Ripley Under Water

By: Patricia Highsmith

Narrated by: Kevin Kenerly

Tom Ripley passes his leisured days at his French country estate tending the dahlias, practicing the harpsichord, and enjoying the company of his lovely wife, Heloise. Never mind the bloodstains on the basement floor.

But some new neighbors have moved to Villeperce: the Pritchards, just arrived from America. they are a ghastly pair, with vulgar manners and even more vulgar taste. Most inconvenient, though, is their curiosity. Ripley does, after all, have a few things to hide. When menacing coincidences begin to occur, a spiraling contest of sinister hints and mutual terrorism ensues, resulting in one of Patricia Highsmith's most elegantly harrowing novels to date.

©1991 Patricia Highsmith. © 1993 by Diogenes Verlag AG, Zurich (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"One of our greatest modernist writers." (Gore Vidal)

Super !

Def a must in the series - chic - twisted - Dandy .. Morocco / tangier -Art
This last Ripley installment is a must ..

Goodbye Tom Ripley

What did you love best about Ripley Under Water?

the more Ripley changes the more he stays the same: the same multi-layered characterization of the protagonist, the same mundane sociopathy, the same lucky breaks. In this last story Tom Ripley's self-absorption is more apparent than ever and the reader wonders: what is going on with his wife and her friend? why do other psychopaths fixate on Ripley? when is it all going to catch up with him? But Tom Ripley never does. He is the canniest survivor and one of the most likeable sociopath in literature. It helps us understand why and how we tolerate the sociopaths in our government, our media, and right next door.

What did you like best about this story?

the nuances of the relationship between him and his wife. and the continuing exploration of how far a man can go without a soul.

What about Kevin Kenerly’s performance did you like?

as always subtle and dead on.

Any additional comments?

I wish there were more Tom Ripley but in this last book I sensed Patricia Highsmith was tiring of him. I will have to explore more of her works. There are few of her skill.

Disappointing

This was not up to par with the previous three books in the Ripley series. The story is loosely-woven and the explanations for the protagonist and why he is harassing our "hero" are never given. The motivations for the villain are never explained and make no sense whatsoever.

best book of the series

I thought this was a thoroughly entertaining series. You can see where in modern times people got the idea for storylines like Dexter, etc. This is as good, if not better than the first book. The narrator, as in all the other books in the series is immaculate. I burned through this series like a fat kid through a candy dish at Christmas.

It’s the last volume of the Ripliad

It’s the last volume of the Ripliad. It has Tom Ripley and it was written by Patricia Highsmith, what’s not to like?

Admittedly, it isn’t as strong as any of the first three volumes. But, I like it well enough that I’ve read it two or three times before listening to it. I’ll be keeping this book and listening to it again in the future, probably multiple times.

I think the voice talent puts in a strong performance.

Existential ambivalence to the artistic extreme

While not my favorite of the five Ripliad novels, still Highsmith didn't disappoint. Patricia Highsmith is all about atmospherics, setting and slight imbalances. She nuances the reader right to the edge of the pond and then plop, you've fallen into the depths of swanky euro-psychopathy. This is like Camus after he went to an art show, or Sartre after having eaten a really nice afternoon meal with a good vintage red wine.

The Ripley novels are existential ambivalence to the artistic extreme. It is all French mirrors, Tunisian smoke, German duplicity and American control. We can have it all, enjoy life to the hilt. However, we just might need to occasionally kill a friend, steal some art, ignore responsibility, and maybe just maybe let someone take a permanent dive for it all.

narrator troubles 🚨

five books, thousands of pages of chances to get at least one non-american character’s accent or the pronunciation of basically any french (and some english) words right, but no success. it’s sad that patricia highsmith’s great ripley series didn’t merit better. we listened to them all anyway, so i guess the joke’s on us. but that’s a testament to the books themselves. it got progressively harder to tamp down our irritation with the narrator- by the last couple books in the series we were repeatedly groaning every couple of minutes and may have devised a mild revenge fantasy or two. it became a component of our listening, taking something away from the writing itself. i think patricia highsmith deserves better. cannot believe that the narrator didn’t care more about his job than to trot out distractingly terrible accents and not even take the time to look up pronunciations of scores of words. it seems irresponsible to take a job if you know that you can’t in good conscience perform your task satisfactorily. i would also call the producer and/or director of these audio books onto the carpet, and whoever booked this dude. books deserve more care and attention than this.

Great suspense

The narrator was amazing, I had a feeling I was listening to real Tom Ripley.

the end

Not really what I was hoping for in the end of the series. I guess I thought it would wrap up but no it just kind of goes on. Maybe the author planned to write more I think she was a drug addict or something, maybe not I thought I read that. Anyway if you got 5 credits to spend you could do a whole lot worse then spending them on Highsmiths " Tom Ripley series". Sad to see it be over.

How could a murderer always escape his due?

Is there anything you would change about this book?

He should pay for his murders.

Would you recommend Ripley Under Water to your friends? Why or why not?

No.

What aspect of Kevin Kenerly’s performance would you have changed?

His pronunciation of the /ng/. This is a nasal sound. There's no /g/ sound at the end of any word with this consonant blend.