That Sweet Sickness
March 6, 2018 10:39 AM Subscribe
I'd like to read more women authors like Patricia Highsmith but I mean something probably more specific than it sounds. Details inside.
Here's what I like about Highsmith (although this isn't at all a description of her) and I'd like to see in other preferably women authors:
-Concentration on individuals and couples as actors. Families are small (if not just two people and maybe an in-law), children are more plot devices than characters. Intense personal issues between a small handful of unrelated people (or couples) is what I'm looking for. I don't want to read about Families and I especially don't want to read about Children.
-Urban or suburban (in the literal sense i.e. there's an actual big city nearby) middle-class setting. Not really interested in reading about the ravages of poverty or travails of the capital-r Rich.
-Set between the 1920s and the 1970s (pre-internet, at least). Post-WW2 is where I'd prefer to start.
-Preferably no sexual assault/abuse. Definitely no plots revolving around it.
-Low on Societal Issues and Politics; I'm much more interested in individual psychologies crashing against each other than bigger themes. Also in that vein: not a whole lot of happenstance or fate or whatever. Just people making (usually poor) choices and the story playing out from there.
-No epics or multi-parters - 250 pages is a sweet spot.
-That sort of slow, steady background hum of low-key disappointment/pessimism Highsmith nails so well.
-Just a grab bag of stuff I like: veiled/playful homoeroticism, unapologetic sexual affairs, slow but steady mental breakdowns, crimes of passion, nonchalant sociopathy.
Here's what I like about Highsmith (although this isn't at all a description of her) and I'd like to see in other preferably women authors:
-Concentration on individuals and couples as actors. Families are small (if not just two people and maybe an in-law), children are more plot devices than characters. Intense personal issues between a small handful of unrelated people (or couples) is what I'm looking for. I don't want to read about Families and I especially don't want to read about Children.
-Urban or suburban (in the literal sense i.e. there's an actual big city nearby) middle-class setting. Not really interested in reading about the ravages of poverty or travails of the capital-r Rich.
-Set between the 1920s and the 1970s (pre-internet, at least). Post-WW2 is where I'd prefer to start.
-Preferably no sexual assault/abuse. Definitely no plots revolving around it.
-Low on Societal Issues and Politics; I'm much more interested in individual psychologies crashing against each other than bigger themes. Also in that vein: not a whole lot of happenstance or fate or whatever. Just people making (usually poor) choices and the story playing out from there.
-No epics or multi-parters - 250 pages is a sweet spot.
-That sort of slow, steady background hum of low-key disappointment/pessimism Highsmith nails so well.
-Just a grab bag of stuff I like: veiled/playful homoeroticism, unapologetic sexual affairs, slow but steady mental breakdowns, crimes of passion, nonchalant sociopathy.
I love Highsmith and I also love Daphne DuMaurier - you might too. She's most famous for Rebecca, but her other work is good too.
posted by Miko at 10:45 AM on March 6, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by Miko at 10:45 AM on March 6, 2018 [4 favorites]
On the more literary side - Virginia Woolf?
posted by Jellybean_Slybun at 10:57 AM on March 6, 2018
posted by Jellybean_Slybun at 10:57 AM on March 6, 2018
Maybe Anita Brookner.
posted by FencingGal at 11:00 AM on March 6, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by FencingGal at 11:00 AM on March 6, 2018 [3 favorites]
If short stories/novellas are OK, maybe Annie Proulx? They're set in Wyoming, which is definitely not urban or suburban, and the characters' lives are often a little more hardscrabble than you may be interested in, though.
posted by the return of the thin white sock at 11:22 AM on March 6, 2018
posted by the return of the thin white sock at 11:22 AM on March 6, 2018
Dorothy Parker?
posted by glitter at 11:22 AM on March 6, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by glitter at 11:22 AM on March 6, 2018 [1 favorite]
This is exactly Iris Murdoch
posted by the_dusty at 11:23 AM on March 6, 2018 [6 favorites]
posted by the_dusty at 11:23 AM on March 6, 2018 [6 favorites]
I associate these characteristics with crime/noir/mystery novels, so I'm thinking in a noir vein: perhaps Dorothy B. Hughes, In a Lonely Place?
