This Sweet Sickness

so good. why would somebody write a book, or 22, as weird and good as this. i have my own theories but the question is essentially unanswerable

I enjoyed this book but only giving 4 stars instead of 5 because it takes a while to pick up. This review contains Spoilers. The book is a character study. There are two main pivotal events, both unplanned, which happen in an instant so there isn't a lot of action such as twists & turns and sub-plots, etc. It's a journey along a downward spiral of someone with serious mental health issues (obsession/stalking) which lead him to become completely unhinged. If you're interested in behavior/psychology and a story where just when you think things can't get worse, they do, (like the movie Fatal Attraction, for example) then this book is for you. The main character, David, definitely has a fatal attraction. Two people wind up dead, although by accident, but indirectly because of his mental issues. So the whole book details his thoughts and feelings, so if that sounds boring, you should pass on this one. He's obsessed with an Ex, the one that got away (Annabelle). He appears to outsiders a model citizen, and in fact he took his job to earn a good income to marry her. At times I wonder if his obsession was really with her or with the idea that she got away, thus ruining his façade of a perfect life. He was attracted to her but the description of her is very plain. So I think his perceptions of reality are also off. Another young lady chased after him but he was scornful of every aspect of her. Despite the fact this girl was equal in every way, or better, than the first. She seemed more intelligent, had artistic talents, good taste, etc. Yet he continued to stick with his obsession. Besides the fact she could play piano and had a calm nature there was little to recommend Annabelle. So he just made up her wonderful attributes. He even admitted he made up which foods she liked, or didn't. He spent more time without her than with her, so she was basically a fantasy. I didn't like her because she continued to lead him on, although we find out at the end this was out of fear. Another reviewer mentioned how the book indicates Annabelle is beneath him anyway, yet it's clear David doesn't think so. He despises himself, and that's why he puts her on such a pedestal. David appears normal to outsiders but the price for having a double life is that the strain eventually comes to the surface in fits of temper. This is what costs him in the end. Readers should bear in mind the book's very dated and you need to overlook the police ineptitude and chalk it up to the times. If you enjoy reading what unbalanced people are thinking, definitely check this out!

Highsmith is a superb writer. This would have been even better as a sick man’s idea of romance, without the veering off into extremes, but it is a good read.

This was my third Highsmith novel, and I wasn't disappointed. She managed to create protagonists that are despicable yet fascinating, and this potent mix certainly isn't lost in this novel. I thought the first ten (or so) chapters moved a bit slow, but after that the plot takes on a more solid form and even includes Ripley-esque elements, minus the exotic locales. Here it's actually the rather drab suburbs of Upstate New York that provides the main setting, but it's an appropriate backdrop to the dullness that our main character sees in just about everything, except for the romanticized life he has created for himself and his beloved Annabelle. The setting also serves as the only really stable thing for a man who frenetically jumps back and forth between happiness (or is it hopefulness?) and misery, which all leads to a very unsettling last few pages. Highly recommended.

I had higher hopes for this novel than what it delivered. It was a good read, but quite dated and absurd in many aspects. Where it most disappointed was in its limited exploration of David’s obsessive/delusional mentality. I’d hoped for a more penetrating psychological treatment, whereas it bordered on formulaic in its elaboration of an ultimately pretty mundane plot. In a word, it was too “plot-driven” for me; insufficiently psychological. Still, it was entertaining enough, well paced and well crafted.

Patricia Highsmith protagonists are almost always pathological killers with a single-minded obsession. For Ripley it was status and fortune. Here the obsession is a woman. Kelsey lives in a fantasy world where the woman who gilted him is still by his side and destined to marry him. The self delusion is pathetic and makes the story difficult to read and to absorb with any credibility.

This is a story of obsession. It can be summed up in the form of a joke currently doing the rounds...My new (old) girlfriend thinks I'm a stalker.Although technically she's not my girlfriend.Yet.If you've ever been the victim of unrequited passion you'll appreciate this story. Aspects of it -particularly around police procedures-seem dated in this age of CSI but that aside it's a story for the ages, focusing on one of the 7 deadly sins-jealousy- and how it can take hold of your mind and your life if not controlled.....

