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A review by loveangle
The Price of Salt, or Carol by Patricia Highsmith
5.0
I was struck by Therese, how she didn’t feel vivid at all as a person, but what an interesting character she is. Carol calls her an angel flung out of space. She’s an orphan, a set designer who creates settings without living a “real life,” a girl who falls in love for the first time and becomes rearranged as a result. Even the road trip with Carol leaves her essentially stranded, she’s just wandering around the cities alone, living a very mundane, anonymous existence.
“And she did not have to ask if this were right, no one had to tell her, because this could not have been more right or perfect.”
“Or was it that she always wanted a little more than she had, no matter how much she had?”
The love affair with Carol is the only way she feels confident, which would be a disaster for anyone else as unsure and immature as Therese.
“…her usual mistrust of her own reactions, the anxiety that her reactions were like no one else’s…”
“Carol’s phrase 'come out' bad made her think of being born, and it embarrassed her. Yes, she had been born since she left Carol.”
Ugh it’s just so good.
“And she did not have to ask if this were right, no one had to tell her, because this could not have been more right or perfect.”
“Or was it that she always wanted a little more than she had, no matter how much she had?”
The love affair with Carol is the only way she feels confident, which would be a disaster for anyone else as unsure and immature as Therese.
“…her usual mistrust of her own reactions, the anxiety that her reactions were like no one else’s…”
“Carol’s phrase 'come out' bad made her think of being born, and it embarrassed her. Yes, she had been born since she left Carol.”
Ugh it’s just so good.