The Glass Cell

Philip Carter, an engineer who has done nothing wrong other than naïvely signing some papers for his business partner without checking them properly, finds himself carrying the can after the partner dies and details of his crooked deals emerge. In prison, he is assaulted by sadistic guards, and becomes addicted to morphine as a result of the injuries he sustains. Meanwhile, he suspects that his wife is having an affair with his friend and lawyer, Sullivan.

Highsmith worked on this book between 1962 and 1964, around the time when she made the permanent move from the USA to Europe, and at a time when she was involved in an unhappy affair with a married woman. The original inspiration seems to have come from correspondence she had with a show more reader in prison, and she got further background material for the prison part of the story from various non-fiction accounts of prison life and a visit she made to a prison in Doylestown in 1962 (See Beautiful shadow : a life of Patricia Highsmith by Andrew Wilson, Chapter 20).

This is very much the familiar Highsmith world, in which neither good nor evil has any real meaning. When the conventions of society no longer apply, as becomes the case for Carter in prison, our actions are regulated only by purely selfish, emotional considerations (interestingly, Wilson lists Golding's Lord of the Flies as one of the books Highsmith read whilst working on The Glass Cell). Just as the inmates have no compunction in killing a cruel guard when they get the chance, the respectable engineer who loves French literature can turn into a remorseless killer, if killing is the way to obtain what he wants.

The prose style reflects the unsettling subject matter, with short, jerky sentences. We don't have a cozy, detached narratorial voice to distance us from Carter, but at the same time the narrator separates us a little bit from the events going on around him -- we sense that the morphia is playing a role, but we aren't allowed to decide what is Carter's responsibility and what is due to the drugs. In Highsmith's world, this has to be a pointless question.



As always, deeply unsettling and uncomfortable to read, but rewarding at the same time. With Highsmith I usually feel after finishing a book that it will be a little while before I tackle another, but I do keep coming back to her... show less

This one had me creeped out right from the first few pages, where the innocent main character is hung by his thumbs and beaten, then left for days. There isn't' anything quite as brutal after that, but it lets you know what kind of book it's going to be right away.

The first half of the book is what you would expect from the description, an innocent man is put through the unfair rigors of the prison system. He clings to his wife, who dutifully comes every week for a visit, and he clings to the hope of an appeal that never comes.

After serving out his full sentence, the second half of the book is about the man re-joining society and coming to terms with how his wife and son have changed in seven years. This isn't quite as warm, fuzzy, and show more heartbreaking as it seems though, since there's the possibility his wife has had and still is having an affair. This part of the story is sort of structured as a mystery around the affair, and the good and the bad slowly come to light.

The way events play out at the end are kind of unexpected, and the story uses the traditional Highsmith device of making you sympathize with the reasons someone is doing a bad thing, but as much as she uses it, I still love it every time. She's a fantastic writer, and this was a really quick, compelling read with great characters. show less

An innocent man imprisoned. Beaten down (literally) by the authorities, addicted to painkillers, helplessly watching his wife create a life on her own—and then freed, to do what?

Highsmith was inspired to write this book by a fan who wrote to her from prison, and the book does feel at times like an expose, not merely of poor prison conditions (though these come into play) but of the psychological trauma that prison can inflict and the impossibility of getting past it. Prison life changes main character Philip Carter—it causes him to doubt human nature in a way he never had before. (Indeed, his earlier tendency to trust is what landed him there.) It also causes him to doubt the system, as it obviously didn’t work for him. show more Authorities, promises, relationships—none of it means what it did. And without that grounding, how can he get along in the world? Upon his release from prison, he has every financial and material advantage one might want in his situation, but the psychological damage has been done. Can he be healed?

I was surprised to find that I wanted Philip to get away with terrible acts—some against innocent people. Such is the beauty of Highsmith’s characterization and her framing of the situation. Philip does plenty of things that are clearly wrong, but he’s been pushed to a point where he can’t operate logically anymore. I had to take pity and want his suffering to end.

