one blow in anger [would] kill, probably, a child from aged two to eight. Those over eight would take two blows to kill.

Michael Dirda observed "Europeans honored her as a psychological novelist part of an existentialist tradition represented by her own favorite writers in particular Dostoevsky Conrad Kafka Gide and Camus. "I could never penetrate how any human being could be that relentlessly ugly. Her last novel Small g: a Summer Idyll was publiPatricia Highsmithd posthumously a month later.

Although Patricia Highsmith wrote specifically in the genre of crime fiction her books have been lauded by various writers and critics as being artistic and thoughtful enough to rival mainstream literature. ". Michael Dirda observed "Europeans honored her as a psychological novelist part of an existentialist tradition represented by her own favorite writers in particular Dostoevsky Conrad Kafka Gide and Camus.