“I find the public passion for justice quite boring and artificial, for neither life nor nature cares if justice is ever done or not,” [Patricia Highsmith] explained in her 1966 book Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction. Told at one point by an agent that her books don’t sell in America because the people in them are unlikable, she responded that “perhaps it is because I don’t like anyone” and proposed that in the future she write about animals. Indeed, her 1975 story collection, The Animal-Lovers’ Book of Beastly Murder, is about pets that kill their human masters. (Her own favorite animals were snails, which she smuggled through customs by hiding a half-dozen or so under each of her breasts.) In truth she often identified with her most amoral human protagonists, from the psychopathic Bruno of Strangers on a Train (“I love him!”) to Tom Ripley.
“Frank Rich on Patricia Highsmith’s Carol and the Enduring Invisibility of Lesbian Culture In America” was posted at Vulture.
Autostraddle posted Hidden Gems of Queer Lit: Deb Jannerson’s “Rabbit Rabbit”.
“Revisiting a Cult Classic: Patricia Highsmith’s ‘Carol’ Inspiration ‘The Price of Salt’” was posted at Flavorwire.
The Chameleon’s Tale by Andrea Bramhall was reviewed at Lesbian Reading Room.
Hurricane Days by Renée J. Lukas was reviewed at Lambda Literary.
Dirty River: A Queer Femme of Color Dreaming Her Way Home by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha was reviewed at Lambda Literary.
The Princess & the Prix by Nell Stark was reviewed at C-Spot Reviews.
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