“And here is my diary, containing the body—the painfullest feeling is that of your own feebleness.” This is one of the early entries Patricia Highsmith made in her diary. She was a woman of many paradoxes and contradictions, as is shown in a recent documentary, Loving Highsmith (2022), a Swiss-German production, directed by Eva Vitija.
It’s impossible not to focus on Highsmith’s homosexuality, especially the fact that for most of her life she was a closeted lesbian. She lived a life of dual identity, out of necessity. It’s not surprising then that she attempted to work out some of her fragmented emotions in her novels. The famously awful recurring character in her novels, Tom Ripley, has some aspects of Highsmith’s personality. He’s cold, yet strangely submissive. His sexuality is always in flux, and one wonders whether he’s actually gay or an opportunist who will do anything to get what he desires.
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