Strangers on a Train

By: Patricia Highsmith

Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot

In Patricia Highsmith's debut novel, we encounter Guy Haines and Charles Anthony Bruno, passengers on the same train. But while Guy is a successful architect in the midst of a divorce, Bruno turns out to be a sadistic psychopath who manipulates Guy into swapping murders with him. As Bruno carries out his twisted plan, Guy is trapped in Highsmith's perilous world - where, under the right circumstances, anybody is capable of murder.

The inspiration for Alfred Hitchcock's classic 1951 film, Strangers on a Train launched Highsmith on a prolific career of noir fiction and proved her mastery of depicting the unsettling forces that tremble beneath the surface of everyday contemporary life.

©2015 Patricia Highsmith (P)2015 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Forget what you know from Hitch’s movie, this is something wholly other.

I’m a Hitchcock fan from way back. And “Strangers” is one of my favorite films. Its sunny charm and crackling humor and steaming, churning pace make it fun and thrilling from engine to caboose.

After reading a Hitch bio, I decided to visit some of his source material and started here. The vast difference in narrative and tone are striking. Absent are the charm and humor. In their place is a brooding, dark, psychological study that at once mirrors society at large and struggles to make sense of a post-war world. Guy and Bruno’s roles are familiar, sure. But their motivations run much, much deeper.

Patricia Highsmith has a brilliant voice that situates the reader squarely in the killing mind. I wasn’t prepared for how emotional this book is, or how introspective and even frustrating. I’m a full-fledged Highsmith fan now!

I must add how very much I enjoyed Bronson Pinchot’s performance. He brought the book alive carefully, stealthily, like a lone whistle in the distance signaling the raging locomotive on its way.

Very heavy but amazing

This is not for the superficial reader. But if one enjoys analysis of human emotion, behavior.. Society and individual right vs wrong, and all the grey areas in between. This is a novel that takes one deep into that grey area. Not with boring rhetoric, but full of rich discovery of individuals conscious. Differentiating between the informed conscious and the fully "formed" and heavy developed.

Psychological thriller at its best!

Narration was excellent, characters brilliantly described. Story intense and well laid out. So much better than the movie by Hitchcock. Elaborate depth of characters and their personalities. Highly recommend.

Keyword: cathect

Good and evil, two sides of the same coin? This is a story that depicts the human struggle to integrate direct ones good and evil sides. Torn between his feelings ( rage, wish to kill his ex wife, and his IDEA (Plato) /ideals/Christian middle class "training" Guy , a self aware, intelligent, talented, gifted , but ambivalent "architect"/ builder of beautiful structures so graceful and attuned they confer grace, meets his opposite, while in transit - through the wasteland on his way to Texas. to divorce himself from the past so he can start a "new life' with Anne who is apparently 'pure' focused,productive and in control of her life. Guy arrogantly assumes he can interact with Charles Bruno without becoming magnetized or absorbed into him, but he is no match for the Devil. His sensibily is constructed and in process. His over-riding insistence in doing what is right requires him to self-condemn. When they meet on the train his mind is in turmoil and chaotic. He is therefore open and vulnerable to the fatal magnetism of Bruno. Guy is no match for the Devil. He is neither strong enough to integrate and evolve the dissolution and darkness nor stable enough in his constructed self, his architected self to differentiate himself entirely from the darkness, Bruno. The train rolls ceaselessly through a hellish wasteland, a featureless,beige undefined zone, where anything can happen, where one is suspended between here and there, past and future, a zone where one can start with one destination and find that trajectory fatally compelled in a completely other direction. Bronson Pinchot was brilliant as narrator and the perfect choice for this story

Everything

Best combination of story and narration I have found- and I listen to A LOT of audiobooks

Patricia Highsmith’s 1st Novel - Intense Psychological Drama

The first novel by Patricia Highsmith (“The Talented Mr. Ripley” series) is an intense psychological drama, wonderfully written, if occasionally a little hard to listen to, with a couple of plot twists, including the ending. Bronson Pinchot’s rendition is excellent.

Highly Entertaining

Highsmith makes an accurate exploration of human nature... How about removing the only obstacle to get what you want? the price is your peace of mind! I enjoyed this book very much.

Great psychological insight

I was impressed by the story and well paced way in which Highsmith shows Guy’s slowly developing awareness of and insight in to himself. Very much enjoyed the complexity and forthrightness of the characters.

Excellent!

Found the plot clever and the idea of dual sides of a human being realistic. Reminded me of the Don Draper character in Mad Men.

Better than the movie

I love the Hitchcock movie and often rewatch it. But the book is richer and darker and is worth a listen. The suspense is still there, especially if you think you know what happens. One disappointment: Bruno never says “criss-cross”!