Carissa Green Reads
I read widely from many genres. Perhaps this blog will feature fewer ratings and reviews, but I certainly intend to write about my reading life - it's the subject I most find myself wanting to talk about.
Currently reading
Notes on Adaptation: Carol
I haven't had the opportunity to see "Carol" yet - it hasn't opened in a theatre in my city nor the city 75 miles away from me that actually has an "art house" theatre. But I have read the book on which it was based, "The Price of Salt" by Patricia Highsmith.
I was assigned the book in an undergraduate English course more than 20 years ago, in the early '90s. And I had one of the most visceral reactions I've ever had to a book in my life up until that point. I'd like to think it wasn't because of the lesbian theme - I have had gay and lesbian friends from my teenage years on and been pro-equal rights for just as long. And the reason our professor assigned it, she said, was because the book was the first mainstream novel to treat a same-sex relationship as something other than a tragedy. Good enough reason for me.
Truly, though, I thought the writing was creepy. The dialogue seemed contrived - not the things two flirting people would say to each other, authentically, even back in the '50s. And really bizarre things happen, like using a maxi pad to stanch a cut on the leg (what kind of weird Robert Bly symbolism was that?). I remember thinking "Bleh."
Well, we've come a long way in the ensuing 25 years. I'm looking forward to seeing "Carol," and perhaps I owe "The Price of Salt" another look.
-cg