The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith. Reading this classic novel of romance between two women in mid-century New York was like watching an old black-and-white movie: not only are the conventions and artistic techniques different, slower, more thoughtful, but the quotidian details of life, the zeitgeist, and the social mores are also so unlike our own. And yet, beneath all the dissimilarities, the totally familiar universals of human longing, desire, love, and hate course through veins of the characters. And in the end, the characters are the core: the reader cares more deeply about them the more is revealed by the narrative. Seventy years on, the story still compels.
Bonus feature: The image above comes from the copy I borrowed from the library. The "major motion picture" referenced on the cover is the 2015
Cate Blanchett/Rooney Mara feature called Carol.The book was originally published under the name Claire Morgan because Highsmith did not want to be pigeon-holed as a "lesbian-book" writer. It was later re-issued as Carol, and is often published under both titles and, of course, with Highsmith's true name.
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