Patricia Highsmith was known as a writer of suspense. Her many books and film adaptations, including Strangers on a train directed by Alfred Hitchcock, earned her the title of suspense master. Highsmith said that at the end of 1949 she was penniless, her first novel was already written but it had not been published yet, so she got a job for a season in the toy section of a large store. One day an elegant blonde woman wrapped in a coat came in, wanted to buy a doll. The woman gave a name and an address where the doll should be sent and left. Upon seeing her, Patricia felt "as if she had had a vision" so when she got home she wrote in a flip about eight pages that contained the whole plot of a new novel.

Different Editions

A couple of years later, the novel was complete but her editor rejected it because she was a writer of suspense. She had barely written a book and she was already labeled! So, much to his dismay, Highsmith went to another publisher where she agreed to publish the book under a pseudonym, why? remember that it was the forties and fifties, homosexuality was not only taboo, it was morally condemned and even in some states of the United States certain acts between homosexuals were still illegal. So not to be labeled, this time as a lesbian writer, she published the book with the title The price of salt under the name of Claire Morgan. It took almost four decades for 1989 to finally be edited with her real name and under the title of Carol. The novel tells a love story, the only love story that Highsmith wrote: Therese, a 19-year-old girl, works a few days as a saleswoman in the toy department of a store and Carol, an elegant and sophisticated woman in her thirties, recently divorced, goes there to buy a doll for her daughter. Therese is anxious, unhappy, distrustful, shy. She has been dating Richard for 10 months but she doesn't love him and he is the first man with whom she has been sexually related. When she meets Carol, she falls in love at first sight, although she continues dating Richard for a while, before deciding to go with Carol on a trip to which she invites her. Carol, on the other hand, is confident, open, frank, strong, glamorous, and has a dominant personality, although as she relates to Therese, she begins to show more fragile and sweet, even calling Therese "my fallen angel from heaven".

Patricia Highsmith

Highsmith wrote a beautiful love story between two women, at a time when homosexuality, in the words of Carol "to the eyes of the world is something abominable". She developed it masterfully, with the romantic elements of the best love stories, without labeling it as ugly as some writers of the time did when dealing with homosexuality. "Once, their hands brushed against the back of the table and Therese felt that part of her skin revived and almost burned" wrote Highsmith and Therese says about Carol "I feel like I'm in a desert with my hands outstretched and you are raining on me". When they kiss for the first time, Therese wants to record every detail of the room. However, the reality knocks on here door and Herge, who is divorcing Carol, follows them secret and gathers evidence to keep the custody of his daughter Rindy. In order not to lose her daughter completely, Carol decides to move away from Therese and she feels hurt. Added to this is the jealousy she feels about Abby, Carol's best friend and first lover, Richard's condemnation as a representation of society, the relationship Therese initiates with Carol and, above all, the psychological conflict and emotional that represents to Therese discovering his homosexuality.

“What she felt for Carol was almost love, but Carol was a woman.”

“She had heard of girls who fell in love with each other and knew what kind of people they were and what they looked like. Neither Carol nor she were like that. But her feelings towards Carol coincided with all the descriptions.”

The movie

Therese was abandoned by her mother, she ended up growing up in an orphanage where "Sister Alicia [...], with those little blue eyes that always found her among all the other girls and looked at her in a different way". So, when meeting Carol, she simply emerged what she already had inside, but what she had rejected, unconsciously, due to social norms. The separation affects Therese more, she is more attached, younger than Carol, who had come to fill the void of her life that had remained after the departure of her mother, of Sister Alicia, and that Richard had not been able to occupy, understands the reasons for the estrangement from her beloved, but feels fragile, insecure, and afraid of the Carol's calm attitude, coming to think that maybe she did not love her so much. The final scene is perfect to round off a great story, taken to the big screen with Cate Blanchet as Carol and Rooney Mara as Therese, in one of those rare but appreciable good adaptations from paper to the big screen. Undoubtedly Carol is one of those books (and movies) that are worth reading and whose qualities are strengthened by time and confirmed by the readers of each new generation.