See my complete review at Shelf Love. show less

Andy Dufresne:
"The funny thing is, on the outside, I was an honest man, straight as an arrow. I had to come to prison to be a crook." That quote is from the 1982 Stephen King novella "Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption". It could also have been a quote from this book!

Carter is in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. He is beaten and hung by the thumbs by the guards for not following directions he didn’t know about. He becomes addicted to morphine. He thinks his wife is seeing another man on the outside. He does six long years.

When he is released, things don't get any easier. Adjusting to 'freedom' is harder than he thought. And his questions about his wife eat at him constantly.

I really enjoyed this book, as I have so many of show more Patricia Highsmith's. And the connections to "Shawshank" are unmistakable. Carter is just the wrong person at the wrong place at the wrong time. And his tale is a tragedy. Heck, MY thumbs still hurt - and I finished reading this hours ago! show less

The Glass Cell may be the best example of Highsmith's habit of transforming her characters over the course of the book. This, like many of her others, starts with a protagonist that is a law-abiding, decent member of society and by the end of the book we are left with a morally ambiguous anti-hero. As the basic formula for her novels goes, the change in character is usually brought on by circumstances outside their control. There is usually a major turning point where they can no longer be called innocent. All of this is true of Phillip Carter, the main character in The Glass Cell, and at the beginning he is a man caught up in someone else's crime and has been wrongly imprisoned. He is at first described almost solely by his innocence show more and by the end of the book he has committed several senseless murders.

Though this is often thought of as a prison novel, only the first sixty or so pages take place inside and other then his initial acclamation to the system his incarceration is somewhat skimmed over. All that is really established of him while he is there is that he is undergoing change. He is injured within his first few months, and develops a subsequent morphine addiction which only compounds the development of his new personality.

Most of the book takes place after his parole and covers his acclamation to being free. He finds that while he was in prison his wife had an affair and he tries to decide what his reaction is, all the while trying to reconnect with his preteen son and trying to decide if he is the person he was before or someone totally different.

The entire book reads as very supportive of prison reform, and though it was written over four decades ago issues are mentioned that are still major problems. Overcrowding is discussed, along with the brutality towards prisoners from guards. The penal system is really the antagonist and can be seen as the facilitator of change in Phillip's life, turning him from a framed man to an actual criminal.

One of Highsmith's best and most indelible novels, very enjoyable for a fan or a first time reader. show less

I begin this post with a warning to the many devoted Goldfinch fans who evidently put the latest Tartt magnum opus on a par with the Bible. You won’t like this, not one little bit. You see, I put down The Goldfinch smack bang in the middle of it and picked up The Glass Cell, which I didn’t stop reading until I finished it. ‘OMG, How COULD you? The greatest book in the whole history of books ever and you did THAT????’ I can hear them all, as I write. Well, I did, so there.

I needed to take something to an afternoon of film noir and the only goldfinch in existence which weighs two ton was not what I was going to take with me. For a start, what if it pooed in the cinema? That alone would weigh more than this petite offering from show more Highsmith.

Rest here:

http://alittleteaalittlechat.wordpress.com/2014/05/06/the-glass-cell-by-patricia... show less

I begin this post with a warning to the many devoted Goldfinch fans who evidently put the latest Tartt magnum opus on a par with the Bible. You won’t like this, not one little bit. You see, I put down The Goldfinch smack bang in the middle of it and picked up The Glass Cell, which I didn’t stop reading until I finished it. ‘OMG, How COULD you? The greatest book in the whole history of books ever and you did THAT????’ I can hear them all, as I write. Well, I did, so there.

I needed to take something to an afternoon of film noir and the only goldfinch in existence which weighs two ton was not what I was going to take with me. For a start, what if it pooed in the cinema? That alone would weigh more than this petite offering from show more Highsmith.

Rest here:

http://alittleteaalittlechat.wordpress.com/2014/05/06/the-glass-cell-by-patricia... show less