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Reading Group Guide Questions for Discussion Strangers on a Train In the beginning of Strangers on a Train, Bruno declares, "any kind of person can murder" (page 29). Guy is initially disgusted and terrified by the idea of murdering someone, but eventually comes to commit murder himself. Is Bruno correct in saying that everyone has the capacity to murder? Or does something occur that changes Guy's character so drastically that he becomes a murderer? Guy alternates between loathing and liking Bruno. How does Bruno provoke these different reactions from Guy? What is it about his character that irritates those around him, yet makes them willing to tolerate his presence? Guy says there's a person "exactly opposite of you," a phrase that Bruno repeats later on. Are Guy and Bruno opposing characters? Is one the alter ego of the other? In what ways are the two men similar? Bruno mentions that he has never been in love and is not particularly interested in women. Yet he seems jealous of what Guy and Anne share and, at times, is inappropriate with Anne. Does Bruno want what Guy possesses? Or is he just interested in making Guy miserable? What part does love play in the story? Are there even subtle homoerotic undertones that can never be expressed? Guy is shocked that Owen Markman is indifferent to his admission of guilt and further shocked to realize that most everyone will react with the same indifference. Is it society's role to be outraged by Guy and his actions or is it a person's own conscience that is responsible for doling out guilt and punishment? A Suspension of Mercy Throughout A Suspension of Mercy, it is Sydney Bartleby who is presumed to be insane. And indeed, he makes many unnecessary moves that draw suspicion, such as not informing the police of his wife's whereabouts once he discovers them. However, Alicia Bartleby also exhibits some mental instability, running away from her life without giving notice to anyone. Who is the sane character and who is the insane character? Does Highsmith perceive sanity as an absolute quality or something that exists on a spectrum? Sydney writes in his notebook, "I think the murderer is not within us all." While he has extensive thoughts about being a murderer, Sydney never makes an effort to murder Alicia; he only allows the suspicion to build. Why does Sydney not kill Alicia, during nearly two years of an unhappy marriage, but does kill Edward Tilbury, a man he barely knows? A Suspension of Mercy is full of artistic and creative characters: Mrs. Lilybanks and Alicia, who both paint; Sydney, the writer; and the bohemian and unconventional duo, Inez and Carpie. What is the significance of creativity and everything being "a matter of attitudes," as Sydney comments in the last sentence of the novel? When Sydney is heading to Scotland Yard and Tilbury is in his flat, half-dead, Sydney comments on enjoying the "suspension of mercy," knowing that if Tilbury lives, at least Sydney is enjoying a moment in which he knows he may escape punishment. He is calm, though he knows Tilbury might survive and then Sydney would be a criminal. Why does Sydney enjoy this moment so much? What is it about the whole game of deception that interests him? The Selected Stories of Patricia Highsmith Based on Highsmith's portrayal of Anne in Strangers on a Train, Alicia in A Suspension of Mercy and the various protagonists of the stories in Little Tales of Misogyny, what do you think her attitude towards women is? What are the differences between the female characters in her novels and those in her short stories? Are her women mostly victims or do they practice their own forms of deception? What can we infer about Highsmith herself from her portrayals of both men and women? In The Cruelest Month, Highsmith writes "Life was nothing but trying for something, followed by disappointment, and people kept on moving, doing what they had to do, serving-what? And whom?" For which of Highsmith's characters is this sentiment a driving force? What connection might it have to her characters' pathologies? Patricia Highsmith was bothered all of her life that she was considered a "crime writer," not a literary writer. How come she wasn't taken seriously by the literary critics? Would you call her writing literature? To whom might you compare her?