Carol (or, The Price of Salt) by Patricia Highsmith
Carol is, obviously, a hugely important novel historically and culturally. It was regarded for a long time as one of the first and only lesbian books with a happy ending, at a time when queer romance couldn’t exist with a happy ending. This was due in part to the Hays code, which didn’t allow gay people to be depicted positively. Gay people needed to die or be punished to exist. So, I understand how important this book is. And I did like it! It’s suspenseful and engaging, I enjoyed the characters and settings.
That being said… the eponymous Carol is a nightmare. I wonder if that was the point but, given the ending and certain aspects of Highsmith’s real life, I doubt it. This was nominated as a Buddy Read in a Discord group that I’m part of, so I enjoyed watching new people’s reactions to realizing that Carol is kind of awful. Those of us who read it previously sounded very dramatic about how much we didn’t like her as a person, given her mostly neutral behaviour early in the book. It’s only later, when Therese is at the whims of her hot and cold moods, that you realize she doesn’t seem to care that much about Therese at all.
It’s not entirely Carol’s own fault, I think. She’s a complicated figure, fighting for any custody of her daughter during a divorce where her husband is threatening her with outing her secret to the courts to gain full custody. So it’s understandable that she’s going through a lot, explaining some of her behaviour towards Therese. She’s clearly exhausted. But going through difficult things doesn’t excuse using someone for your own gains, you still have to own up to your actions.
I think that by the end of the book, both women are in places where the relationship does have a hope of continuing in a healthy way. But it certainly doesn’t start out that way and, if Therese had any lesbian friends at all, this book would’ve ended before part 2. They never would’ve ended up on the famous road trip.
Perhaps it was freedom itself that choked her.