The Glass Cell by Patricia Highsmith

(pb; 1964)

From the back cover

“In 1961, Patricia Highsmith received a fan letter from a prison inmate. A correspondence ensued between author and inmate, and Highsmith became fascinated with the psychological traumas that incarceration can inflict. Based on a true story, The Glass Cell is Highsmith’s deeply disturbing fictionalization of everything she learned. Falsely convicted of fraud, the easy-going but naïve Philip Carter is sent to prison. Despite his devotion to Hazel, his wife, and the support of David Sullivan, a lwayer and friend who tries to avenge the injustice done to him, Carter endures six lonely and drug-ravaged years. Upon his release, Carter is a much more discerning, suspicious, and violent man. For those around him, earning back his trust can mean the difference between life and death.”

Review

Glass is a good novel that shows the horrors of prison and how it can change a person, twist him into something darker. Glass also sports a protagonist worth rooting for even as he becomes jaded and violent. Highsmith, as always, is adept at showing how everyday instances and items─innocuous in most writers’ hands─become troubling, damning when one has gone around some bleak, lonely bend and come out of the turn a fractured person.

Glass is entertaining, with interesting characters and an ending that satisfies, transcends the usual crime-and-punishment genre. Worth checking out, this.