The Talented Ms Highsmith

Read by: Steve Marvel
Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins

Anything set in Morocco is bound to delight. As is anything written by novelist Patricia Highsmith. It follows that The Tremor of Forgery is just what was needed to overcome my period of un-reading.

The book is set in the coastal city of Tangiers. The central character, Howard Ingham is a successful writer who has travelled there for an extended visit to write a screenplay. Once settled he ponders the meaning of life and morality. He wonders how a man’s inner morality, a product of his culture, can hold up when he is thrust into an alien culture - one where the belief system is vastly different from his own.

Ingham has come to the right part of the world. The place of Camus’ L’Étranger and Bowles’ Sheltering Sky. What is it about northern Africa that captures a person’s soul? So many writers are drawn there. So many readers entranced.

The Tremor of Forgery is set in the 1960s during the Israel-Palestine Six Day War. There’s more obvious political overtone than usual for a Highsmith novel. The main character, Ingham meets two other men in Tangiers - a boorish Francis Adam’s an extreme right-winger pro-American and a sardonic gay man called Anders Jensen. Both Adams and Jensen are more-or-less settled in Tangiers and though opposites, represent expat life.

There’s a love affair and a death of course - it’s a Highsmith novel. The person who dies is an Arab man who has no described personality. I wondered at the number of books written that revolve around such men.

The book has the usual “ I hope he gets away with it” vibe. Will the murderer be discovered? We hope not. As to the love affair between Ingham and a forgettable woman (I forget her name), we are batting that he Ingham breaks up with her. Maybe he will realise his sexuality and go off with the Dane? The forgettable women suspects this. She’s not a complete fool, though Ingham is clearly better off without her.

There’s a lot going on to keep the reader’s interest. The plots, the characters, and perhaps the most refreshing aspect was the way to book’s events proceeded in chronological order. Such a relief to have no time shifts, no multiple generations, no sliding-doors.

A great read. Highly recommended. As is Morocco. Oh I so long to return. ( )

A Night in Tunisia*
Review of the Grove Press Kindle eBook edition (2011) with an Introduction by Francine Prose of the Heinemann (UK) & Doubleday & Co. (USA) hardcover original (1969).

Last night, oddly enough after his disturbing conversation with Adams, Ingham had thought of a title for his book, The Tremor of Forgery. It was much better than the two other ideas he had had. He had read somewhere, before he left America, that forgers’ hands usually trembled very slightly at the beginning and end of their false signatures, sometimes so slightly the tremor could be seen only under a microscope.

There are some aspects to this noirish tale, set in Tunisia, where it crosses over with Highsmith's more famous portrayals of sociopathic characters such as Tom Ripley in The Ripliad Pentalogy (1955-1991) and Charles Anthony Bruno in Strangers on a Train (1950). Howard Ingham is an innocent writer character who is drawn into a morally ambiguous world in his environment and his own fiction. There are 2 deaths during the book, one found by Ingham and one likely caused by him, but neither are reported on. The impression is given that the local tourist industry and bureaucracy would prefer that crime not be publicized even if it resulted in murder.

Ingham is on a working vacation to the seaside town of Hammamet in Tunisia. He is there to work on a film script in advance of the arrival of the film's director. The latter never writes and never arrives, and eventually Ingham learns that he has committed suicide back in New York City. Ingham's own girlfriend Ina also does not write and Ingham suspects an involvement with the director. Ingham stays on in Hammamet to work on a new novel, a Robin Hood-like tale of a character who embezzles from his business in order to aid disadvantaged people. He forms friendships with two other local visitors, an American propagandist Francis Adams and a Danish artist Anders Jensen. One night while walking home from Jensen's apartment, Ingham stumbles over a dead body in the street, the victim of an apparent cutthroat robbery. Ingham doesn't call the police and doesn't mention the murder.

See front cover at https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BEP4l1MZOfA/TfnCy9u-M4I/AAAAAAAACwA/b874HPZxUZU/s400/...
The dust jacket for the original UK edition published by Heinemann in 1969. Image sourced from Existential Ennui (see link below).

