Friend, comrade, fellow podcaster, and University of Pennsylvania Ph.D. candidate Devin Daniels joins us to discuss Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955)! Devin is the co-host of You’re Tall but I’m Standing in Front of You, and he’s with us for a fun romp about an ordinary guy who likes maps and trips to Italy and is in no way weird or sinister. He is not a confidence man in any way and definitely doesn’t kill people with ashtrays. We discuss gender construction, surveillance mechanisms, self-making, and queerness. We also consider the ethics of telling people about your European vacations and if you should ever do that.

We read the Vintage edition. We mention it on the episode and recommend Erin Carlston’s book Double Agents, which is about queer fiction and spying in 20th century literature. And we really really insist that you go check out the cluster of essays that Devin and Kimberly Andrews edited for Post45’s Contemporaries series on Nic f*cking Cage.

Find Devin on Twitter @stalecooper and You’re Tall but I’m Standing in Front of You @youretallpod. Find us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook @betterreadpod, and email us nice things at [email protected]. Find Tristan on Twitter @tjschweiger, Katie @katiekrywo, and Megan @tuslersaurus.