Sunday, February 12, 2012

Top ten literary frenemies

Lars Iyer is a lecturer in philosophy at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. He is the author of two books on Blanchot (Blanchot's Communism: Art, Philosophy, Politics and Blanchot's Vigilance: Phenomenology, Literature, Ethics) and the novels Spurious, which was 3:AM Magazine's Book of the Year in 2011, and Dogma.

One entry on his top ten list of literary frenemies, as told to the Guardian:
Patricia Highsmith's Bruno and Guy

Patricia Highsmith is a master of the perverse friendship, and her first novel Strangers on a Train was no exception. Hitchcock's film version portrays Bruno as merrily murderous and Guy as morally upstanding, but the novel presents the two men intertwined in a twisted friendship that is more significant than any other in their lives. Guy may be disgusted by the drunken, vicious Bruno, but when Bruno falls overboard at sea, Guy instantly dives into the waves, unable to imagine life alone without his cruel friend.
Read about the other literary frenemies on the list.

Strangers on a Train is on John Mullan's list of ten of the best railway journeys in literature.

--Marshal Zeringue