Climbed an aircraft, skin shade pale,
Amongst elderly fields of Daily Mail;
Time is dead, time to kill,
Travelling, yet feel so still.
Leaving grey, mist relief,
Into colour; flame Tenerife.
Gigantic mountainous, against so weak,
They speak, they tower, the mighty peak.
Amidst snaking roads fear do give,
Astonishment! In this they live.
Such beauty makes a Spine-a-curled,
I'm here. Not there. In my other world.
I often say sometimes I love a song so much it's probably illegal, and very often I love a book so much it makes my heart want to crumple into pieces so devastatingly, I feel I might cease to be. Of course the melodramatic in me often gets carried away, but the overall sentiment is true. The Talented Mr Ripley is such a book that has that kind of beautiful effect of satisfaction, a bit like wolfing down a chocolate bar when you have not eaten all day; a delight and warming satisfaction rolled into one. Written by Patricia Highsmith in 1955, The Talented Mr Ripley was the first Highsmith novel to feature Tom Ripley, a troubled protagonist Highsmith would go on to write five novels about. A psychological crime thriller, Highsmith writes the book from the perspective of Ripley, a struggling sociopath; a New York misfit small-time con-man, whom aspires to so much more than his dreary existence. From the dirty, mundane streets of New York city, Highsmith takes the reader to the slee...
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