The Price of Salt, or Carol

Honestly, I tried very hard to like this book. I've heard how phenomenal it was and I was excited to start it. But let me tell you, it was a slow start. Despite this being a very short book it took me almost a full month to finish just because it was so boring. Nothing at all happened in this book until the last five chapters - the book mainly consisted of the two main characters drinking and going to restaurants/hotels.

Additionally, the two main characters were incredibly boring themselves. They had no real personalities except the younger one, Therese, being obsessed with the older woman Carol even though she knows nothing about her. It seemed to me that Highsmith tried making Carol seem mysterious and alluring but instead she just seemed flat and transparent. Therese herself was hard to like based off of her childish and sometimes dramatic inner monologues that detailed her rapidly swinging emotions. All in all, I would say if you choose not to read this book you are not missing out on anything special.

We loved meeting so many new faces earlier this afternoon for our Pride Month book club pick: The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith! 🧂 We had a picnic in Prospect Park where our main character Therese and her boyfriend (at the time 😉) fly a kite. “They took the subway to the park, and walked to the treeless hill where they had come a dozen times before. Therese looked around her. There were some boys playing with a football down on the flat field at the edge of the trees, but otherwise the park looked quiet and still. There was not much wind, not really enough, Richard said, and the sky was densely white as if it carried snow. …Therese did not take her eyes from it. Then the kite steadied and stopped, like a picture of a cathedral pasted on the thick white sky. Carol wouldn’t like kites probably, Therese thought. Kites wouldn’t amuse her. She would glance at one, and say it was silly.” -Patricia Highsmith, The Price of Salt, Chapter 8. 🪁 Our next meetup will be in August and we’ll be announcing the book & location soon!

i’m gay

There was a lot to like about this but it was certainly not my favourite Patricia Highsmith novel. Though, wow, so much better than the movie.

I didn’t realize when I started it how old the book is, it was written in 1953, and as such it is a little dated. However, the story is enjoyable, it tells of the first same sex relationship and love of the main character Therese. What I really liked were the descriptions of things and people, it is told through her eyes, and she sees things very artistically.