I must confess, I fell asleep trying to watch the movie a while back, so I wasn’t sure how this would fly. But I hit it at the right time. The gauzy haze with which the protagonist approaches her queer questioning impetus felt, along with some other aspects of the book, historical? And that actually made it more interesting to me. Questioning without any sense of queer culture and just being the straightest, mousiest woman, who flits from societal expectation to the next, until real emotion trumps her—kind of feels relatable.

Maybe it’s just post-covid days, but there is a disruptive element to the fifties depicted here. An in-group, out-group that the privileged never see. Had she more of an internal life the signs that she’s not particularly inclined toward the norm would prompt a galvanzing effort. Instead, an outside factor like Carol has to.

How the questioning functioned was the most interesting aspect to me, aside from Carol herself, who is basically the opposite of our girl. Mysterious, refined, in a heteronormative relationship and has a child, but also immediately a caretaker of a communicable obsession—ushering them into a objectively pretty tame, but somehow hedonistic awakening. Where the aperture of perspective shifts, though the protagonist is exceptionally mundane. It’s a relatable transition that felt organic for her.