Eleven

I cannot cease to be amazed by the mind blowing characters brought to life by Patricia Highsmith.It is impossible to put down once you start reading her stories and novels.

Some of these stories will fade out of your consciousness as soon as they are read, others will stick with you for months. No writer has ever equaled Highsmith's genius for portraying highly disturbed people in all their creepy glory. In a few stories here she really finds her stride, but most are just adequate and some good.The snail stories are so incredibly odd, off the wall, and entirely out of context and character, I have no other reaction beyond a kind of bored wonder.I don't tend to like short stories, but I adore Patricia Highsmith. If you're a devoted fan, this is worth reading. However, if you're new to Highsmith, skip this and read her more worthy works. Having already consumed the crème de la crème of her catalogue, I feel I'm scrapping the bottom of the bowl with a collection like this.

"Eleven" is a collection of short stories written by one of the most iconic female authors of the crime fiction genre, the American Patricia Highsmith. The anthology is prologued by another top crime writer, Graham Greene , who juxtaposes the Highsmithian universe with that of the classics, Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. He writes: "This is a world without moral endings. It has nothing in common with the heroic world of her peers, Hammett and Chandler, and her detectives (...) have nothing in common with the romantic and disillusioned private eyes who will always, we know, triumph over evil and see that justice is done". This is an accurate description of Highsmith's literary world and characters and this is the most appropriate context to have in mind when reading those dark, often borderline disturbing, short stories. I enjoyed most "The Snail-Watcher", "The Terrapin", and "The Heroine". If you are a Highsmith fan this is a must for you.

An uneven collection of stories- some bland, some frightening- but essential reading for the Highsmith enthusiast. Few of today's thriller writers can match even her worst writing

Patricia Highsmith was an odd character, but boy could she weave a great tale. Here are eleven of them. You will never forget "The Snail Watcher."

You probably would not find any of Ms. Highsmith's stories in an anthology of "Great American Stories" and that is a shame. Using descriptive words such as "psychologically complex" or "unabashed horror" might turn the uninitiated from reading these works, they have become the bete noir of modern reviewers. However, these stories take some work to appreciate what the author is accomplishing and they should be read several times. A good clue to appreciating her works is to read Graham Greene's introduction (even though he charged the author $400 to do so. She was grateful because he normally chaged $500 as mentioned in the biography of Ms Highsmith by Joan Schenkar). All of these stories are more than they seem whether it be The Snail-Watcher or The Terrapin or The Barbarians.If a writer ever drew a reader into her obsessions and fears and hates, Ms Highsmith surely does. So include her with the greats of the "Southern Renaissance.

This was a wonderful group of stories.Patricia Highsmith had such an amazing imagination and so well written!Plan to read more of her writing.

I came across this book while searching for a British author.Very entertaining and unusual subjects. Will definitely hold your attention long enough to finish each story.

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This is a wonderful collection of stories from Patricia Highsmith. Each story is compelling and written with the usual excellence we have come to expect from such a brilliant author.

Snails, again and again deadly snails! Patricia Highsmith must have had a special relationship with snails and lo and behold, thanks to google, I now know that she bred snails in her garden.The remaining nine of the eleven short stories in this volume, which are not about man-eating snails, are also quite disturbing. Just classic Patricia Highsmith. Exactly the right thing for a stormy winter evening. Wait, what is that slippery thing in my neck? Could it be aaaaaaa...

Good condition

First-rate collection of Patricia Highsmith short stories, quirky, unexpected, always plenty of surprises not to say stings in the tail.