I'm Gilbert Cruz, editor of the New York Times Book Review and this is the Book Review

podcast. This week

M.J Franklin is back to host the Book Review Book Club and up for discussion the

talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith. A great American crime novel it has been adapted for

the screen several times including into a film starring Matt Damon,

Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Kate Lanchette.

That film celebrates its 25th anniversary later this year.

Most recently, the talented Mr. Ripley was made into a gorgeous black and white series for Netflix

which stars Andrew Scott. Let's go to our book club conversation now.

Hello and welcome back to another book club episode of the book review

podcast I'm MJ Franklin I'm an editor here at the New York Times book review

and this month's book club we're talking about the talented

Mr. Ripley. We chose this book for our July Book Club because I was thinking about

summer reading and I'm always torn between two mindsets when I choose something

for the summer.

On the one hand, in the summer I'm going to use my leisure time to kind of catch up on a classic

that I've been meaning to dive into and just haven't had the chance yet.

And on the other hand, I'm like, I don't want to do any beautiful reading is

vacation it's the summer I want to dive into something fun and propulsive and just

enjoy the talented Mr Ripley accomplishes both.

It's a classic, but also it's this tense, high octane thriller

that a lot of readers I think recall unputdownable.

...