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Carol by Patricia Highsmith
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Carol (original 1952; edition 2005)

by Patricia Highsmith

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingConversations / Mentions
2,9191094,753 (3.81)1 / 144
A chance encounter between two lonely women leads to a passionate romance in this lesbian cult classic. Therese, a struggling young sales clerk, and Carol, a homemaker in the midst of a bitter divorce, abandon their oppressive daily routines for the freedom of the open road, where their love can blossom. But their newly discovered bliss is shattered when Carol is forced to choose between her child and her lover. Highsmith's sensitive treatment of fully realized characters who defy stereotypes about homosexuality marks a departure from previous lesbian pulp fiction. Erotic, eloquent, and suspenseful, this story offers an honest look at the necessity of being true to one's nature.The Price of Salt is the basis for the upcoming film Carol, starring Rooney Mara, Cate Blanchett, and Kyle Chandler, to be released December 18, 2015.… (more)
Member:myub
Title:Carol
Authors:Patricia Highsmith
Info:Bloomsbury Publishing PLC (2005), Paperback, 272 pages
Collections:Your library
Rating:*****
Tags:Fiction

Work Information

The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith (1952)

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 Monthly Author Reads: June 2019: Patricia Highsmith24 unread / 24Bookmarque, July 2019

» See also 144 mentions

English (103)  Dutch (2)  Italian (1)  Catalan (1)  Swedish (1)  All languages (108)
Showing 1-5 of 103 (next | show all)
No idea why my bookshelves keep presenting me with lesbian stories but I found [a:Patricia Highsmith|7622|Patricia Highsmith|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1418715271p2/7622.jpg]'s Carol entrancing. I was certainly not prepared for 200 pages of sexual tension. But after reading [b:Little Tales of Misogyny|16080338|Little Tales of Misogyny|Patricia Highsmith|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1349962505l/16080338._SY75_.jpg|56519] I was prepared for something special.

That a boring old hetro like me should find such a tale so gripping, says a lot about the power of the book and, of course, about the excellence of Patricia Highsmith's writing.

The flash of recognition, confirmed by my lesbian neighbours, is intriguing.
...and Therese saw the glance linger on her for an instant, while in Therese there took place a shock a little like that she had known when she had seen Carol for the first time, and there was the same flash of interest in the woman's blue eyes that had been in her own, she knew, when she first saw Carol.
( )
  simonpockley | Feb 25, 2024 |
read to pg 122 ( )
  mslibrarynerd | Jan 13, 2024 |
This is the book that the movie Carol is based on. I haven't seen the movie, though, so I can't compare the two. The book alternated between scenes that were very beautifully written and long stretches that were very boring. However the 1950s setting and the age difference between the two characters made for some interesting commentary on the way that women are affected differently by the constraints society puts on them at different times in their lives. At the beginning the protagonist references The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, which is an apt comparison. This is the story of a romance measured out in coffee spoons. ( )
  megacool24 | Dec 18, 2023 |
Oh, Patricia Highsmith. Thank you. I quite lost myself in “Carol” for a few days.

This book is unique and breathless, and it will not let go of you until the story is told. The writing is powerful.

“It reminded her of conversations at tables, on sofas, with people whose words seemed to hover over dead, unstirrable things, who never touched a string that played. And when one tried to touch a live string, looked at one with faces as masked as ever, making a remark so perfect in its banality that one could not even believe it might be subterfuge.”

“The half dangling, half cemented relationship” between Therese and Richard is so well painted, small details that slowly condense into ugliness. The chapter when they fly a kite is heartbreaking, and Richard does not understand.

The description of that first meeting between Therese and Carol is a bit like drowning. For me, Therese’s story is a story of an obsession that becomes… love? A kind of love? I am still not certain. And slowly, slowly, you realize that Therese is the villain here, a villain of selfishness and weakness – until Highsmith slaps you in the face with it.

In the afterword (a great one), the author calls her ending “happy”.
I’d call it an ambiguous, and not an unhappy ending.

And now, I’ll go and breathe. ( )
  Alexandra_book_life | Dec 15, 2023 |
First things first: even for the 1950's, these are the most old fashioned lesbians I've ever seen. They are doing a cross country trip from New York City to Washington and don't sleep together until the Chicagoland area. None of the gals from The L Word would've waited that long.

Obviously I'm 50% joking. This is a very strong book especially in the subtle ways it illustrates the oppressive social conformity of the era. Without talking about feminism in a ham fisted way, it shows the limited options for women--especially lesbians--in the country.

The actual romance is cool too. These women are learning a great deal about each other in a natural and organic way. My only complaint is that Carol is sometimes dismissive of Therese's actions (we get it: she's young and whiney). But those are minor issues. It really nails things with an an abrupt ending, which in another book would've been cheap. Recommended. ( )
1 vote JuntaKinte1968 | Dec 6, 2023 |
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Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Patricia Highsmithprimary authorall editionscalculated
Lefkow, LaurelNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Stromberg, KyraTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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Epigraph
Dedication
To Edna, Jordy and Jeff
First words
The lunch hour in the co-workers' cafeteria at Frankenberg's had reached its peak.
Quotations
Happiness was like a green vine spreading through her, stretching fine tendrils, bearing flowers through her flesh.
She had seen just now what she had only sensed before, that the whole world was ready to be their enemy, and suddenly what she and Carol had together seemed no longer love or anything happy but a monster between them, with each of them caught in a fist.
I don't mean people like that. I mean two people who fall in love suddenly with each other, out of the blue. Say two men or two girls ... I suppose it could happen, though, to almost anyone, couldn't it?
They're not horrid. One's just supposed to conform. I know what they'd like, they'd like a blank they could fill in. A person already filled in disturbs them terribly.
Remember what you said about physics not applying to people? ... Well, I’m not sure you’re
right ... Take friendships, for instance. I can think of a lot of cases where the two people have nothing in common. I think there’s a definite reason for every friendship just as there’s a reason why certain atoms unite and others don’t—certain missing factors in one, or certain present factors in the other—what do you think? I think friendships are the result of certain needs that can be completely hidden from both people, sometimes hidden forever.
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Disambiguation notice
Carol was first published in the USA under the title The Price of Salt, 1952, and the author's pseudonym of Claire Morgan.
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Information from the German Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to your language.
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Wikipedia in English (3)

A chance encounter between two lonely women leads to a passionate romance in this lesbian cult classic. Therese, a struggling young sales clerk, and Carol, a homemaker in the midst of a bitter divorce, abandon their oppressive daily routines for the freedom of the open road, where their love can blossom. But their newly discovered bliss is shattered when Carol is forced to choose between her child and her lover. Highsmith's sensitive treatment of fully realized characters who defy stereotypes about homosexuality marks a departure from previous lesbian pulp fiction. Erotic, eloquent, and suspenseful, this story offers an honest look at the necessity of being true to one's nature.The Price of Salt is the basis for the upcoming film Carol, starring Rooney Mara, Cate Blanchett, and Kyle Chandler, to be released December 18, 2015.

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Book description
Arguably Patricia Highsmith's finest, The Price of Salt is the story of Therese Belivet, a stage designer trapped in a department-store day job, whose salvation arrives one day in the form of Carol Aird, an alluring suburban housewife in the throes of a divorce. They fall in love and set out across the United States, pursued by a private investigator who eventually blackmails Carol into a choice between her daughter and her lover. With this reissue, The Price of Salt may finally be recognized as a major twentieth-century American novel.
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