Carol (also titled The Price Of Salt) has been called a masterwork, one of the most important novels of the 20th century. Credited with inspiring Nabokov's Lolita, it's certainly on par with that revered classic, yet is still relatively unknown. This was filmed by Todd Haynes, winning Cate Blanchett excellent reviews.
One of the unique things that made this an underground classic is its homosexual theme without judgement or punishment. It's a full on, technicolor story of enduring love - a stunning novel for 1952 - it has a timeless quality, and offers a hopeful future.
Therese is a young New York stage designer working in the toy department of a large store over Christmas. Among the frantic shoppers one day, Therese sees Carol arrive to buy a doll. She is intrigued and drawn to talk to her. Beautiful, wealthy and mature, Carol Aird is in her thirties and leaving an unhappy marriage. Their friendly meeting turns into an offer of a coffee date, and soon Therese is putting off her eager fiance Richard to spend the holidays with Carol. It's a deep friendship rather than a sexual one, with Therese staying in Carol's home in a separate bedroom - in fact their intense relationship grows with only a few kisses exchanged. Carol is wary of Therese, knowing what a lesbian relationship holds for them, but Therese's pursuit of true happiness is blind and she doesn't care what Richard or her other theatre friends think. When Therese meets Carol's good friend Abby, she sees the deep bond of love and friendship the women have, and wants that for herself, while realizing their kind of love would have to be unspoken in society.
They decide to take an extended road trip, wandering from state to state and staying in hotels. Carol keeps challenging Therese, while falling for her. They soon find that they are being tailed by a private detective - hired by Carol's husband to find fault he can use in their divorce. This drives Carol to push Therese away, while proving to Therese their love is true.
Patricia Highsmith wrote this directly after writing Strangers On A Train for Hitchcock, and her next novel was The Talented Mr. Ripley. Both have homosexual undertones, but in Carol, Highsmith was able to write a positive, intense love story for those whose love was secretive. In her afterword (added in 1982), she writes about the great response she has received over the years from people who identified with having shadow relationships. This was 1952, when clubs were hidden and people got off the train a stop ahead and walked over, lest someone see them go into one. The signals were subtle and sometimes unspoken when you met, and affairs were hidden. Despite this, love can overrule. Today gay relationships are in the open, but the sign of a great novel is that it's as potent and interesting as I read it today.
Carol is a positive light for people used to having the homosexual character be the villain or victim, someone to illustrate what is corrupt about society. Highsmith shows that love between two women, or two men, can be achieved and enjoyed, over all odds.
At the time, her publisher thought she should associate her name with mysteries, so she published it under the pseudonym Claire Morgan. Available under her own name it was usually shelved with her mysteries, never fully discovered.
Not just a classic homosexual novel, but a classic novel of love.
1952 / Paperback / 292 pages
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