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Monday, November 13, 2023

Flung Out Of Space by Grace Ellis and Hannah Templar

This is a pretty sparse graphic novel that is conveying pretty intense and emotional material about Patricia Highsmith, a gay woman who was born in 1921, long before it was cool or even acceptable to be a gay woman. She was an American novelist and short story writer widely known for her psychological thrillers, including her series of five novels featuring the character Tom Ripley. She wrote 22 novels and numerous short stories throughout her career spanning nearly five decades, and her work has led to more than two dozen film adaptations. Her writing derived influence from existentialist literature, and questioned notions of identity and popular morality. She was dubbed "the poet of apprehension" by novelist Graham Greene. At its simplest, Flung Out of Space is about Patricia Highsmith’s quest to escape the drudgery of writing comics and get her novels published, including Carol, considered the first lesbian romance with a happy ending. It’s also about her years-long attempt to try and expunge her desire for other women through therapy, which she worked a second job in order to afford. It is a critical, caring, funny, and heartbreaking story in which the hands of the artist and author are visible and essential to depicting Patricia Highsmith as a whole, complex person.

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