SOURCE: A review of The Price of Salt, in The Bloomsbury Review, Vol. 11, No. 4, June, 1991, p. 16

In the following review of The Price of Salt, which Highsmith published under the pseudonym Claire Morgan, Wagner examines Highsmith's depiction of homosexual love.

To risk love is to risk unhappiness, but for those whose love goes against the main currents of society, punishment and tragedy are certain. The only way, in fact, that generations of writers who discussed "forbidden" love could get away with creating three-dimensional and sympathetic characters is to make sure everyone suffered by the final curtain. A publisher, editor, or even a self-censuring author might force an unhappy ending on those fictional couples unfortunate enough to love across racial, political, or socioeconomic barriers or whose passion violated marital or religious vows. The necessity of imparting a lesson by destroying star-crossed lovers is part of indigenous myth, the Bible...