Therese, a trainee set designer, is earning extra money by working in a department store during the busy period leading up to Christmas when she encounters Carol and falls for her. The two become friends, then lovers, but Carol's divorce process (begun before she knew Therese) threatens everything.

I've tried reading this book once before, that time I got bogged down before the page 100; this time I enjoyed the period feel and slowish build-up to Therese and Carol becoming closer. ( )

I picked this up because it sounded so unlike everything else Highsmith had ever written, and I wanted to see how she did a relatively serious-minded love story.

I didn't really care for it, mostly because I just couldn't grow to love the main character and I dislike this kind of romance, where every action is second-guessed again and again as to how the lover will take it. I also very much disliked the way she treated her boyfriend at the end of their relationship, but he was also insistent on not breaking up, so there really wasn't too much she could do about it.

I also had a love/hate relationship with the romance between Therese and Carol. Parts of it were extremely passionate, and I liked a lot of the ways they met up, traveled, and kept running into one another, and I really liked the pre-trip parts where Therese was literally thinking of nothing but Carol, but as I mentioned earlier, the fact that Therese was constantly, CONSTANTLY going over things in her head as to what she should say and do and what Carol may do in response drove me up the wall. I dislike that type of story though, so it probably doesn't really reflect on this book in particular.

A lot of the characters were really well-written and played their parts in the story nicely. Therese's boyfriend, Carol's best friend and former lover Abbey, Carol's husband Harge, the older woman that worked at Therese's department store that terrified her, and the possible male romantic interest for Therese that lingered throughout the story were all quite well done.

The ending was fantastic. After all the trouble the two of them ran into with investigators following them on the road, their separation, and Therese's thought process at the end of the novel were all great. I enjoyed those parts quite a bit, and I liked the eventual ending. ( )

An early non-crime novel about a lesbian affair that she originally wrote under a pseudonym. It says it inspired Lolita, but it was a lot less well-written. Somehow I never really engaged with either character. ( )

This is one of the best books I have ever read. No joke kiddos. Also one of the first lesbian romances published that did not end in tragedy. Very satisfying emotional romance. Not just a romance, but a story of coming into one’s own. A lesbian coming of age story. Provokes discussion on what it means to be male/female, gender roles. This let a lot of women know that they could indeed live their lives the way they wanted to. This is one I will read over and over. Very relatable, empowering.
annotation word document online ( )

Reread. The classic lesbian novel, which I reread mostly to see if one of the characters really did get the gay flu. Nope, turned out it was the author -- she became obsessed with a woman temporarily after she had a really high fever with adult chicken pox. So it's a *real* account of the gay flu! Huh. ( )