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Summary: The Salt Roads is amazing.
Review: No one writes like Nalo Hopkinson and she does not write to the market. She writes what she writes and I'm glad she wrote The Salt Roads. It is extraordinary. It isn't always an easy book to read because life was not always easy for these women.
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Summary: Lover, virgin, mother
Review: THE SALT ROADS is an engrossing tale of three women who step off of the pages and sit with you as you revel in their triumphs and tremble at their tribulations. In reading this novel, I found that Hopkinson is a writer that uses stiff doses of human emotion and reality to balance out her themes of mythology, fantasy, and religion. THE SALT ROADS is an eccentric read; I truly can say I have never read anything like it. Strongly recommended to those readers who desire a taste of the unknown or an edifying and enlightening experience, THE SALT ROADS is one of the new classics of our generation.Reviewed by CandaceK
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers Complete review can be found on our website...
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Summary: A Time-traveling poltergist!
Review: The Salt Roads is the third novel by science fiction writer, Nalo Hopkinson; however, this novel is really more of a historical fantasy. Hopkinson combines elements of voodoo, mythology and Christianity to weave a very interesting story that shares a common symbolic thread -- salt -- the salt in tears, in sweat, in blood and even in the sea.
With the unfortunate burial of a stillborn infant, the goddess Ezili is evoked from the prayers of three Caribbean slave women to their individual gods. Ezili is the goddess of sex and love. She possesses the ability to occupy the minds and bodies of three different women during various periods of time. With her birth and inhabitation of these women, Ezili offers the strength to love and hope for a better life.
In eighteenth century Saint Dominique, Mer, a Caribbean slave women, has the gift of healing. She is content with her life as a slave and spending time with her female lover until she receives a visit from the spirit Lasiren, who gives her a message to save the slaves on the plantation. Ezili gives her the strength she needs to take on the responsibility. She faces several challenges with a sorceror named Makandal who is starting a slave revolt on the plantation. Her relationship with her lover is threatened when her lover's husband returns to the plantation with an invitation for Tipingee to leave with him.
In nineteenth century Paris, Jeanne Duval, a dancer and the lover of poet Charles Baudelaire, is seeking true love and security. Because she is of African descent, she can never be more than Charles' mistress because he is too cowardly to stand up to his overbearing mother who controls all of his money. Theirs is a twisted love affair that leaves Jeanne unsatisfied. Jeanne is the first body that the spirit Ezili possesses. In Jeanne, Ezili learns and grows. When Jeanne is inattentive or asleep that Ezili is free to travel through space and time. The spirit of Ezili gives Jeanne the strength to find true love even after falling victim to a devastating illness.
In fourth century Alexandria, Meritet is a nubian prostitute. Meritet is inspired by the tales of Jerusalem and decides to travel there. She takes along her friend Judah, a male prostitute, and they use their bodies as payment for their fare to Jerusalem. Once they arrive in Jerusalem, Judah seems to prosper while Meritet is faced with misfortune. After the spirit of Ezili possess her, Meritet is changed from a prostitute to a saint, a founder of a religion.
The Salt Roads is a very good book. It is not a quick read and does not follow a logical storyline; it's fantasy, so the elements would not make sense to a logical thinker. The book can also be pretty graphic and extremely gross at some points. Overall, it was an excellent read. I applaud Nalo Hopkinson on this effort.
Reviewed by Paula Henderson of Loose Leaves Book Review
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Summary: Song of Ezili
Review: There are four main characters in THE SALT ROADS, a novel of magic realism. Nalo Hopkinson uses a broken narrative approach to tell their stories, which some readers may find hard to follow.
Mer is a healer woman held in slavery on a plantation in late 18th century Saint Domingue, which will someday become Haiti. Jeanne Duval is a dancer and mistress to the writer/critic Charles Beaudelaire in mid-19th France. Thais is half Nubian/half Greek dancing girl/prostitute in late 4th century Alexandria, Egypt; she gives rise to the legend of Saint Mary of Egypt.