Highsmith fits the bits and pieces of an obsession into place by taking us into the mind of a man who refuses to acknowledge that the woman he loves does not love him. He builds a life founded on the fantasy that she will leave her husband and join him in the house he bought and furnished to her supposed taste. A close reading of the text reveals past events that led to the break-up of the youthful romance, but David can justify his hesitation then and his determination now to be forceful. The supporting characters are as complex as the protagonist,and all in all this is one of several stories that claim the reader's full attention. Highsmith's writing is ueven, but when a plot is well developed it is utterly spellbinding.

I thought this story wasn't going to work, as we're inevitably viewing everything at a distance from the obviously disturbed and delusional main character, but as the narrative doesn't give us anywhere else to go (it's 3rd person but his viewpoint throughout) Highsmith draws us inside the obsession. The effect is simultaneously tragic and horrific, as you keep thinking that he might snap out of it but then the recipient of his unrequited love will drop one remark that suggests her mind isn't made up, and he's sucked back in. (I was reminded of the way the movie Manhunter seemed to promise Dolarhyde a way out of madness, but of course it was hopeless.) Highsmith shows how to convey all the complexity of real characters with just a few deft touches.*spoilers now*The ending is the inevitable cinematic death scene. That was slightly disappointing as you always hope that the writer could find a more interesting way to wrap it up than to kill the main character (cf much Victorian fiction). If I were filming it I'd have David's imaginary Annabelle start to argue with him, or even have Effie show up as another delusion, ie have the disintegration become increasingly internal as he descends into the abyss. That would also call back to his ambition to join an expedition to the ocean bed. Anyway, that's not how Highsmith handled it and the end result still works fine.

First published in 1960, Patricia Highsmith began writing this in 1958 during her affair with Mary Ronin. She took a break after writing half of it, having become acutely aware of the creative process, she was 75 and knew she didn't have a long life ahead of her but she still believed in the metamorphic power of love and had said that if she could no longer feel its influence, she would surely remember its effects. She said of this novel, to her editor, 'I think the book is so good that I want everyone to share my enthusiasm for it'. In my opinion This Sweet Sickness is one her most underrated novels and one that fills every space in the imagination, not just the dark corners, not just the voids but the silence.

The story is about a delusional character called David Kelsey, who believes Annabelle is his one true love, and will marry him one day. David is actually completely obsessed with Annabelle.The story is very well structured, and moves at a really good pace. At no point did I feel the story was dragging on, or lose interest in the characters. There are twists in the story, and the sense of tension is great.Wes Carmichael and Effie Brennan are introduced as more minor characters, and it is interesting in how these smaller characters are developed in to larger roles as the story progresses.Although it's a thriller, Patricia Highsmith successfully added in humour at various points in the story.David Kelsey is a very interesting paranoid character.My favourite part of the story, is where David asks for two drinks and two meals in the restaurant. The waiter is puzzled and questions who the second meal is for, as David is on his own in the restaurant. But David believes Annabelle is sitting with him at the table.

This Sweet Sickness is a classic Highsmith book. I've read all of her novels, and this one has always held the place of my personal favourite, even though it is less well known than the Ripley novels, or Strangers on a Train.David Kelsey is a typical Highsmith protagonist: self-obsessed, arrogant and opinionated, with a good income and a comfortable middle-class lifestyle. He has become infatuated with his former fiancee Annabelle to the extent where it dominates all his thoughts. He has become convinced that it is only a matter of time before he persuades her to come and live with him and resume the life they briefly had together - in fact the reverse is the case.At weekends he has established an alter ago, William Neumeister, who is the perfect partner of his adoring wife - except it is all pretend! As the events in the book unfold (without spoiling it by going into the details) Kelsey is forced to retreat into his Neumeister persona more and more as life as his real self becomes increasingly unbearable.A tense psychological thriller, This Sweet Sickness unveils an obsessive personality whose mad world becomes increasingly chaotic as it increasingly deviates from reality and ultimately impinges in a fatal way on the lives of others around it.

Highsmith has a way of capturing these wrong 'uns: our protagonist behaves as if he were doing everything logically and reasonably even though he's also at pains to block out all opposing evidence that everything is wrong. He quietly goes about building a dream home and living in it on weekends in anticipation of installing the love of his life there soon -- which is going to be news to her. The copy I got was a beautiful old vintage paperback. A bit beat and yellowed, but just glorious and perfect for the contents.