Strangers on a Train (1950) by Patricia Highsmith Architect Guy Haines wants to divorce his unfaithful wife, Miriam, in order to marry the woman he loves, Anne Faulkner. While on a train to see his wife, he meets Charles. Anthony Bruno, a psychopathic playboy who proposes an idea to “exchange murders”: Bruno will kill Miriam if Guy kills Bruno’s father; neither of them will have a motive, and the police will have no reason to suspect either of them. Guy does not take Bruno seriously, but Bruno kills Guy’s wife while Guy is away in Mexico. Bruno informs Guy of his crime, but Guy hesitates to turn him in to the police. He realizes that Bruno could always claim Guy’s complicity in the planned exchange murders, and the longer he remains silent, the more he implicates himself. This implicit guilt becomes stronger as in the coming months. Bruno makes appearances demanding that Guy honour his part of the bargain. After Bruno starts writing anonymous letters to Guy’s friends and colleagues, the pressure becomes too great, and Guy murders Bruno’s father. Subsequently, Guy is consumed by guilt, whereas Bruno seeks Guy’s company as if nothing had happened. He makes an uninvited appearance at Guy’s wedding, causing a scene. At the same time, a private detective, who suspects Bruno of having arranged the murder of his father, establishes the connection between Bruno and Guy that began with the train ride, and suspects Bruno of Miriam’s murder. Guy also becomes implicated due to his contradictions about the acquaintance with Bruno. When Bruno falls overboard during a sailing cruise, Guy identifies so strongly with Bruno that he tries to rescue him under threat to his own life. Nevertheless, Bruno drowns, and the murder investigation is closed. Guy, however, is plagued by guilt, and confesses the double murder to Miriam’s former lover. This man, however, does not condemn Guy; rather, he considers the killings as appropriate punishment for the unfaithfulness. The detective who had been investigating the murders overhears Guy’s confession, however, and confronts him. Guy turns himself over to the detective immediately. About the author Patricia Highsmith was born in Texas in 1921. She was an only child and her parents separated before her birth. Her mother remarried and the family moved to New York, where she went to school and college. From an early age, Patricia was interested in people who behaved strangely. At the age of nine her favourite book was The Human Mind by Karl Menninger, a book of case histories of people with mental disturbances. Her early stories were always about unusual or criminal behavior. At sixteen, she wrote A Mighty Nice Man, a story about a man who persuades two little girls to get into his car, but lets them out for fear of being caught. One of the girls, talking about him later says: “He was a mighty nice man.” Highsmith published short stories throughout her twenties, and achieved worldwide success with her first novel, Strangers on a Train, published when she was twenty-eight. It was a best-seller and Alfred Hitchcock made a film of it in 1951. From this point on, a steady stream of novels and short stories followed. Her series of novels about Tom Ripley became particularly notorious. Highsmith was not only a highly successful writer of suspense and crime fiction. She was also a talented painter and sculptor, and exhibited part of her works. She lived in England, France and Switzerland, where she died in 1995. Other interesting information: http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/nov/29/my-weekend-at-patricia-highsmith-home-writer Topics for Discussion

1. Highsmith introduces the idea of individual duality, that there are opposites in the world,

competing forces between good and evil. What larger point is Highsmith making?

2. What did you make of Bruno’s death? Was it suicide?

3. Did you find the ‘trap’ at the end of the book believable?

4. The film is notably different from the book. Did the difference affect your reading

experience?