The Price of Salt

It really is a good story, with lots of emotion and great care in structuring. However, the pace is very slow, especially in the middle part where nothing much happens to either the story or the characters.

Towards the end, it seems like Highsmith lost her nerve and quickly grafted a suspense plot on her drama to be on more familiar ground. This feels a little out of place, and it completely changes the tempo of the story.

What makes it a rewarding read, in the end, is the obvious empathy Highsmith has for her characters – and their cause. They turn out to be brave souls in a largely hostile world, even if they can't win their fight, and that gives it relevance.

This is such a delicate, fragile book. It’s a sweeping, larger-than-life love story that's played out in a suffocating, miniature 1950s diorama. It's stolen glances and secret smiles and what's not said. It’s the pain of two characters revelling in small moments of joy where they can. But it’s also the triumph of love, over everything. It’s the girl getting the girl, in the end. Sublime.