Sign in with Facebook
Mel's Reviews > Carol
Carol
by
by
OMG this book had the DULLEST LESBIANS EVER!!! I have read a lot of early queer pulp and normally I love them for their honesty and the raw emotion they present. Here there was none of that, everything just felt like it was being written about behind a veil. There was none of the soul searching and the camaraderie that is found in other lesbian pulps. The writing style did nothing for me either, I felt it was very dry. I almost felt like someone had described being in a queer relationship to Patricia and she decided to write about that based on her fantasies rather than personal experience.
I think the biggest problem I had with this was that Carol and Therese was totally boring. Carol was a rich housewife who did nothing. Therese wanted to have a career but spent her entire time moping expecting her boyfriend's connections to find her work. The two just seemed obsessed with money and shopping and having a very occasional cocktail. Even when they went on their "road trip" there was nothing interesting. There was no sense of adventure or place anywhere they visited. It was just a series of dull hotels. It made you wonder why they bothered to leave New York in the first place.
There are so many better old lesbian novels out there. I really can't recommend this one at all. Read Ann Bannon, Thereska Torres or Valerie Taylor instead.
I think the biggest problem I had with this was that Carol and Therese was totally boring. Carol was a rich housewife who did nothing. Therese wanted to have a career but spent her entire time moping expecting her boyfriend's connections to find her work. The two just seemed obsessed with money and shopping and having a very occasional cocktail. Even when they went on their "road trip" there was nothing interesting. There was no sense of adventure or place anywhere they visited. It was just a series of dull hotels. It made you wonder why they bothered to leave New York in the first place.
There are so many better old lesbian novels out there. I really can't recommend this one at all. Read Ann Bannon, Thereska Torres or Valerie Taylor instead.
Sign into Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ to see if any of your friends have read
Carol.
Sign In »
Reading Progress
August 13, 2014
–
Started Reading
August 13, 2014
– Shelved
August 13, 2014
– Shelved as:
20th-century-fiction
August 13, 2014
– Shelved as:
lesbian
August 13, 2014
– Shelved as:
library2014
August 13, 2014
– Shelved as:
queer
August 15, 2014
– Shelved as:
pulp
August 19, 2014
–
Finished Reading
Comments Showing 1-16 of 16 (16 new)
date
newest »
newest »
message 1:
by
Roisin
(new)
-
rated it 4 stars
Aug 14, 2014 01:29PM
Ooh! Look forward to your review. Want to read more by her.
reply
|
flag
Must admit I'm a bit disappointed so far. I'm about 75 pages in and the people just aren't really acting like real people.
A pity sounded interesting...
Roisin wrote: "A pity sounded interesting..."I've read a lot of old lesbian books and the thing that always appeals to me is their honesty. This one just feels false.
...and I Ioved 'TheTalented Mr Ripley'.
Not read any of her other books. I get the feeling, having seen the previews for the trailers for the films based on them, that they are more crime/mysteries. This one is just a rather bad romance. If you are interested in early lesbian books set in New York from that time period I'd recommend Ann Bannon instead. She's brilliant. I get the feeling read this that Patricia saw a woman she thought was hot in the department store and wrote a fantasy about what a lesbian crush would be like. Am over half way now and there's still not much to recommend it.
Hehehe! She probably did just that. Didn't realise that there was a whole genre of Lesbian writing (knew of some writers), and what was expected in these books until I looked Highsmith up and some writers connected to her. Her Ripley character is someone who does bad things, but gets away with it, which I think was suppose to be a departure from what would happen to gay characters. Often they would have to die or something bad happen to them. A bit like black characters in films, you just know they won't make it...sadly.
That's the way she described it in the afterward. I've read quite a lot that had happy endings. I think that was more down to the publisher's choice than the writer's choice. As lesbian pulps began to sell in their millions the publishers let more happy endings come through. One thing about her books, Ridley and Strangers on a train both have very much a pathologised and "evil" stereotype for the gay characters. They uphold the stereotype of the day that gay people weren't normal and were likely to be disturbed and not really very edify. Reading her books I get the feeling she didn't actually know any queer people, and was definitely not a part of their culture.
Yet she clearly did. She had several lesbian relationships, one including the writer Vin Packer. Whether she was immersed in gay culture socially, I have no idea. We forget how hard it was for gay people to exist in the past in society. The US would have been a bit similar to the UK, I would have thought in attitude, even if it differed in law. Christopher Isherwood (like E.M.Forster) wrote his Berlin novels at a time when homosexuality was a criminal offence in the UK. Stephen Spender risked criminalisation by being open about his gay relationships/dalliances in his younger days.The evil queer killer concept, something not normal. Yes, I know what you mean. That is sometimes still prevalent, which probably made Ripley acceptable to a mass audience.
I definitely don't forget, growing up queer in an evangelical household in a village in England was a lot like it was in America at that time and one of the reasons I like the old pulps as much as I do because they remind me so much of that I find it really easy to identify with.I wonder if she wrote this before she got involved in a queer relationship. Or if she's just trying to hide too much. But the women in the book were terribly dull and the writing just wasn't as honest as Ann Bannon or Radclyff Hall, I have to say i didn't really like Vin Packer's book that much either.
Ok, makes sense. Was just looking for something different fiction wise. Not bothered whether a book features gay or straight characters. People's stories can be universal and touch many. Though I must say, I've never read a Mills & Boon book, (Odd Girl Out, says published by Mills & Boon Spice). On reflection, not normally my bag. : ))
For me as a queer person I really like books that are about queer people as it's much easier to relate to. The fact that they just don't fit in and have to have secrets and keep part of themselves hidden away, it's like reading a book and going, finally there are people who understand, people who are like me and I'm not alone. I get that sometimes with straight characters, and sometimes with male characters, sometimes with Chinese women, but on the whole I find the old queer writing speaks to me on a level few other books do. I actually find modern queer books a little strange where the characters are comfortable with their sexuality and in situations where they are accepted. Copy of Old Girl out I read wasn't published by Mills & Boon. I think it was the feminist press.
'I actually find modern queers books a little..'That is interesting that you say that and the connection for you with gay women from those times as oppose to now. Is the easier life less memorable, more dull? Where as the things that we have to strive for resonates that bit more? People often complain but do we often give praise for the good experiences? I wonder...
I love outsider characters and women's experiences so I'm quite keen to try one of the authors from a genre that I'm not familiar with that you suggested, whoever published it. Go out of my comfort zone.
i know right i kinda wanted to bitch slap em haha
Totally understand that! :)
Hehehe! Perhaps Highsmith was a dull lesbian...