If male authors are allowable though not preferred, Ross Macdonald's Lew Archer mysteries are famous for their focus on psychological insights into characters making bad decisions. Some of his books are about rich people, and several are about families in that they're about consequences of bad decisions from one grown generation to the next, but the novels generally excel at portraying complicated plots about complicated people in a pessimistic atmosphere from the '40s through the '70s.
posted by honey wheat at 11:28 AM on March 6, 2018
If male authors are allowable though not preferred, Ross Macdonald's Lew Archer mysteries are famous for their focus on psychological insights into characters making bad decisions. Some of his books are about rich people, and several are about families in that they're about consequences of bad decisions from one grown generation to the next, but the novels generally excel at portraying complicated plots about complicated people in a pessimistic atmosphere from the '40s through the '70s.
posted by honey wheat at 11:28 AM on March 6, 2018
You might like Virginia Woolf (especially Mrs. Dalloway, probably also The Waves) and Nathalie Sarraute (I quite liked The Planetarium), for the social milieu and also their close attention to psychological dynamics.
Djuna Barnes' Nigtwood Might also be a good fit, though it is also bombastic and over the top which you may or may not like.
posted by spindle at 11:28 AM on March 6, 2018
Djuna Barnes' Nigtwood Might also be a good fit, though it is also bombastic and over the top which you may or may not like.
posted by spindle at 11:28 AM on March 6, 2018
Sylvia Townsend Warner? The Spanish writer Carmen Posadas writes black comedies that I think tick a lot of your boxes, especially the novel "Little Indiscretions"; they're typically a bit later than your ideal time-period, but are internet-free.
I also love Penelope Lively, though she's probably more law-abiding than you're looking for. "Moving On" I think might be closest in mood.
Or the "anatomy of a crime" novels of Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine, such as "Live Flesh". Basically, anything that isn't an Inspector Wexford novel.
posted by kelper at 11:36 AM on March 6, 2018 [1 favorite]
I also love Penelope Lively, though she's probably more law-abiding than you're looking for. "Moving On" I think might be closest in mood.
Or the "anatomy of a crime" novels of Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine, such as "Live Flesh". Basically, anything that isn't an Inspector Wexford novel.
posted by kelper at 11:36 AM on March 6, 2018 [1 favorite]
I'm not sure it exactly fits all your specifications, but kelper mentions Ruth Rendell and when I read your question, she came to mind for me as well and in particular, her novel A Judgement In Stone.
posted by tiger tiger at 11:48 AM on March 6, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by tiger tiger at 11:48 AM on March 6, 2018 [1 favorite]
Penelope Fitzgerald because I always say Penelope Fitzgerald but particularly Innocence and maybe also Human Voices. A lot of nuanced but also quite blunt emotion, and an overall sense of 'what the fuck is wrong with you people' in a deliciously psychologically complex (yet also sparse somehow? I have no idea how she does it) way.
posted by terretu at 11:49 AM on March 6, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by terretu at 11:49 AM on March 6, 2018 [1 favorite]
Alice Thomas Ellis might be worth a look. Also Caroline Blackwood; I've only read her "Corrigan" but it was brilliantly perverse.
Or Jean Rhys?
posted by kelper at 12:13 PM on March 6, 2018
Or Jean Rhys?
posted by kelper at 12:13 PM on March 6, 2018
Highsmith was an incredibly original author, which makes this harder.
Seconding Iris Murdoch, who was a wonderful genius and ticks all your boxes, at least in some of her work. The Sea, The Sea is lovely.
Also seconding Dorothy Parker. I've been working my way through the "Collected" and there are several stories that give me a bit of the Highsmith frisson.
Later Edith Wharton is excellent, particularly the short stories. A little early but not by much. She has the irony element down.
Mavis Gallant sometimes scratches this itch for me.
A few men:
Ross MacDonald and Jim Cain were already suggested.
