#1: Nalo Hopkinson, The Salt Roads

[gwyneira.livejournal.com]

Mer is a plantation slave in the Caribbean, a healer who both hopes for and fears liberation. Jeanne Duval is a Paris entertainer, lover of the poet Charles Baudelaire. Thais is a prostitute in Alexandria, who journeys to Jerusalem. Weaving their stories together across centuries are their shared experiences of oppression and a mysterious spirit who moves within them, prompting their actions, living their lives, and giving them hope. Hopkinson's style is lyrical, sensual, and full of vitality, and I loved her use of mythology to tie the novel's different threads together.

This was a challenging and thought-provoking book, especially as my first book for this community. The various settings were very new to me, and it was a shock to be plunged abruptly into the book's first scene, of Mer making a physical examination of a pregnant fellow slave. Hopkinson uses lots of words and phrases which I had to figure out from context, and I could feel that my unfamiliarity with the language and the settings made it more of a challenge to engage with the book, though eventually its sheer energy and magic drew me in. By contrast, I had no problems engaging with the book I'd just finished, a historical fantasy set during the Italian Renaissance, much more familiar territory to me. It was really interesting to have such a clear demonstration of what my usual reading boundaries are and why it's valuable to stretch them.

Comments

[eccentricweft.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I heard her speak once, years ago. Probably a panel at WisCon. This sounds really good.

[awils1.livejournal.com]

This sounds quite extraordinary. I’ll be on the look-out for it on book-hunting stops :).