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warlocksarecool21's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This book left me in such a state that I can’t write a review as cohesively as I normally do but I will share what thoughts I can cobble together:
Salt Houses beautifully raw story about a Palestinian family spread across the world after the Six Day War in 1967. We follow four generations of this family as they grapple with the enormous loss of being forced to leave Palestine and have to continue their lives elsewhere.
Hala Alyan’s writing is absolutely incredible, it’s lyrical and elegant and I underlined so many powerful quotes while reading. Through her captivating prose, Alyan is able to weave a story of four generations, centering on the relationships between mothers, and daughters and sisters.
We see how they are impacted by Israel’s violence against their family and land for decades after and how the loss of their homeland shaped their lives. This is a story of loss and grief, but we also see these characters in their most tangibly human moments. They grow up, they find love, have children, get old. There is sorrow but there is also joy and love.
Each member of the family carries the memory of Palestine with them in a different way, they are shaped by it but each of their lives takes a different path. I found myself attached to each character for different reasons, they were all so vivid and human I couldn’t help but be drawn in. Even if I disliked particular characters I was fascinated by them and resonated with their messiness and imperfections.
Salt Houses is such an incredibly impactful story about life, loss and family and I urge everyone to read it.
Salt Houses beautifully raw story about a Palestinian family spread across the world after the Six Day War in 1967. We follow four generations of this family as they grapple with the enormous loss of being forced to leave Palestine and have to continue their lives elsewhere.
Hala Alyan’s writing is absolutely incredible, it’s lyrical and elegant and I underlined so many powerful quotes while reading. Through her captivating prose, Alyan is able to weave a story of four generations, centering on the relationships between mothers, and daughters and sisters.
We see how they are impacted by Israel’s violence against their family and land for decades after and how the loss of their homeland shaped their lives. This is a story of loss and grief, but we also see these characters in their most tangibly human moments. They grow up, they find love, have children, get old. There is sorrow but there is also joy and love.
Each member of the family carries the memory of Palestine with them in a different way, they are shaped by it but each of their lives takes a different path. I found myself attached to each character for different reasons, they were all so vivid and human I couldn’t help but be drawn in. Even if I disliked particular characters I was fascinated by them and resonated with their messiness and imperfections.
Salt Houses is such an incredibly impactful story about life, loss and family and I urge everyone to read it.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Terminal illness, Grief, and Pregnancy
Minor: Fatphobia, Genocide, Violence, and War
felishacb's review against another edition
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.'"
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.
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
Graphic: Grief and War
Moderate: Death, Torture, Islamophobia, Murder, and Pregnancy
geeoriginal's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-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? It's complicated
Content Warnings
Minor: Death, Rape, Grief, and Colonisation
rachelfayreads's review against another edition
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: War
Moderate: Fatphobia, Gun violence, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Colonisation, and War
taratearex's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
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? No
5.0
This was so good. A multi-generational family saga about a family forced out of their home in Palestine, multiple times, and then following their life throughout the diaspora and many more wars. The book starts in 1963, but flashes back to 1948, and ends in the 2000's. We experience multiple POV's in the family throughout the years. I usually struggle with this kind of structure- multi POV's and changing timeline, but this timeline is linear and each family member is so distinct that I didn't get too mixed up in the POVs (I did have to check the family tree in the front of the book a few times and got a little mixed up once we got to the grandchildren but was able to get my bearings quickly). The political events and wars are not thoroughly talked about, they sometimes are in the background and the focus is on the family and their reactions, so I can see how maybe if you didn't know the events/wars this might be a bit difficult, but you could quick google to orient yourself if needed. But I appreciated this focus and how reactions and experiences shifted depending on the POV.
This book shows generational trauma, living throughout the diaspora, living through multiple wars, how loss changes us and affects us. And it really shows how loss of home, losing your homeland, completely and utterly changes you and your entire life and that reverberates throughout years and generations. The loss of memories and knowledge was haunting throughout. Really beautifully done. I cried a lot. I stayed up too late to finish this because I couldn't put it down.
The audiobook is great, I listened while sometimes following along with the physical as that helps me with multi POVs and changing timelines, it was helpful to be able to reference the family tree in the front of the book.
This book shows generational trauma, living throughout the diaspora, living through multiple wars, how loss changes us and affects us. And it really shows how loss of home, losing your homeland, completely and utterly changes you and your entire life and that reverberates throughout years and generations. The loss of memories and knowledge was haunting throughout. Really beautifully done. I cried a lot. I stayed up too late to finish this because I couldn't put it down.
The audiobook is great, I listened while sometimes following along with the physical as that helps me with multi POVs and changing timelines, it was helpful to be able to reference the family tree in the front of the book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Xenophobia, Grief, and War
Moderate: Death, Sexual assault, and Death of parent
annamay1021's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Grief, and War
lettuce_read's review against another edition
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Dementia, Grief, and War
Moderate: Body shaming
Minor: Rape
salemander's review against another edition
5.0
such a beautiful and profound book spanning generations with perfectly flawed narrators. the heartbreak and trauma of this family and the countless Palestinian families who have faced genocide at the hands of Israel is so well illustrated throughout this book. from the river to the sea. always.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Genocide, Racism, Rape, Islamophobia, Grief, Colonisation, and War
yourbookishbff's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Salt Houses, by Hala Alyan, traces four generations of Palestinians through exile - from Palestine to Kuwait, Jordan, Lebanon, Paris and Boston. Where multi-generational sagas always feel epic, this story is also painfully intimate. It’s a story filled with ghosts - of Palestine, of family members murdered or imprisoned or lost to time and distance and bitterness, of all the things we are too scared to say out loud to the people we love. The lives and love of Alia and Atef anchor the story, and we see their childhoods and young love, their deep trauma during the Six-Day War and subsequent flight to Kuwait, their early marriage with young children, the ceaseless displacement, the restless moves from country to country as they try to build lives free of war and occupation. Spinning out from them, we see their children and grandchildren with inherited trauma and grief fighting for reclamation and joy. This is a diaspora story where “houses as old as the earth itself” are replaced by “structures made of salt.”
And woven throughout each generation are moments of raw tenderness that boldly refute the dehumanization and violent caricaturization of Arab men we’ve witnessed through the last several decades. Instead: Mustafa, cradling a baby bird for his sister. Mustafa, practicing a speech for hours to get it just right. Mustafa, released from prison, kneeling to kiss his mother’s feet as he whispers never again. Atef making wishes to the moon with Riham. Atef drinking tea in the garden every afternoon with his daughter. Karam calming his mother’s fears and his sister’s anger. Zain reeling in Linah’s wild temper and restlessness. Alyan whispering to us: see this, and this, and this. Every life, an entire universe.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation and War
Moderate: Confinement, Mental illness, Sexual content, Islamophobia, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, and Pregnancy
Minor: Rape, Vomit, Abortion, and Abandonment
katharina90's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.5
A raw, moving, well-written multigenerational novel with complex characters and realistic family dynamics.
The story pulled me in from the first page, but towards the end I felt less connected to the characters.
I found myself wanting to return to the POV of previous family members rather than focusing on the younger generation.
The story pulled me in from the first page, but towards the end I felt less connected to the characters.
I found myself wanting to return to the POV of previous family members rather than focusing on the younger generation.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Dementia and Colonisation
Moderate: Body shaming, Confinement, Death, Sexual content, Torture, Grief, and War
Minor: Alcoholism