Those Who Walk Away

“My father-in-law is in Venice and he wants to kill me. My wife died a month ago.” “She was a suicide,” Ray said, “and her father thinks I am to blame.”

So, the father-in-law shoots the poor guy and when that fails, he pushes him off a boat into the cold Venice canal!

But Ray was still alive and on the loose! And up to something! And thus begins their game of cat and mouse! And even though I can't understand why Ray would keep giving Coleman repeated chances to kill him, it's a really interesting game to follow! Revenge, forgiveness, and grief all wrapped weaving through the streets and canals of Venice, Italy. I felt a dream-like quality fall over me every time I picked this up to read. It was hard to 'walk away' from it when show more it was done!

“ The boat gathered speed. The lights of Venice twinkled, burned steadily, rose and fell with the boat’s progress through the windblown water.”

“The world is not enough, therefore I leave it to find something bigger.” show less

Another classic in the same vein as Highsmith's Ripley series. The setting is Venice during the winter. It's dreary. Ray, whose wife committed suicide some weeks before, has followed his father-in-law, Ed Coleman, from Rome where Ed tried to shoot him. Ed thinks his son-in-law didn't do enough to prevent the suicide. There follows a bizarre pas-de-deux between the two as each circles the other, Ed, distraught over the death of his daughter, and Ray trying to make amends. Ed makes other attempts on Ray's life. Ray survives each attempt and follows Ed Coleman, in an attempt to seek forgiveness, only to be dragged back to reality.

The book has the same dream-like (nightmarish?) quality made famous by Highsmith's Ripley series. Ray and Ed show more both live in a world of opaque amorality. The settings (mostly Venice) are well-described and we see into the minds of both men as Highsmith switches back and forth between the two perspectives. Not your usual thriller.

Having read the Ripley series I kept "assuming" that Ray had had a hand in his wife's suicide. No one is innocent in her novels, nor does the the question of what is "right" ever come up. Self-interest is paramount. All actions are judged from that perspective. show less

Peggy Garrett has committed suicide. Her husband, Ray, and her father, Coleman, are both grieving, but in different ways. Ray mourns the loss of the life they had together and the loss of her development as a painter. Coleman blames Ray for driving his daughter to suicide and goes so far as to shoot Ray one night. Fortunately, Ray survives and follows Coleman to Venice. But Coleman still wishes Ray dead and makes a second attempt to kill him. Ray takes the opportunity to hide out and attempt to set things straight somehow with Coleman.

This was a bit of a WTF book for me, as in “WTF, Coleman! Stop trying to kill your son-in-law!” It’s a strange scenario, probably not the most plausible, but I couldn’t help but read on to find out show more what bizarre behaviour Coleman would display next, and how Ray would deal with it. Ray displayed great resourcefulness—is he sure he doesn’t want to be a spy? I found it interesting, too, that Highsmith set the story in Venice. It reminded me a bit of Daphne du Maurier’s “Don’t Look Now” in that regard. This combination of books inspired me to look up some maps, read up on the vaporetti (the water buses), and re-request the Michael Dibdin book Dead Lagoon to get some more of that Venetian atmosphere. show less

This was one of my favorite of the Highsmith novels I've read. The back-and-forth between the main character, a bereaved husband, and his father-and-law, was absolutely priceless. As was the strange detachment and blind eye that their mutual friends turned towards the obvious conflict between the two. It was refreshing that the main character was always in the right (Highsmith has a way with turning the main characters into villains that you can sympathize with), but it was also interesting to see him possibly turned into a criminal by the end of the book.

I also loved the Venetian setting. Perfect for sneaking around in, drowning people, springing out of back allies, et cetera.

I was a little disappointed by the conclusion. As much as I show more was really rooting for the main character to stay on the side of the law, the father-in-law really did have it coming by the end of the book. I was also disappointed the main character didn't try harder to... press charges, or call attention to the father-in-law's repeated attempts at murder. But overall I loved this book. I think only The Talented Mr. Ripley really topped it in my mind among all the Highsmith novels I've read. show less

There was something psychologically amiss from the beginning, as Ray never particularly appeared to be in mourning for his wife. But we follow his story for a good portion of the book, and then all of a sudden we shift to Coleman’s perspective. Maybe it was narratively necessary, to tell the parts of the story that Ray was not around to see, but it felt jarring. There were some very gripping sequences and I never really found myself bored, but I did wonder at the end, ultimately, what was the point of the story?

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this was really disappointing - i haven't read ripley in years but so much of this felt like she just repurposed that much better book and stuck scenes in here. there were even some of the same names, i'm almost sure. ripley is still great though.