Small G: A Summer Idyll

It doesn't take too long to realize that, for all her usual atmosphere of suspense, this isn't going to turn into much of a thriller but it's precisely in its exploration of the interactions between gays and straights, young and old, marginal and established centering around a small neighborhood cafe, that Highsmith creates something perhaps even more gripping and if fear makes for good suspense so, too, does human longing.

Patricia Highsmith's last work, SMALL g, A SUMMER IDYLL, gets its title from Jakob's, a Zurich bar, that would have a small "g" written after it in guidebooks to indicate that it attracts a sometimes gay crowd. This novel thus has a clever title and begins with a young man Peter Ritter getting stabbed as he came out of a cinema on a cold January night-- a good beginning. A lot of the action takes place in or about Jakob's with a rather motley group of characters frequenting that establishment. Rickie, who had been in love with Peter; Luisa, a young woman who was also in love with him. She works for the club-footed Renate, who is homophobic beyond words. We suspect right away what her problem is. Then there is Teddie, who is gorgeous and straight, who gets mugged because he is perceived as being gay, Rickie's trick dog Lulu; Willi, the village simpleton; and one of my favorite characters, the decent Freddie, a married police office whom Rickie sleeps with from time to time. The story, after a good beginning, does not always proceed as well as it started. Renate is so one-sided that she lacks credibility although she partially redeems herself in the end of the novel in a predictable way. I do not believe there is such a disease as "Kaposi's Syndrome" but Ms. Highsmith can be forgiven for that lapse since Homer himself "nodded." On the other hand, Rickie is a sympathetic character, as is Luisa and others. Her [Luisa's] definition of first love is worth remembering: "It hadn't mattered that Petey hadn't been in love with her. She had felt outside herself, like a person everyone on the street might look at twice--through people hadn't. She had been happy, and she wondered if that feeling would ever come again." The reader wants to assure her that she may never have that exact feeling again, but that, yes, she will love again. Thought born in Fort Worth, Texas, Ms. Highsmith spent most of her life abroad, giving a sophisticated international flavor to her novels, something I find most appealing. Although these characters are no Tom Ripleys, many of them will pique your interest, making this author's last novel worth the precious time you spend reading it.

If you expect this to be a mystery/suspense novel in the line of Highsmith's other work, you may be disappointed. This is a slice of life in gay Zurich in the 80's, albeit a slice with perhaps more crime and death than most. If you wish to enjoy a novel whose main strengths are atmosphere and a series of sharply-drawn incidents, and you are prepared to overlook weaknesses that consist of a few unconvincing characterizations and an abrupt deus-ex-machina 'climax', try this.