the best of works of literature.
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But he is much, much more likeable than Ripley, despite his extreme childishness/selfishness. I found Ripley really quite antagonising, I don't think he's actually likeable enough to quite work as a Charming Sociopath (a character genre that surely deserves a post of its own, considering its importance to the subculture...). But it's a while since I read any Ripley.
And I still prefer Carol to both of them.
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