Reviews with content warning for Torture - Salt Houses

I loved getting to walk with the Yacoub family through so many years, getting to see how each of them grows internally and in relationship to the others. I believe the fact that Hala is a clinical psychologist allowed the characters to feel real. Also, there were many actual historical references that kept the story rooted in reality.

Content Warnings

eslsilver's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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ymedhkour's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

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turtlebrainlibrarian's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes

5.0

A debut multi-generational (four generations) story of a Palestinian family: the Yacoub family. The family doesn't talk much about Palestine but talk about being displaced and out of place as they move through Nablus, Kuwait, Amman, Paris, Beriut and Boston. Sometimes they move by choice, but sometimes they are uprooted by war (Six Day War of 1967 and Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait in 1990).

We are given the perspective of Salma (1963), Mustafa (1965), Alia (1967, 1988), Atef (1977, 2011), Riham (1982, 1999), Souad (1990, 2004), Linah (2006) and Manar (2014). Four generations of the Yacoub family, their ups and downs, their family dynamics, the generational trauma, the feeling of not fitting in, etc.

The writing is lyrical and easy to follow. You will find many wonderful quotes as you read the book. The narrative does jump between each character, but we do get to see those characters grow and change in the other perspectives, so they are well rounded. It is a character driven novel, which I enjoy.

Also, the author is a clinical psychologist who specializes in trauma, addiction and cross-cultural behavior. You can see elements of this knowledge throughout.

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spicycronereads's review against another edition

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challenging funny hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

This was a really beautiful read. The story follows four generations of a family who have been displaced from their home in Palestine. They are first displaced from Jaffa to Nablus a few years before the narrative begins in 1966 (Nablus had been annexed by Jordan several years earlier). We see the subsequent generations of the family as they move to Kuwait, and then Beirut and to the US, and back, basically moving from one scene of war and displacement to the next. It’s a beautiful story about their family, but you also see the larger social forces at work in terms of the relationship between Israel and Arab states, and the hopes for help from, but ultimate ineffectiveness of, the UN and the United States (and sometimes much more active influence of the US). It’s heartbreaking.

The writing is lyrical. The characters have dimension. It’s a little bit hard to chart character development, because the narrative does move between POVs so much. There are only two characters who have more than one chapter. But through their interactions with the family throughout the book, we see the various characters grow and change.

You can’t read this book and not come away with the sense that the world has failed the Palestinian people.

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felishacb's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Intergenerational stories that move through time featuring vignettes from different characters across three generations.

You see the pain and never-ending grief of displacement through the lives of this Palestinian family and their descendants, spread across the world from Paris to Boston to Lebanon to Jordan. But rarely home. Their refugee status is a shadow throughout, understood differently by each generation as time passes, but it never overpowers the dignity of their very human existence, their sometimes flawed choices and everyday tensions.

I was engaged throughout the story, but I have to admit the emotional revelations in the last chapters of the book stabbed at my heart. This book will stick with me.

Quotes:

She misses Mustafa. Like a city after a tsunami, the earth is altered without him. Wrecked.
**
'Motherhood doesn't suit me,' she once confessed to Budur, drunk. 'I don't have the stomach for not knowing what's next.'
**
"'Punch me,' he wants to yell at Mustafa. 'Tell me to fuck off. Hit me in the face. Pick up that goddamn suitcase. Walk down the driveway.

I would have followed you.
I would have followed you.

Take me with you. You can save yourself. We can both live.'"

Content Warnings

lchatham9's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-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

5.0

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rachelfayreads's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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