“The Tremor of Forgery” by Patricia Highsmith - review

“The Tremor of Forgery” by Patricia Highsmith:

Recently, in search of a light read which would get me over the first, always dreary, days of January, I was recommended a book by Patricia Highsmith, “The Tremor of Forgery“, published first in the UK in 1969.

I was of the impression up until then that I had read all the books by Highsmith, even if that was a long time, decades, ago. Well, I was wrong, this one I had not read. And what a pleasant surprise it was.

Patricia Highsmith, American crime novelist (1921-1995) was by far more famous outside of the USA. And this did not change even after her novel “Strangers on a Train“ was bought and adapted for cinema by Alfred Hitchcock.

Her most famous figure could well be the talented Mr. Tom Ripley, to whom she dedicated 5 books alone. The first of the series was also made into a film, at least twice, one featuring Alain Delon in “Plein soleil“ by René Clement in 1960, and recently Matt Damon in “The Talented Mr. Ripley“ by Anthony Minghella from 1999.

The Tremor of Forgery marks somehow a departure from its predecessors as it is playing much more on the internal life of its protagonist, tells the story solely from the perspective of one single character. It is often considered to be her best novel, even Graham Greene gave it high praise. 

It tells of Howard Ingham, an American writer, who travels to Tunisia in order to meet and work with a friend on a screenplay. The friend never shows up, having committed suicide and Ingham, shaken by this news, resolves to write his next novel instead on site and stays. He gets sucked into the strangely different life of Tunisia, observing the Tunisian society around him, reflecting on its attitudes and how he feels about those cultural differences. 

He meets and befriends another American, a strange bigot character, and a friendly, lonely, gay Dane with a dog, who is a painter.

He ponders his own sexuality, deliberating on his latent homosexual tendencies whilst also embarking on a brief fling with a young woman. He even questions the very nature of his existence.

In following his thoughts or his conversations on a variety of topics with his friends it makes for a rich and rewarding reading experience. And there are mysteries at the heart of the story.

There's a hint of espionage with the American friend, there is the incident of an attempted break-in at Ingham's hotel bungalow, during which Ingham throws his typewriter in defence against the intruder; thereafter he is haunted by the notion that he might have killed the man.

All the while he waits for news of his girlfriend who later comes to visit him and tells him she has had an affair with his suicidal friend and was the reason for his killing himself.

On first perception the novel might seem uneventful but, as with almost every Highsmith novel, it grows on you in suspense and psychological drama. The true complexity and the depth of this novel come from the questions of morality and crime and how they can become relative in a given situation, forcing one to rethink well-trodden paths.

*Patricia Highsmith (January 19, 1921 – February 4, 1995) was an American novelist and short story writer best known for her psyhological thrillers, including her series of five novels featuring the character Tom Ripley. She wrote 22 novels novels and numerous sshort stories.

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