Reviews

Of Women and Salt, by Gabriela Garcia

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cantabilis's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny informative reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

erinmandel's review against another edition

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I wanted to finish this book; it started off so strong, drawing me in headfirst. But soon, there were too many characters and people I didn’t care for. I kept confusing them and forgetting who was who. It felt like I was reading unrelated short stories.

merlinmaeder's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Content Warnings

thelaurasaurus's review against another edition

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4.0

The writing is really wonderful, and despite the topics being quite dark, I really enjoyed this book. The only issue I had was that the changes in point of view and timelines were quite chaotic as a reader, and while I think they probably add to the feeling of the story in terms of giving the sense of a confused immigrant experience and the confusion of family history passed down, it was a little tricky to follow and I found myself flicking back through the book a lot.

I'm very excited to read future releases by Gabriela Garcia!

gquartin's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

gurofl's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.0

The audio book ended with a conversation between the author and one of her former professors, and they mention that this book started from a set of short stories from her thesis. It shows. There are so many characters and different story lines here. Even though they tie into each other, I felt like the El Salvador story didn't fit into the Cuba story. It did serve the purpose of showing how different immigration stories to the US can be.
And that's another thing: I thought I was reading a book about Cuba. About women living during different times in Cuba, and the latest generation growing up in Miami and her time learning about her family's history in Cuba. But there was very little about the first generations (there was actually six, not five, but one (Dolores' mother) wasn't even mentioned). The main themes of the book were about the mother and daughter of the last two generations and of the family from El Salvador, their relationships, and the different hardships they went through.
And the women being linked through the generations by the secrets they share? Well, I don't know about the first generations. Dolores, Carmen and Jeanette have secrets that are really heavy, and they don't communicate well because of them. But I expected something that started in the first generation, and that affected all the women in the generations to come.
Not really what I was looking for. The book wasn't bad, but not very good either, and the 3 stars reflect my enjoyment of the book. Just OK.