“Strangers on a Train”

By: Patricia Highsmith

Genre: Fiction and Thriller

Present: Matan Dolev

A summary of the plot

The story begins with Guy Haines’s journey to Texas to divorce his wife, Miriam. He begins a conversation with Charles Bruno, a wealthy man who invites him to his private train car. Over dinner, Guy tells Bruno of Miriam’s infidelity and their divorce. Bruno responds by telling Guy about his terrible father. Bruno proposes that he would murder Miriam, and Guy would murder Bruno’s father. Guy takes this as a joke.

When Guy meets with Miriam, she tells him she doesn’t want a divorce. When Bruno hears of this, he travels to Texas and kills Miriam. When Guy hears of the murder, he remembers the conversation he had with Bruno, and now he is expected to honor their deal.

Main Character: Guy Haines

Guy is an architect in the beginning stages of a promising career. His wife Miriam has been unfaithful to him, and he wants to leave her for Anne Faulkner, the girl he loves. He is generally a moral man, but he has a dark side too. He will eventually make his part of the deal, but unlike Bruno, his conscience refuses to be ignored.

Secondary Character: Anne Faulkner

This character is Guy’s lover, and later his wife. She is supportive, beautiful, sweet, and caring and loyal to her husband. Although she has questions about Guy’s relationship with Bruno, and his place in Guy’s life, she accepts his explanations because she trusts him.

The character I liked the least: Charles Bruno

Charles Bruno, a wealthy man, is a mean person who meets Guy on a train. He is sadistic, lazy, and psychopathic. He wants to “exchange” murders with Guy since both of them have people in their lives who they wish to be dead. For Bruno, this person is his controlling father. While Guy is away, Bruno murders Miriam and then wants Guy to make his part of the deal, threatening to frame him with Miriam’s murder if he doesn’t do it.

I didn’t like this character because he didn’t give Guy the option to decide what he wanted to do and he forced him to commit a crime. He didn’t feel bad for killing Miriam and it was easy for him to do it, and that’s not how true friends act.

Book review: Recommendation

I recommend the book because it is a very suspenseful and interesting book. It raises morale and psychological questions, for example: Is the person born a murderer or is the environment influencing him?

Throughout the story, I was intense about whether Guy would keep his part in the deal even though he didn’t agree to do it.
If you also like thrillers that take you to the edge of your seat, you should also read this book.

Explanation of the cover

I decided to put this picture as the cover of the book because the book’s name is “Strangers on a Train”, so I looked for a train picture that describes the book.

We see a mysterious train in the night, it is dark and we don’t know where the train is going.

The letters are red like blood and it’s a sign of what would be in the book.

The background is not clear and like from another world.

The movie

On the 3rd of July 1951, the movie was adapted as a film by director Alfred Hitchcock. The movie was a big success.

The film stars are Farley Granger, Ruth Roman, and Robert Walker.

A link for the trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1iSS5r0OVE&ab_channel=MovieclipsClassicTrailers