Book Review: Edith's Diary

Edith’s Diary by Patricia Highsmith was a kind of hand-me-down of sorts (the best way to acquire books), from a now-deceased uncle who said that “I would like her style.” It was actually later that I discovered (like “duh”) that she was the author of Strangers on a Train upon which the Hitchcock movie was based, as well as the Talented Mr. Ripley series of books. The former ended up as a book club selection & we also watched the movie for comparison. I’m still working through the latter. Highsmith has (“had,” I guess, because she’s dead now) the very interesting talent of making a sociopath, well, sympathetic. Thomas Ripley only murders people because he “had to,” but with everyone else, he’s the perfect gentleman. But I digress.

Edith’s Diary is a stand-alone novel about a couple and their young son who transplant from New York to a small town in Pennsylvania. The situation has a veneer of normalcy but the reader starts to question that veneer pretty quickly. Then the reader finds him/herself in the midst of a slow corrosion. The book moves slowly at parts, but doesn’t allow you to become bored. Well, let’s just say that I realize that Highsmith also crafts characters that very effectively get under your skin.