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A review by aforestofbooks
Salt Houses by Hala Alyan
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This book is one of those books that leaves you so much to think about after turning the last page.
The writing was beautiful, lyrical, descriptive. It's quite heavy on narrative over dialogue, which took me longer to read, but being inside these characters' heads, and experiencing their thoughts and desires and confusions, really made this book.
Every character in this book is complex and multidimensional. They're messy, and sometimes (a lot of the times) not likeable at all. But I think the author captured what a real family, touched with intergenerational trauma, war, death, and displacement would be like. And despite not having similar experiences as many of these characters, I saw bits and pieces of myself and my family in them too.
One thing that stood out to me, and something that I think I knew but didn't realize how significant of an effect this has, was the back-to-back conflicts that happened in the middle-east from the mid 1900s to early 2000s. Every generation of the Yaqoub family is affected by war. Alia's mother goes through the 1948 Nakba, and then Alia and her husband and siblings go through the 1967 Six Days War. And once they're in Kuwait, they're surrounded by a melting pot of people from all over the neighbouring nations, each affected by Israel and America in very similar ways. The descriptions we get of death, destruction, starvation, are a stark echo of our current world and makes you realize with indelible anger, how much things have not changed.
The relationship dynamics are frustrating, but understandable. Each character suffers from trauma and reacts to situations differently. I loved Atef because he felt so similar to me as a person–quiet, reserved, retreating to his study to write letters to process his grief and trauma. Alia's character was the most difficult for me to read because of how her actions and reactions to her trauma and grief mirrored those I've experienced irl at the hands of others. And the kids and grandkids...I think these characters specifically are ones a lot of children of immigrants can relate to. The need to get away from your culture and embrace the culture and life of the colonizer, only to realize you miss your family and your language and culture, but have lost access to those things because of time and place. All concluding in nowhere feeling like home because you never feel "enough" to begin with.
I didn't realize the author is a psychologist until I finished this book, but it makes so much sense now with how she wrote these characters and described the effects of trauma between generations.
I'm so grateful I had the opportunity to pick up this book.
The writing was beautiful, lyrical, descriptive. It's quite heavy on narrative over dialogue, which took me longer to read, but being inside these characters' heads, and experiencing their thoughts and desires and confusions, really made this book.
Every character in this book is complex and multidimensional. They're messy, and sometimes (a lot of the times) not likeable at all. But I think the author captured what a real family, touched with intergenerational trauma, war, death, and displacement would be like. And despite not having similar experiences as many of these characters, I saw bits and pieces of myself and my family in them too.
One thing that stood out to me, and something that I think I knew but didn't realize how significant of an effect this has, was the back-to-back conflicts that happened in the middle-east from the mid 1900s to early 2000s. Every generation of the Yaqoub family is affected by war. Alia's mother goes through the 1948 Nakba, and then Alia and her husband and siblings go through the 1967 Six Days War. And once they're in Kuwait, they're surrounded by a melting pot of people from all over the neighbouring nations, each affected by Israel and America in very similar ways. The descriptions we get of death, destruction, starvation, are a stark echo of our current world and makes you realize with indelible anger, how much things have not changed.
The relationship dynamics are frustrating, but understandable. Each character suffers from trauma and reacts to situations differently. I loved Atef because he felt so similar to me as a person–quiet, reserved, retreating to his study to write letters to process his grief and trauma. Alia's character was the most difficult for me to read because of how her actions and reactions to her trauma and grief mirrored those I've experienced irl at the hands of others. And the kids and grandkids...I think these characters specifically are ones a lot of children of immigrants can relate to. The need to get away from your culture and embrace the culture and life of the colonizer, only to realize you miss your family and your language and culture, but have lost access to those things because of time and place. All concluding in nowhere feeling like home because you never feel "enough" to begin with.
I didn't realize the author is a psychologist until I finished this book, but it makes so much sense now with how she wrote these characters and described the effects of trauma between generations.
I'm so grateful I had the opportunity to pick up this book.