Editors Reads Verdict
Highsmith's most devastating portrait of a woman — and perhaps her most feminist novel — a study in how reality and fiction trade places in a mind under impossible pressure.
What We Loved
- Edith is one of Highsmith's most complex and sympathetic protagonists
- The diary as a formal device is used brilliantly
- The critique of the burdens placed on women is implicit but fierce
Minor Drawbacks
- Slower paced than her thrillers — closer to literary fiction in structure
- Cliffie is almost too perfectly awful as a character
Key Takeaways
- → Self-authored reality as both pathology and survival strategy
- → The female protagonist navigating a world that has failed her
- → The diary as a form of fiction-making that replaces unbearable truth
| Author | Patricia Highsmith |
|---|---|
| Publisher | W. W. Norton |
| Pages | 272 |
| Published | January 1, 1977 |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Psychological Fiction, Literary Fiction |
| Difficulty | Intermediate |
| Best For | Highsmith fans; readers of literary psychological fiction; feminist fiction readers |
Edith Howland is a liberal, intelligent woman who has moved with her husband Brett to a small Pennsylvania town and started a local progressive newspaper. Her son Cliffie has problems — has always had problems — but Edith manages them. She believes in people’s capacity to become what they could be.
Brett leaves her for another woman. Cliffie moves back home and stays, indefinitely, doing nothing, eating, watching television, occasionally going to the pub and sometimes causing trouble there. Edith’s father-in-law is also in the house, bedridden and demanding. And Edith keeps writing her diary.
In the diary, Cliffie married a woman named Debbie. They have a son named Brett. Cliffie has a good job. He is becoming the person he should have been. The diary is not confused about reality — Edith knows perfectly well what is happening in her house — but it is a place where she can insist on another version of events, a version she deserves.
Edith’s Diary is Highsmith’s most directly feminist novel, though it would never have described itself that way. It is a study in how women are required to absorb damage — the failure of husbands, the failure of sons, the requirements of aging parents — with no permission to fail themselves, and what happens to a mind that finds a private way to survive what it cannot otherwise endure.
Reading Guides
Frequently Asked Questions
What is "Edith's Diary" about?
Edith Howland keeps a diary. In it, her son Cliffie is successful, married, fulfilling his potential. In reality, Cliffie is a parasitic failure who has moved back into her house and contributes nothing. Her husband has left her. Her diary diverges from reality and then departs from it altogether — becoming not delusion but an act of private creation, a novel within the novel. Highsmith's most feminist work and one of her most devastating.
Who should read "Edith's Diary"?
Highsmith fans; readers of literary psychological fiction; feminist fiction readers
What are the key takeaways from "Edith's Diary"?
Self-authored reality as both pathology and survival strategy The female protagonist navigating a world that has failed her The diary as a form of fiction-making that replaces unbearable truth
Is "Edith's Diary" worth reading?
Highsmith's most devastating portrait of a woman — and perhaps her most feminist novel — a study in how reality and fiction trade places in a mind under impossible pressure.
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