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  • This Sweet Sickness

  • A Virago Modern Classic
  • By: Patricia Highsmith
  • Narrated by: William Hope
  • Length: 10 hrs and 35 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (89 ratings)
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This Sweet Sickness cover art

This Sweet Sickness

By: Patricia Highsmith
Narrated by: William Hope
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Summary

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.

©2016 Patricia Highsmith (P)2016 Little Brown Book Group

What listeners say about This Sweet Sickness

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The Talented Miss Highsmith

Any additional comments?

Patricia Highsmith, according to many, was a terrifying and unpredictable person to be around - drunk or sober. Perhaps her understanding of what it is to inflict cruelty on people (and how easy it is to get away with it when so few people expect it, so many are prepared to make excuses for it and explain it away) are what enable her to write so convincingly on the subject. David Kelsey, the protagonist (by no stretch of the imagination can he be called the hero) inflicts suffering and harm to a greater or lesser extent on most of the people with whom he comes into contact. It might be through the sickening realisation that they have been lied to for years by someone they genuinely liked and trusted - the kind of realisation that can permanently damage your ability to trust and relate to others. On the other hand, this book is really concerned about the damage he does, of a far more serious nature, when he goes completely off the rails. The true extent of his self-centred, chaotic and delusional agenda becomes horrifyingly apparent. More and more people are drawn into dealing with the fall out of his obsession with a woman he has decided belongs to him. As a coda: this book contains one of the funniest lines in literature, towards the end: surely the most unexpected and apposite reference to the Holy Grail.

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8 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Great narration of a classic tale

I have read the novel many times but this is a fine performance. It's a tale of obsessive love which goes disastrously wrong for David Kelsey and the people around him. I love the narrator's differet parts, he really brings characters like Wes and Effie alive and it greatly supplements the written work.

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2 people found this helpful

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She does it again!

Again another brilliant book. Great story, Great narration and performance. You have to accept this is based in the 50's and there are some parts to it that some might find offensive but it's a book of it's time and should be enjoyed in that fashion.

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1 person found this helpful

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Brilliant

Perfectly narrated in every way. A truly compelling read. To think this was written 60 years ago! Fantastic stuff.

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1 person found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Great listen

Dark yet funny and well written with a great performance. Will be looking out for more from Highsmith

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Incredible narrator

Highsmith is always brilliant but this is by far the best reading I have heard of her work of the 5 I have now listened to.

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Absolutely wonderful

William Hopes narration is brilliant. I salute you sir.
Patricia Highsmith marvellous as ever, i shall be listening or reading more.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Great performance!

Usual Patricia Highsmith's main character: narcicist with the mission! The story was OK, not extraordinary, but I enjoyed listening to it. Narrator was great!

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Brilliant!

Enthralling from start to finish, Patricia Highsmith doesn't disappoint, such a clever story and well read.

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Brilliantly moving

Firstly I must say that this book narrated by William Hope was genius. His voice is evocative of that 1950’s era which entices you into David Kelsey’s strange fantasy world.
Ok as others have said- the story now has vast holes - but it was written in and for a different time and I don’t think that this same story would have the charm if it had been written in recent times. David would now be treated for his condition and lived a very different lifestyle I would assume ?
All in all I loved this book and I loved William Hopes narration. I have read many Patricia Highsmiths books and this one - along with it’s more famous -The Talented Mr Ripley - would be a toss up if I ever were to be stranded on a desert island with only one to choose between!!


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