Mr. Ripley as Idol and Target

I just finished The Boy Who Followed Ripley, the fourth book in the Ripley pantheon and the third that I've read. You probably know Ripley - the creation of Patricia Highsmith - from the 1999 movie with all those hot guys in it, you know. I think Matt Damon, Jude Law. Anywho, I read the first book two years ago, and here's a brief plot summary oh wait, spoiler alert - Ripley, a poor kid from the 'other side of the tracks' in Boston, goes to New York, hooks up with this rich guy who thinks he went to Princeton and is rich, and is sent to Europe to bring the guy's son home. Badda bing badda boom, Ripley kills the guy's son (whom he ambiguously had a thing for, but for Highsmith, ambiguity is never that ambiguous), impersonates him, kills another guy, and gets a bunch of money.

Ok spoilers over - for the first book, hahaha. Anyway, this book, TBWFR (for the boy who followed, you get it), takes place years later. Ripley is married (practically sexlessly, to a beautiful Frenchwoman with incredibly wealthy folks) and living south of Paris. Then basically, the opposite of what happened in the first book occurs. That is, Ripley gives himself a new job, to find a rich person's child and bring him back to America. Except this time, Ripley does all the right things, he brings the boy home, and then the boy kills himself. Ooops, I just ruined the book for you. Sorry. It's worth it, though, because now I get to make a point.

The point is this: Highsmith, in her typical subversively tricky way, is saying that there's no point to doing good, because, while Ripley, in book 1, follows his animal instincts to get what's best for him, and thereby ends up rich and happy, in book 4, Ripley tries to be good, does everything right, basically does pennance for his misdeeds of book 1 by totally reversing them, but in the end Ripley just feels sad and empty. He comes away with nothing but hurt. Good book.