'Eleven' by Patricia Highsmith
2021 is the 100th anniversary of the birth of one of my favourite authors, Patricia Highsmith. Best known for 'Strangers on a Train' and the five Tom Ripley books, her work has often been introduced to new generations through film adaptations. I discovered her via the 1999 Antony Minghella film 'The Talented Mister Ripley', and was hooked from that moment on - an atypical instance of a film doing justice to a novel. While too many of her works are currently out of print, I did manage to get hold of an ebook version of her short story collection 'Eleven'. But was is worth the effort?
Here Be Monsters
As you may have guessed, 'Eleven' is a collection of 11 short stories with typically Highsmithian themes - obsession, cruelty, insanity and the darkness that lurks beneath the surface of respectability. The humble mollusc becomes a fixation in 'The Snail-Watcher' and 'The Quest for Blank Claveringi', with unsavoury consequences. In 'The Heroine', an unhinged nanny hatches a dramatic plan to prove her worth, and a suburban couple's buried guilt finds physical form in 'The Empty Birdhouse'. A tit-for-tat battle between elderly companions goes to far in 'The Cries of Love', while a grieving widower searches for a place in the world in 'Another Bridge to Cross'. A disappointed young man toys with another's affections in 'The Birds Poised to Fly', while a city neighbourhood is tormented by selfish ball-players in 'The Barbarians'. Most chilling of all, in 'The Terrapin', dinner preparations prove to be the last straw for a boy domineered by an unfeeling parent. In every story, Highsmith stirs up the dark depths of the human psyche, then shows us what monsters emerge.
Short and Sour
I found most of this collection gripping, but did feel a couple of the stories were less compelling. 'Mrs Afton, among Thy Green Braes', about a psychiatrist with an unusual patient, and 'When the Fleet Was In at Mobile', the story of a murderess on the run, simply didn't hold my attention in the same way as the others, although their endings made me glad I'd persevered. I felt that 'The Terrapin' was the stand-out piece, a story of unsympathetic cruelty with a climax that's both inevitable and avoidable. 'The Barbarians' also packs an emotional punch, especially as many readers will know the frustration of noisy neighbours and actions instantly regretted. 'Another Bridge to Cross' was more subtle, but was still an atmospheric study of loss and the sadness of failed compassion.
In Conversation
I read 'Eleven' alongside Highsmith's 'Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction'. This was by accident rather than design, but turned out to be an interesting exercise as the latter discusses several of the stories in the former. If you're interested in how this writer's mind worked and where authors get their ideas from, then I'd recommend reading both books together. They complement each other well.
Overall
'Eleven' is a classic collection, a must-read for any Highsmith fan or admirer of dark, psychologically-driven stories. It's a shame that it seems to be out of print, like too many of Highsmith's un-adapted books. Hopefully this year's anniversary will revive interest in her once again, and they'll creep back on the shelves.
Now, what next..?
This post is based on the Virago ebook version of 'Eleven' by Patricia Highsmith. 'Eleven' was first published by William Heinemann London in 1970.
