Carol
Ratings92
Average rating3.8
Carol, Patricia Highsmith's ground breaking lesbian novel originally released in 1952 as the The Price Of Salt under the pseudonym Claire Morgan.
Perhaps the best thing about this novel is that it has a positive and uplifting ending, definitely something that is missing in a lot of LGBTQ literature I have read (mainly misery, loneliness and death). However, I won't lie, it is dull in places and is definitely saved by the Thelma and Louiseish act 2, which is all posh sausages, martinis and private detectives.
Easy read, charming, dullish but worth it. (probably have that on my tombstone)
Foi um livro que demorei a entrar no clima, já comecei a gostar e ficar curiosa pelos próximos capítulos lá pelos 40% dele. Mas gostei muito de como a história se desenvolveu e a evolução da personagem de Thérèse. Já tinha assistido o filme, mas não lembrava com detalhes da história nem do final, o que me surpreendeu. Recomendo.
I read this before watching the film, and I loved both. I'm a big fan of Patricia Highsmith, and this did not disappoint. Atmospheric and romantic, it had me in tears at the end and my heart felt full.
This tale of a passionate, whirlwind romance left me cold. The characters were are flat and the prose was mundane. Equally too much and too little is said. It felt like one of those boring conversations between dull people that you're forced to overhear on the train.
I am not rating it because clearly romance novels aren't my thing, and it feels harsh to judge this book when it's the genre that doesn't work for me.
this book INVENTED the anti-Bury Your Gays ending so um why am I still crying??????
Pretty intense and melancholy for a romance, but I enjoyed it and I liked Highsmith's style of not explaining every action the characters took. A lot is left to the reader to interpret, and that was interesting.
The sexual revolution is often attributed to the 1920's. The 1950's saw a return to traditional male/female roles as America tried to recover from the war and men felt the need to re-assert their legitimacy in a country that had been superbly run by women during war. But the 1950's saw the evolution of more frank conversations about sexual roles and practice as we see in the conversation in The Price of Salt between Therese and Richard when Therese asks him, the man she had been dating, about the possibility of two women or men falling in love as a man and woman do.
Patricia Highsmith's novels are full of tension and this novel is no exception, though it is subtly executed in a very sophisticated style. Since most 1950's gay and lesbian fiction was published in the pulp-fiction style, this novel was published under a pseudonym and with a wonderful lurid pulp fiction cover. This novel has come out of the shadows and provides an important glimpse into the un-apologetic love of two women at a transitional time in our history.
A rating of 3/5 means I enjoyed this novel and recommend it to those who are interested in this particular genre or author.
