A Game for the Living - by Patricia Highsmith (Paperback)

About the Book

"Ramâon, quick-tempered and devoutly Catholic, fixes furniture in Mexico City, not far from where he was born into poverty. Theodore, a rich German expatriate and painter, lives a calm life in his mansion and believes in nothing at all. You'd think the two had nothing in common. Except, of course, that both had slept with Lelia. The two men form an unlikely friendship--until Lelia is found brutally murdered in her apartment. Both become suspects, and each suspects the other. Caught in an excruciating limbo, Ramâon and Theodore seize on the possibility of a third man, a thief seen at Lelia's apartment. Their hunt for the possible murderer takes the pair on a frantic chase from Mexico City to sun-drenched Acapulco, and to a small colonial mountain town where Theodore gets the uneasy feeling that his every move is being watched"--Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

Ramóoacute;n, a devout Catholic, fixes furniture in Mexico City, not far from where he was born into poverty. Theodore, a rich German expatriate and painter, believes in nothing at all. You'd think the two had nothing in common. Except, of course, that both had slept with Lelia. Two form an unlikely friendship, until Lelia is found brutally murdered. Both are suspects and each suspects the other.

Twisting in a limbo of tension and doubt, Ramón and Theodore seize on a third man, a thief seen at Lelia's apartment, and their hunt takes them from Mexico City to the sundrenched Acapulco, and to a small colonial mountain town. A thrilling, psychologically complex novel, rich with setting, A Game for the Living is Highsmith at her best.

Review Quotes

Praise for A Game for the Living

"Patricia Highsmith is often described as a mystery or crime writer, which is a bit like calling Picasso a draftsman. The statement contains a measure of truth, but what it leaves out is almost everything. . . . [A Game for the Living is] an elegant and psychologically sophisticated morality play. . . . All of it reveals Highsmith to be in fine form."-Cleveland Plain Dealer

"Classic."--USA Today

"There's no thriller writer's gamesmanship in her novels, none of the reassuring trickery of professional pulp; Highsmith's style is as blunt and straightforward as a strip-search."--New Yorker

"A coolly analytic study of friendship, neurosis, and grief."--Mystery News

Praise for Patricia Highsmith

"[Highsmith's] characters are irrational, and they leap to life in their very lack of reason. . . . Highsmith is the poet of apprehension rather than fear."--Graham Greene

"For some obscure reason, one of our greatest modernist writers, Patricia Highsmith, has been thought of in her own land as a writer of thrillers. She is both. She is certainly one of the most interesting writers of this dismal century."--Gore Vidal

"Miss Highsmith's genius is in presenting fantasy's paradox: successes are not what they seem. . . . Where in the traditional fairy tale the heroine turns the toad into a prince, in Miss Highsmith's fables the prince becomes a toad--success is nearly always fatal. . . . Combining the best features of the suspense genre with the best of existential fiction--a reflection--the stories are fabulous, in all the senses of that word."--Paul Theroux

"Patricia Highsmith's novels are peerlessly disturbing--bad dreams that keep us restless and thrashing for the rest of the night."--Terrence Rafferty, New Yorker

"Highsmith, who can change reality to nightmare with one well-turned phrase, is a legendary crime writer."--Cleveland Plain Dealer

About the Author

Patricia Highsmith was born in Texas in 1921, raised in New York, and lived most of her adult life in Europe. A graduate of Barnard College, prior to her career as a novelist, Highsmith wrote stories for comic books and, on Truman Capote's recommendation, was a resident at Yaddo. She was the author of 22 novels and seven collections of stories. She died in 1995.