The Cry of the Owl

I've only read two of Highsmith's so far, and this one was fine, in that it was another elegantly written, sharply observed mystery/thriller sort of thing that delicately brushed against serious literary topics. I found the novel's central character, Robert Forrester, compelling but I found the book's setting -- the postwar United States at the advent of the suburb and the automobile -- somewhat less so. Still, if you liked "Mad Men", there might be something here for you to enjoy, at least stylistically: just about everybody in "The Cry of the Owl" smokes cigarettes and drinks coffee and alcohol almost continuously and we do take a couple of trips into Manhattan. Beyond the whodunit aspects of the plot, Highsmith seems keen to point show more out the sometimes incomprehensible censoriousness of American small towns -- there are some things, apparently, that your neighbors will forgive and other things that they certainly will not, and there seems to be very little indeed that they don't know about you. The novel's also interested in death, both as a real absence and as a dark foreboding that lurks at the back of some character's unconscious, another thing, I suppose, that postwar Americans were just beginning to discover. It didn't exactly shock or astound me, but this is a good one if you're between really heavy reads. Certainly recommendable if you like the author, the period, or the genre. show less

"She had called him up to give him a piece of her mind, Robert supposed, and what surprised him more than anything was that she could be so voluble, so sure of herself, while addressing someone she considered a murderer. Weren’t people supposed to be afraid of murderers? If she really believed him a murderer, wouldn’t she be afraid he might get angry and come after her, too?"

It appears that this January has been the month of reading gloriously messed up books and it all started with The Cry of the Owl.

Robert is depressed. The only reprieve from his low moods is when he watches Jenny, a twenty-something from behind a tree outside of her house. Robert is a stalker. Of course, this leads to complications, and - this being a Highsmith show more novel - complications lead to twists that turn the hunter into the hunted and make you question the sanity of every one of the characters.

"A crow flew over, cawing. Late at night for a crow, Jenny thought. A crow was black. That was fitting." show less

this very much goes in directions (in terms of both plot and character) that are continually surprising, which was fun for me. and it meant that i liked this more and more as it went on, as by the time we were close to the end, it was so far from what it had first seemed we were going to be virtually unrecognizable. so that is cool. there were so many parts of this that felt so unlikely, even though it was written in 1962, in terms of how the police handled (mostly didn't handle) things, especially with all the attacks and shootings going on. still, this was fun and unexpected in so many ways that by the end i was really enjoying it. (it did take a while to wind up, though.)

So here's a crime novel where the murderer is the least screwed up, most readily understood of all the main characters - the worrying folks with the more or less serious mental health problems are either victims or Ladies MacBeth.

Bleakly dark journey along incremental steps from the mundane to Grand Guignol in small town America. In Highsmith's typical forensically psychological style, lives unravel as personallities collide. To my mind, however, the most interesting aspect of this book was the near absolute disconnection between the story and the cover art of this original Pan edition.

I suppose I’d better say why I gave this such a poor mark. There was almost nobody in this entire book who was not suffering from severe mental health problems. It became ridiculous. I don’t just mean the four main protagonists, I mean the neighbours, the landlady, the friends, the townspeople. The only ones anywhere near sane were the doctor and Jenny’s parents. It started off just being annoying , then became laughable. Shame, I like Highsmith and had high hopes for this one.

Ne uccide più la lingua che la spada, ovvero quando i buoni diventano i cattivi e i cattivi diventano buoni. Il protagonista è un lavoratore solitario, una persona tranquilla che trova ristoro nelle sue piccole manie. Purtroppo è circondato da persone cattive e instabili, che riescono a compromettere la sua amicizia con la giovane Jenny, fino al tragico finale. vicini di casa impiccioni e inclini al giudizio fanno da contorno a questo thriller. Morale: vietato giudocare dalle apparenze!