FABClub (Female Authors Book Club) discussion

This is an interesting novel. It was apparently first published under the title The Price of Salt (and that's where I had to look to find it in my library). Highsmith used the pseudonym Claire Morgan, apparently due to the story's lesbian content.

I just got my copy out of the library. Anyone else have it yet, read it yet? (And didn't I hear there's a movie just now being released?)

I haven't read this in a long time -- I'm interested in rereading it and seeing what I think of it now. It ranks high on the list of lesbian classics, but lesbian classics aren't necessarily the best books so much as the ones that, in some eras, tell lesbian stories at all, or in others, tell them with the least amount of terrible cliches and offense. The Price of Salt fell somewhere on the cusp of those two options, but I don't remember if it was actually good.

The movie should be out on dvd in the next couple of months. :) It's been generating a fair amount of Oscar buzz. I haven't seen it, but I've heard that it's pretty faithful to the book.

I'm starting this later today. I'm interested in why the title was changed so I'm off to google that. I'm also planning to see the movie when it hits DVD because Cate Blanchett :)

Oh, do let me know what you find out!

Well I didn't really find much. It seems related to the release of the movie. I'm curious now what the original title meant. I started the book tonight and flew through the first 100 pages. I really like the atmospheric writing. It reminds me of some other book but I haven't figured out which one yet. I'm also not sure why I've never read this.

I'm trying to decide if I want to try and read this simultaneously with Under the Udala Trees or just focus on one at a time.... You make it sound very inviting!

Somewhere I saw that someone said that Lolita's cross country journey had to owe something to this.

I'm having a hard time liking Carol (the character) she is a bit manipulative and controlling. I can totally relate to Therese's fascination with her. This book was way ahead of its time which is shown by the fact that Hollywood is just now ready for a movie treatment.

Some meaning for the original title perhaps - page 260
(view spoiler)["The music lived, but the world was dead. And the song would die one day, she thought, but how would the world come back to life? How would its salt come back?"

My heart is breaking for Therese right now. She is so lost. (hide spoiler)]

Alexa wrote: "Somewhere I saw that someone said that Lolita's cross country journey had to owe something to this."

I just recently read Lolita there are some definite comparisons.

I just got my copy of this and am looking forward to finally reading it! Funny how a book can be on your radar for so long but you never really find a reason to finally pick it up.

Taylor wrote: "I just got my copy of this and am looking forward to finally reading it! Funny how a book can be on your radar for so long but you never really find a reason to finally pick it up."

I know that's why I just love these goodreads groups :)

I finished this earlier today and I really liked it. I thought the tension and the atmosphere of the prose was fantastic. I especially liked the first scene when Carol and Therese met at the department store.
(view spoiler)[I really really liked that this had an upbeat ending. I think that was pretty unusual for a "lesbian story" at the time. It is still unusual in movies. I was so afraid when the gun was introduced that there was going to be some tragedy.

I thought Carol and Therese both evolved and grew nicely throughout the story. (hide spoiler)]

I just started this and I'm having trouble getting into it. So far it all seems so gray and grim and depressing. I shall press through however!

Regarding the conversation about Lolita, I now see that that comment is a blurb on my copy of the book. On the front cover it says, "The novel that inspired Nabokov's Lolita." And on the back cover it says, "I have long had a theory that Nabokov knew The Price of Salt and modeled the climactic cross-country car chase in Lolita on Therese and Carol's frenzied bid for freedom.... Highsmith was the first writer to mix roadside Americana, transgressive sex, and the impinging threat of a morals charge - and she went about it as masterfully as anyone. - Terry Castle, The New Republic"

Oh dear, I can feel the pain in these awkward meetings, yet some of this is so odd. The detailed description of a cup of hot milk. I suspect it's meant to symbolize all sorts of things, but I kind of don't care what.

I just now finished this, and I have a really odd reaction to it. I wasn't enjoying it at all, most of the time I was bored and had to force myself to keep reading. Most of my problems had to do with how flat everything seemed. Therese's interest in Carol just seemed so superficial and I felt like I barely knew either of them. I kept waiting for something interesting to happen. When we finally get to the first (view spoiler)[love scene (which I will admit I was impatiently waiting for with a certain amount of perverse eagerness, just to see how explicit she would be) I was actually sort of embarrassed. As if I shouldn't be watching such a personal scene between two people I barely knew. Yet from the moment Therese sees the picture in the library everything fell into place for me. Suddenly I understood why Therese's attraction had seemed so superficial and everything started to make sense. And I just loved the ending. The final scene at the cocktail party, where Therese finally begins to understand herself was just beautiful! So I hated four-fifths of this and loved the ending! (hide spoiler)]

I must say, I much prefer the title "The Price of Salt" to the title "Carol." It's much more meaningful, and I think, by the end of the book, makes total sense. There's a second reference to it that I found on p. 268 (view spoiler)[where she's talking to Danny, "She felt shy with him, yet somehow close, a closeness charged with something she had never felt with Richard. Something suspenseful, that she enjoyed. A little salt, she thought."

So, I would say the title means that which we have to pay in order to have some joy in our life, the cost of getting that which seasons life for us. And some of us have to pay a lot more for our salt than others. Which totally fits this. (hide spoiler)]

And I also have to say I'm offended that the blurb I quoted earlier compared this to "Lolita." This is a tale of two adult lovers, not a tale of child abuse and rape and kidnapping! Sometimes I wonder if any of those pontificators have actually read "Lolita." Nabokov doesn't sugar-coat any of its horror, he doesn't play games by pretending it could be classified as some sort of "forbidden love."

I guess I'll have to give 'em the Americana road trip, but that's about all.

I get what you are saying about Lolita but it did have that feel in parts Carol was always in control of where they went how long they stayed etc. while not the abuse pedophile situation of Lolita it did have some of that same vibe at least for me.

Yet I see Therese as the one in control, ultimately. She initiated everything, all the major events in their story. Carol's in control because Therese enjoys deferring to her. Therese is the innocent one who barges forward, with no conception of how they could be harmed, with no insight into the fact that she doesn't always need to tell everyone the absolute truth. Carol is the one who has so much to lose, and is well aware of it, yet she gives Therese everything Therese asks for.

Ok after thinking about this today I've decided you are right :) There was just one part in particular that gave me that creepy control/abuse feeling. I think I am over sensitive to those situations due to a bad past relationship.

I've finally finished this! I thought the writing was beautiful, though I agree with Alexa that it dragged a lot in the middle. Once the detective was introduced I started to feel the tension and the more their privacy was invaded and the case was made the more angry I felt. I also liked the ending, I was glad it was slightly happier, if a little ambiguous, because as mentioned above when the gun was brought into the story I saw things going downhill. Overall I thought it was really well written if a little slow, I liked it a lot more than I had expected to.