Edith's Diary
As Edith Howland's life becomes harsh, her diary entries only become brighter and brighter. She invents a happy life. As she knits for imaginary grandchildren, the real world recedes. Her descent into madness is subtle, appalling, and entirely believable.
As Edith Howland's life becomes harsh, her diary entries only become brighter and brighter. She invents a happy life. As she knits for imaginary grandchildren, the real world recedes. Her descent into madness is subtle, appalling, and entirely believable.
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Format: paperback
ISBN:
9780871132963 (0871132966)
Publish date: January 18th 1994
Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press
Pages no: 317
Edition language: English
His mother was fighting a losing battle, Cliffie thought, because she was trying to fight the majority. The majority wasn’t even fighting back, it was just indifferent. Oh, gadz, I wanted to hit most of the characters in this story. Repeatedly. With a shovel. Not only was this story of the suburban...
Mundane acts, slightly warped, build the tension in Edith’s Diary. You know something horrible is going to happen and as the days… as the years… pass, the anticipation builds. It’s not horror, it’s discomfort. Knowing that something is out of place and that there will be consequences for this dis...
well-written and disturbing, especially if you are a mother. The son is a bad seed from early on and the whole family situation is a slow-motion train crash. As always, Highsmith is great at building tension. Even though you have an idea of what's going to happen, you can't put it down. Read this in...
Having read most of Highsmith's books and being an inveterate reader of books about misfits and sociopaths, I was completely taken aback by my reaction to this. I felt so close to the protagonist that, although I kept Highsmith's books at the time, after a while I had to make this one leave home. It...