2011 Reading #12: The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith Writing as Claire Morgan
Books 1-10.
11. The Imago Sequence and Other Stories by Laird Barron.
12. The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith writing as Claire Morgan. Highsmith's lone pseudonymous novel (though she worked uncredited as a comic book writer for a while before her career as a novelist took off) just happens to be the first lesbian love story to be published with a happy ending. This is surprising only because where the Ripley books and Strangers On a Train (all I've read so far of her stuff) are extremely dark and often quite cynical about love relationships; and yet this is one of the better romance novels I've read. (Admittedly, I haven't read that many.) The relationship between Therese and Carol is awkward, euphoric, tentative, and utterly believable; it's not so much about surrendering to passion--although Therese, certainly, is at first overwhelmed--as it is about negotiating the realities of an adult relationship. In part this is because the people in that relationship happen to be two women in the 1950s, and the social and especially legal consequences of them being together are very real; what's most upsetting about the novel is how little has actually changed in the 60 years since it was written. Another excellent book; this has been a good year of reading so far, knock wood.
11. The Imago Sequence and Other Stories by Laird Barron.
12. The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith writing as Claire Morgan. Highsmith's lone pseudonymous novel (though she worked uncredited as a comic book writer for a while before her career as a novelist took off) just happens to be the first lesbian love story to be published with a happy ending. This is surprising only because where the Ripley books and Strangers On a Train (all I've read so far of her stuff) are extremely dark and often quite cynical about love relationships; and yet this is one of the better romance novels I've read. (Admittedly, I haven't read that many.) The relationship between Therese and Carol is awkward, euphoric, tentative, and utterly believable; it's not so much about surrendering to passion--although Therese, certainly, is at first overwhelmed--as it is about negotiating the realities of an adult relationship. In part this is because the people in that relationship happen to be two women in the 1950s, and the social and especially legal consequences of them being together are very real; what's most upsetting about the novel is how little has actually changed in the 60 years since it was written. Another excellent book; this has been a good year of reading so far, knock wood.