The fourth character connects the other three together. She is Ezili, the Afro-Caribbean lwa/ancestor spirit/goddess. Ezili has many aspects, but is commonly thought of as the mother ocean goddess and the names and nicknames of the characters reflect this: Mer (sea in French), lemer, Meritat (Thais's Egyptian name given to her by her friend Neferkare). Unbeknownst to the three women, Ezili rides them, that is, she possesses them for reasons that even Ezili doesn't understand. At first, the reader, like the characters doesn't know what is going on, but as the book progresses it becomes clearer.
This is a novel of sorrow and celebration, of bondage and liberation, of strength and perseverance. Ezili's siren song sounds both strange and powerful to my ears.
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Summary: both craft and scope
Review: This "Salt Roads" of this historical/magical realist novel are the trails of sweat, tears, and blood that course through women's lives. Separate narratives intertwine here, each wrought with the precision and lyricism of a short story, but together they produce a true novel of compelling scope. The settings range from Baudelaire's Paris to the cane fields of French-ruled Haiti, from early Christian Alexandria to the present day. The threads of slavery, childbirth, love affairs, and accidental sainthood are by turns comic, angry, and earthily sensual. Rich with historical detail and human intimacies, the book sometimes pulls back to a goddess-like view, contemplating the slow changes that have transformed women's lives over the centuries--but never losing its light, witty touch. In short, a very big novel with many finely crafted and exquisite parts.
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Summary: The evolution of a goddess
Review: This fabulist tale begins on the island of Saint Domingue, eventually known as Haiti, the scene of slave revolutions and oppressive masters. On one dark night, three slave women bury the tiny body of a stillborn, returning him to the earth. Each of the women experiences an unsettling sensation, in fact, the birth of a goddess, Elizi, brought forth from the depths of their grief. The afro-Caribbean goddess exemplifies the enduring strengths, eternal beauty and fertility of womanhood in all its permutations, evolving over time, as she inhabits the world through three specific women. The first woman who hosts Ezili is Jeanne Duval, a half-black, half-white dancer, who has captured the heart of poet Charles Baudelaire in 1842 Paris. Baudelaire is Jeanne's only hope for the future, as her present is riddled by poverty and it's inherent pitfalls. The poet comes from a wealthy family, although his mother eventually disowns him after his many years of cohabitation with his sultry and sensual mistress. The reader sees Paris through the eyes of this woman, who pleasures a wealthy man to maintain her place in society. Changing time and place, in 1792 the island of Saint Dominigue's economy is driven by sugar cane, the slaves endlessly toiling in the fields, harvesting the lucrative cane crop. Most of these slaves have come on slave ships from Africa, their life spans shortened by perpetual hunger and exotic diseases indigenous to the island. The second visitation of the goddess is through Mer, an older slave. Gifted in the healing arts, Mer attends the slaves on the plantation, burdened by her intimate awareness of their shameful existence. Mer communicates directly with the ocean goddess, who speaks to her of salt: the salt of tears, of the ocean and the womanly rites of passage. Finally, Meritet, a young Alexandrian woman of pleasure, is the third vessel of the emerging Elizi. Traveling with a young male prostitute to the former Jerusalem, Meritet is beset with an unexpected loss, followed by a spiritual transformation, one that changes her from prostitute to legend. Moving gracefully through time, each woman acts as a vehicle in the evolution of Hopkinson's goddess. Rich, earthy and sensual, the powerful prose describes a passionate people. Striding through history, ribald and uninhibited, the author speaks for those without voices, enchanting, seducing and raging at the weight of injustice. Hopkinson has penned a fantastical tale of empowerment and joyful sexuality, but accomplishes much more: the intoxicating prose entertains and informs, indicting the brutal institution of slavery. Guided by the author's powerful intuition, take this exceptional journey, as mysterious as the world of the spirit and as real as the steel chains that bind the limbs of those bought and sold. Luan Gaines/2003.
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Summary: THE SALT ROADS by Nalo Hopkinson
Review: This lyrical, yet sexy novel might well be the breakout book for Nalo Hopkinson. Published almost at the same time as the highly anticipated new novel by Toni Morrison, Hopkinson has no need to be afraid of comparisons with the Nobelprize-winning writer. With her third novel, Hopkinson has left the rank of journeywoman behind and has joined the ranks of such masters as Octavia Butler, Alice Walker, Gloria Naylor and, of course, Toni Morrison. This is an essential read and to put it simply - a masterpiece.
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