The mystery genre (with overtones of thriller and dotted with science fiction on many occasions), acquires in the literary legacy of Ira Levin a special dimension. Perhaps it was a matter of his fondness for dramaturgy, the point is that his characters move between the disturbing plots proposed as souls that escape from reading to stage at times before the reader lurid soliloquies that delve into enigmas, above all, of the own human condition.
But it is also that we run into its plots, those knots that catch from the first page in their condition of originality and captivating mixture of psychological suspense, mystery and maximum tension that even Stephen King described as a work of Swiss watchmaker in the world of the genre.
Of course with these ingredients the cinema also knocked on Ira Levin's door repeatedly. And even today we can enjoy those replicas brought to the big screen for the glory of an imperishable bibliography.
Best Ira Levin novels
Rosemary's Baby
Currently, domestic thrillers proliferate to shake us with that invasive intention on the iconic image of the home. Nothing better than reaching the last refuge to end up inoculating the deepest fear.
I am referring to emblematic cases such as that of the author Shari lapena. The origin is undoubtedly in this novel originally called Rosemary's Baby.
In the plot we meet the couple formed by Guy and Rosemary, displaced to the heart of New York in search of a stroke of luck sought for him, an actor in search of his longed-for glory.
In their new apartment they try to establish that nucleus where they can spread happiness and hope, especially after Rosemary's pregnancy, who seems blessed by good fortune also for her future father. But soon we discover how the nightmare is looming over the young Woodhouse couple.
Friendly-looking neighborhood visits, new friends eager to integrate the newcomers ... little details of these new people that for Rosemary soon awaken that sixth sense of danger, especially as a project mother. Guy is prospering and Rosemary is sinking in fear, misgivings and crisis.
But we already know that her instinct points to a pernicious prophecy that tends to self-fulfillment if she does not act with determination. The problem is, she doesn't know what to expect from Guy, the person she had shared everything with until now.
Children of Brazil
Europe's blackest history is marked by Nazism. And literature has abounded in this time as an argument for a multitude of novels. I myself made my first steps with a uchrony about Hitler: «The arms of my cross«.
This time the thing is also about uchronias. Because Mengele's escape when the Third Reich fell goes a long way in terms of assumptions of all kinds.
The investigations of the unfortunate doctor on humans could endow him with unimaginable knowledge. This is where this plot begins, which takes us to Mengele's hideout in Brazil in 1973, 6 years before his death.
His plan is shared by other great escapees from Nazism. The resurgence of the empire and its final solution is still feasible if they manage to execute an insane plan.
Everything starts well for the purposes of Mengele's group. The deaths are happening as planned. The victims have to be 94 very clear objectives, scattered around half the world.
With drops between dystopian science fiction and the most disturbing thriller, Levin turns to the real character of Simon Wiesenthal and transforms him into a certain Yakov Liebermann, the only one capable of facing this organization so that the world does not return to be subjugated by the shadows. and fear.
Kiss me before you die
With such a romantic epic title, a novel emerges that precisely abounds in the opposite, in the cruelty of ambition, in the possibility of a crime of passion, from the perception of the fall of the desires of the most indecent growth.
A guy like Bud Corliss has studied his path to economic prosperity through the shortcut of his trickster charms. And based on his image as a perfect boy, he ends up developing his psychopathy capable of anything.
First it was Dorothy Kingship as the promise of success from her fine family. When everything went wrong, he ended up killing her even with her newly conceived future child.
No better murder than one that ends up pointing to suicide. After her, her sister Ellen will arrive. And Bud will continue in his thirteen of getting the favors of daughter and father. Only second chances can never go as well. The question is how far Bud will go in his perverse view of life.
