Kaylia and Chris talk about the subversive1950s lesbian novel (The Price of Salt) and its 2015 film adaptation (Carol). We talk about changes, history, and personal connections. Enjoy!

The Price of Salt (later republished under the title Carol) is a 1952 romance novel by Patricia Highsmith, first published under the pseudonym “Claire Morgan.” Highsmith—known as a suspense writer based on her psychological thriller Strangers on a Train—used an alias as she did not want to be tagged as “a lesbian-book writer”, and she also used her own life references for characters and occurrences in the story. Although Highsmith wrote over 22 novels and numerous short stories and had many sexual and romantic relationships with women, The Price of Salt is her only novel about an unequivocal lesbian relationship, and its relatively happy ending was unprecedented in lesbian literature. It is also notable for being the only one of her novels with “a conventional ‘happy ending'” and characters who had “more explicit sexual existences”

Carol is a 2015 romantic period drama film directed by Todd Haynes. The screenplay by Phyllis Nagy is based on the 1952 romance novel The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith (republished as Carol in 1990). The film stars Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, Sarah Paulson, Jake Lacy, and Kyle Chandler. Set in New York City during the early 1950s, Carol tells the story of a forbidden affair between an aspiring female photographer and an older woman going through a difficult divorce.

---

This Pages and Popcorn Podcast episode was produced by Kaylia Metcalfe and featured “Pages and Popcorn Podcast Theme” performed by M.D. Arms, Kaylia Metcalfe, and The Kiddo-Cat

Support The Show