My review of The Price of Salt, by Patricia Highsmith

This was one of the best books I have ever read. The quality of writing is rich and layered like a glass of fine red wine. It is intelligent and full of passion in and of the story.

Salt, as I read it, is a metaphor for passion, love and companionship - the kind person who normative people often call "the one." So the title translates to, the price of being with the one.

This book is an important book on so many levels. I think it is a story that poly people need to pay attention to.

According to Wikipedia:

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".

At the time homosexuality was a crime and just being a lesbian could be enough to cost a woman custody of her child. The topic was so sensitive the author had to use a pseudonym (as so many of us, myself included, do in Polyland).

In the book, Carol Aird and a woman named Therese become lovers. While, at the same time, Carol and her estranged husband Harge are going through a divorce. Carol and Harge have a young daughter, Rindy. The book is about Carol's relationship with Therese and how that romance is used as a weapon by Harge, in their divorce, to take Rindy away from Carol.

The Price of Salt is a wonderful love story, and so much more. In terms of same sex relationships, it also tells the story of how bad things were for same sex couples, how far we have come and how cultural values can destroy, instead of reinforce, loving families that are not culturally normative.

We can look back on history and say, "shame on them then." But, these kinds of attacks still go on involving people who love differently.

Gracie X, an excellent mom, went through a similar court battle as chronicled in her book Wide Open. Like Harge in The Price of Salt, Gracie's partner Oz's estranged spouse went after Oz and tried to block his custody rights because of his relationship with Gracie. This kind of stuff still happens.

Knowing what Gracie and Oz and their kids went through and knowing that this kind of story is not just history, but in other contexts is political science, made The Price of Salt especially poignant for me.

I see a real similarity in the plot behind both of these books. They are both love stories with lovers, who are good parents, battling a sex negative culture. I strongly recommend both books!