This Sweet Sickness cover art

This Sweet Sickness

A Virago Modern Classic

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This Sweet Sickness

By: Patricia Highsmith
Narrated by: William Hope
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About this listen

 BY THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE TALENTED MR RIPLEY, CAROL AND STRANGERS ON A TRAIN

'The No.1 Greatest Crime Writer' THE TIMES

' I love Highsmith so much . . . What a revelation her writing is' GILLIAN FLYNN

'Highsmith was every bit as deviant and quirky as her mischievous heroes' J. G. BALLARD, DAILY TELEGRAPH

David Kelsey has an invincible conviction that life is going to work out just as he has planned it - if he can just fix 'the situation'. His one true love, the brilliant, beautiful Annabelle, has married another man. But that doesn't mean they can't still be friends. And even though she is pregnant with her husband Gerald's baby, that surely doesn't mean she won't one day get back together with David. She still loves him, of that he is certain. David is sure she'll take him back, and, under an alias, is setting up a wonderful home for the two of them in a town close by. And everything is just about going to plan until things take a murderous turn, leaving David a desperate man on the run.©1960 Patricia Highsmith (P)1960 Little Brown Book Group Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction
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'This Sweet Sickness' is one of my favourite Patricia Highsmith books. It is a testament to her ability to take an uncomfortable scenario and turn it into something very dark. David is a seriously deluded guy, but all the characters in this book are deluded and flawed in some way. It's like watching a multiple car crash, but in slow motion. I can't say enough good things about this book, but then Ms Highsmith is my favourite author and I love everything she does.

What impressed me even more than this book, which I have read previously in tangible form, is the performance! William Hope absolutely personifies his characters, particularly David. I was completely absorbed and immersed by his voice, he is absolutely brilliant. This book was written in the fifties, and is set in that decade also - I felt like I was there. William Hope's voice conveys that era, his inflections and vocal mannerisms are pitch perfect. I could not have asked for a better performance of one of my favourite books. Bravo!

Great book, Amazing performance

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This is one of Highmith's less thrilling psychological thrillers, and it wasn't easy to spend all that time inside the mind of David Kelsey. I found myself urging him towards the finish line, at the end. But she is nonetheless an excellent observer of the dark side of the human condition. And the narrator was excellent.

Ordinary madness

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This tortured tale of obsession, desperation, unrequited love and ultimately complete disassociation from himself and reality, is astonishingly compelling and very difficult to pause. David is awkward, brilliant, broken and cunning and completely oblivious to his own fragmented persona. So rich and twisted - I could not turn it off.

Sublimely disturbing

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Just seemed to go on and on without much drama. Might be better as a film.

Boring

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