Description
CAROL
Book Summary
A chance encounter between two lonely women sparks a passionate romance in this cult classic by Patricia Highsmith. Therese, a young shopgirl dissatisfied with her life, and Carol, a housewife mired in a bitter divorce, decide to abandon their oppressive routines to embark on a road trip. In the freedom of the open road, their love can blossom, but happiness wavers when Carol is forced to choose between her daughter and her lover. This Galician edition from Kalandraka recovers a work that marked a turning point in literature for its sensitive treatment of homosexuality, free from stereotypes.
What is it about?
New York, 1950s. Therese Belivet is a young set designer working temporarily as a shopgirl in a department store during the Christmas season. Her life passes between job dissatisfaction and a dead-end relationship with her boyfriend Richard. Everything changes the day she meets Carol Aird, an elegant, upper-class woman who enters the store to buy a doll for her daughter. An immediate and intense connection arises between them that soon turns into a secret relationship. While Carol goes through a painful divorce, her husband Harge uses her relationship with Therese as a weapon to gain custody of their daughter. The novel follows the two women’s road trip across the United States, a journey that represents both an escape and a search for freedom, culminating in a painful crossroads where love and social conventions inevitably collide.
Main Themes
- Love as a challenge to social conventions and repression in the 1950s.
- Sexual identity and the struggle for authenticity in a hostile context.
- The conflict between personal desire and family and legal responsibilities.
- The journey as a metaphor for liberation and self-discovery.
- Motherhood and custody as instruments of social control.
Who is it recommended for?
This work is aimed at readers interested in classic 20th-century narrative with a pioneering LGBTQ+ perspective. It is especially recommended for those looking for a complex, realistic love story devoid of idealizations, and for those who appreciate the psychological and restrained prose of Patricia Highsmith. It is also of great interest to readers who want to explore a novel that defied stereotypes about homosexuality long before the social normalization of the topic.
What this book offers
- A pioneering and respectful vision of a lesbian relationship, treated with the complexity and depth it deserves, without falling into sensationalism or stereotypes.
- Patricia Highsmith’s narrative mastery, combining psychological suspense with an intense and credible love story.
- A social portrait of 1950s America, where repression and appearances clash with individual desires.
- An honest reflection on the price of freedom and the painful decisions involved in living according to one's own nature.
Technical Specifications
- Author: HIGHSMITH, PATRICIA
- Publisher: Kalandraka
- Language: glg
- Topic: MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY FICTION
- Collection: NARRATIVA K
- Binding: Paperback
- Publication date: September 2022
- Number of pages: 384
- Weight: 504 g
Editorial Review
"Carol" is an essential work within Patricia Highsmith's narrative and a benchmark in LGBTQ+ literature. Its value lies in the author's ability to portray the intensity of a forbidden love with restrained yet deeply evocative prose. The novel, originally published under a pseudonym in 1952, remains entirely relevant today thanks to the honesty with which it addresses the conflict between desire and social conventions. This Galician edition from Kalandraka, part of the Narrativa K collection, provides access to a modern classic that combines psychological drama with a love story that defies the passage of time. Recommended both for new readers and for those who wish to rediscover a work that marked a before and after in the literary representation of female homosexuality.