Ingham has items stolen during his stay and especially resents an old local thief named Abdullah whom he had seen in the act. One evening there is a break-in at Ingham's rented bungalow and in the dark he throws his typewriter at the head of the thief who collapses outside. Ingham locks his door and ignores further outside sounds. In the morning there is no body outside, but Abdullah is also no longer seen in the vicinity. The houseboys deny that any body was found. Ingham believes that he probably killed Abdullah, but decides to keep quiet about it. Eventually he confesses to Jensen. The latter, who is also resentful about the locals who have apparently stolen his beloved dog, tells him to forget it. Adams however is suspicious and then Ina arrives from the USA as well. Ingham is lost in a moral quandary of whether to confess all or to keep silent.

I found the tension and moral ambiguity of The Tremor of Forgery to be very compelling and the evasiveness and self-justification of Ingham made for a suspenseful character study. The atmosphere of the Tunisian setting was also well crafted and definitely gave the impression that Highsmith must have spent time in the area.

Footnote and Soundtrack
I couldn’t resist using this title for my lede, having recently come across film director Neil Jordan’s first book of short stories Night in Tunisia (1993) and being reminded of the Dizzy Gillespie bebop jazz tune, first called “Interlude,” and which later had lyrics added and was first sung by Sarah Vaughn in 1944, which you can listen to here.

Other Reviews
Not a full review, but author Graham Greene said: "Miss Highsmith's finest novel to my mind is The Tremor of Forgery, and if I were to be asked what it is about I would reply, 'Apprehension'."

Not an original review from 1969, but this later 2011 review does include photos of both the original UK and USA covers at Existential Ennui: The Tremor of Forgery by Patricia Highsmith.

Trivia and Links
The Tremor of Forgery has not been adapted for film unlike many other Highsmith novels (e.g. Strangers on a Train, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Carol (aka The Price of Salt), The Two Faces of January, etc.). A recent biographical film documentary was released in 2022 called “Loving Highsmith” directed by Eva Vitija for which you can see the trailer here. ( )

Just like Camus's The Stranger, only different. ( )

Set in the mid-1960s, American protagonist Howard Ingham, an author, has traveled to Tunisia to work on a screenplay with a director, who has not yet arrived. While waiting, Ingham decides to begin his next novel. Howard is anxious that he has not heard from his fiancé, Ina. He meets two other men and strikes up an acquaintance. Francis Adams is an American broadcasting anticommunist messages to Russia. Anders Jensen is a Danish artist. Howard finds himself embroiled in a mysterious disappearance and possible death of an Arab man.

The theme of this novel parallels the theme of the book Ingham is writing. As Ingham states, “Essentially, it’s whether a person makes his own personality and his own standards from within himself, or whether he and the standards are the creation of the society around him.” The plot follows Ingham’s ethical decisions, where he is at times influenced by his current environment as opposed to what he would have done if he were still living in the United States. This book is too slow-paced to be described as a thriller. It is more a psychological study of behavior.

Though it may not pack a lot of action, the character development makes up for it. Ingham is often alone with his thoughts, or in conversation with Adams and Jensen. Their interactions, along with the thread of mystery, kept my attention. This is my first book by Highsmith. Her writing style reminds me a bit of Graham Greene, sans religion.
( )

Amazingly great book! Painfully slow in an authentic way, traces the development of Howard Ingham in Tunisia, dealing with shifty locals, blabby American expatriates, unfaithful sort of fiancé, and possibly homosexual stirrings for a fellow travelling Dane. It does appear that he kills a local Arab rather accidentally and then worries about for weeks afterward. The poor, weak girlfriend Ina gives him a hard time about it but finally gives in it appears out of laziness. Finally he decides to dump her in a gesture of renewed life (the life of the dog once that dead is in fact alive and now recovering). He obviously wants to go away with the Dane, but he doesn't really seem gay- unless I am wrong (???) - just that he is tuned in to the Dane and at ease with him. The fact that he doesn't go right at the end, but promises to go soon is probably the right call. Beautiful. ( )