Flung Out of Space: Inspired by the Indecent Adventures of Patricia Highsmith

 Ellis, Grace and Hannah Templer. Flung Out of Space: Inspired by the Indecent Adventures of Patricia Highsmith. 2022. 208p. ISBN 9781419744334.

Patricia Highsmith is a writer who finds herself working for a publishing house writing comic book texts. She's been shopping her novel around, but her agent is not very diligent about finding a buyer, as there is some animosity there. Patricia is the only woman working in an office full of men, and her attraction to other women in an era where good girls are expected to marry and have children adds to her conflicting relationship with herself and with others. In therapy to "solve" her rampant lesbianism, Patricia is not sure she actually wants to be cured.

Meeting Stan Lee, Patricia begins writing comics for a competitor. And just when things feel like they can't get any worse, her novel sells, and she suddenly becomes a successful writer. Her next novel, however, is what would be considered a LGBTQ story today, and publishers don't want to touch it. One daring publisher agrees to do so, but as a paperback, and Patricia will have to use a different name. That book too becomes wildly popular, but she's not able to enjoy the success as no one knows she actually wrote it.

A conflicted individual who was angry with the world and struggled to find a place where she could belong, Patricia Highsmith remains famous for her mystery books such as The Talented Mr. Ripley. Flung Out of Space accurately describes her life as a struggling writer at the beginning of her career, and emphasizes her efforts to become a writer.