In terms of actual style I associate Highsmith with Graham Greene. "Just people making (usually poor) choices and the story playing out from there" fits him quite well. Additionally, Eric Ambler basically made a career out of this.
posted by aspersioncast at 12:18 PM on March 6, 2018 [1 favorite]
Seconding Iris Murdoch, who was a wonderful genius and ticks all your boxes, at least in some of her work. The Sea, The Sea is lovely.
Also seconding Dorothy Parker. I've been working my way through the "Collected" and there are several stories that give me a bit of the Highsmith frisson.
Later Edith Wharton is excellent, particularly the short stories. A little early but not by much. She has the irony element down.
Mavis Gallant sometimes scratches this itch for me.
A few men:
Ross MacDonald and Jim Cain were already suggested.
In terms of actual style I associate Highsmith with Graham Greene. "Just people making (usually poor) choices and the story playing out from there" fits him quite well. Additionally, Eric Ambler basically made a career out of this.
posted by aspersioncast at 12:18 PM on March 6, 2018 [1 favorite]
Seconding Barbara Vine (aka Ruth Rendall.) House of Stairs and A Dark Adapted Eye would be good places to start.
posted by PussKillian at 12:28 PM on March 6, 2018
posted by PussKillian at 12:28 PM on March 6, 2018
You might like Edna O'Brien. The Country Girls (3 short books) is a classic but check out her other stuff especially House of Splendid Isolation, August is a Wicked Month and The Light of the Evening. The background hum of disappointment and bad decisions is SO there. I can't recall any sexual assault (there might be it's been years since I read most of them).
You'd also might like The Girl on the Train and also Gone Girl. Both more contemporary but you'd never know reading them.
posted by fshgrl at 1:39 PM on March 6, 2018
You'd also might like The Girl on the Train and also Gone Girl. Both more contemporary but you'd never know reading them.
posted by fshgrl at 1:39 PM on March 6, 2018
Sounds like some early/middle phase novels of Margaret Atwood, there's often a vein of ironic nonchalant sociopathy, especially in The Robber Bride.
Alice Munro tends to be more low-key and introspective, but still with an emphasis on character and psychology, and also plenty of subtle irony.
posted by ovvl at 1:48 PM on March 6, 2018 [1 favorite]
Alice Munro tends to be more low-key and introspective, but still with an emphasis on character and psychology, and also plenty of subtle irony.
posted by ovvl at 1:48 PM on March 6, 2018 [1 favorite]
My first thought is Muriel Spark's The Girls of Slender Means or Memento Mori. Short, witty, set in post-WW2 London.
Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House ticks many of your boxes, except it is not set in a city. It is also really short.
If you want something lighter and murder-free, Speedboat by Renata Adler is a breezy story about artsy types in 1970s New York.
posted by betweenthebars at 3:00 PM on March 6, 2018
Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House ticks many of your boxes, except it is not set in a city. It is also really short.
If you want something lighter and murder-free, Speedboat by Renata Adler is a breezy story about artsy types in 1970s New York.
posted by betweenthebars at 3:00 PM on March 6, 2018
You are describing Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates. Also The Easter Parade. You are describing my experience of Richard Yates.
posted by gideonfrog at 3:43 PM on March 6, 2018
posted by gideonfrog at 3:43 PM on March 6, 2018
It's a little less heavy, but if you haven't read the Miss Fisher mysteries, I strongly suggest them. She's wealthy but not ultra-rich, and it's early in your time frame, but they are super fun and delightful.
posted by restless_nomad at 4:38 PM on March 6, 2018
posted by restless_nomad at 4:38 PM on March 6, 2018
Mary Kelly's murder mysteries, if you can find them (for obvious reasons she is almost totally un-Googleable). Set in 1950s/60s? England, character-driven, on the dark side, superb writing. The ones I really like are The Spoilt Kill, Dead Corse, The 25th Hour, Write on Both Sides of the Paper.
posted by huimangm at 7:17 PM on March 6, 2018
posted by huimangm at 7:17 PM on March 6, 2018
Barbara Pym
posted by Enid Lareg at 8:07 PM on March 6, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by Enid Lareg at 8:07 PM on March 6, 2018 [2 favorites]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by phunniemee at 10:45 AM on March 6, 2018 [1 favorite]