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Ripley and his Life
There were two encounters I had with Tom Ripley: once I watched the iconic classic movie with Alain Delon – and of course decades later I watched the remake with Matt Damon, also a classic by now. Both movies are brilliant. Somewhere in between I read the novel – and later I got curious of the follow-ups … Also the novels are brilliant. (I didn’t so far watch the Netflix series …)
Ripley is a poor young man who thinks that life has much more to offer than he is able to grasp. At the moment. He is also clever and devious. These are the best preconditions to start a career in … let’s define it as demimonde. Of course he is also determined to follow his ideas and plans – and nobody may dare to thwart. Ripley is so damn young and damn self-confident that he doesn’t shy away from lies, from crime and even from murder.
To start with … Ripley gets away with everything. Of course sometime he states on thin ice, but he doesn’t crash. The police … it’s not worth mentioning the police, its organization, its inspectors – they are always helpless and clueless. Discussing Ripley’s life over the decades leads to the finding that crime does pay.
The career starts when Ripley travels from New York to Italy at the Amalfi coast. He was ordered to look for a rich son who left for Europe and doesn’t seem to be willing to return to his family. Ripley and the lost son know each other from … wherever – at least does the father think that they have been best friends. His living conditions are poor at the moment so Ripley decides to embark for Italy – and leave behind the whole mess from lies and fraud which helps him to survive so far.
After the reunion with the lost son Ripley starts planning his future which ends up in killing the lost son and adopting his life including his wealth. There are more lies, there are more corpses, but Ripley manages all of it – and finally he sails into the rising sun. His crimes in Italy will follow him during the next decades, but he always gets away with any attempts to rake him over the coals.
Ripley is successful with all his business affairs although always shady and criminal. He marries a rich woman and lives happily in France, however, always on guard if somebody may turn up who wants to talk about unfinished business and any involvement into criminal acts. Copses appear time and again. His life is fine and comfortable even if taking into account his past and … whatever he ever was up to.
Ripley is a fascinating person even if a killer and criminal.