When we first meet Tom Ripley he is living in New York and making ends meet by scamming strangers with fake demands for unpaid tax. One night he is approached in a bar by a man he assumes is a policeman come to arrest him but turns out to be Herbert Greenleaf, a shipping magnate. Herbert is under the impression that Ripley was a close friend of his son’s at Princeton; in fact they met, but only briefly. He reveals how young Dickie has been living the high life in Europe with his friend Marge Sherwood, but is now needed back home as his mother has leukaemia and not long to live. Since his son is ignoring his letters, will Ripley go on an all-expenses-paid trip to Italy to persuade him to stop idling and come home? And so Ripley, a man with a shady past who collects new identities like sun hats, sets off for the beautiful Amalfi coast and contrives a meeting with handsome, tanned Dickie, who, despite initial reservations, invites him to stay at his villa.
Patricia Highsmith’s 1955 novel, the first of five Ripley books, is a favourite among film-makers; Matt Damon, John Malkovich and, in the recent Netflix series, Andrew Scott have all starred as literature’s most sinister social climber. Here, the book is narrated by the actor David Menkin, who deftly captures Ripley’s blend of guilelessness and deceit – traits that are lost on the charismatic, condescending Dickie until the novel’s sudden, vicious climax.
• The Talented Mr Ripley is available via Little Brown Audio, 9hr.
Further listening:
Held
Anne Michaels, Bloomsbury, 4hr 36min
The Fugitive Pieces author narrates her multi-generational novel, set in the aftermath of the first world war, which explores themes of trauma, love and memory.
Every Man for Himself and God Against All
Werner Herzog, Penguin Audio, 13hr 42min
The German auteur reads his memoir recounting his impoverished Bavarian childhood, his early jobs fishing and herding cows and his rise to fame as a director of films including Fitzcarraldo and Grizzly Man.
