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A review by annreadsabook
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
4.5
Hala Alyan’s 2017 debut Salt Houses is an intimate yet sweeping exploration of family, memory, and diaspora. After sitting on my shelf for a couple of years, I decided to finally give it a go, and I’m so glad I did.
Beginning with the Six-Day War of 1967, during which a young family is displaced from their Palestinian home, we follow multiple generations of this family as they search for a place they can call home. Over the years, the family bounces between Lebanon, Jordan, Kuwait, France, and the United States, all along questioning whether there will ever be something to return to in Palestine, and if there isn’t, what can home look like elsewhere? What role does remembrance play when you are far from the sites of memory? And, behind all of this is one man’s secret that continues to haunt him for years, no matter how far from “home” he finds himself.
I am always impressed by authors who can pull off inter-generational family sagas in 350 pages or fewer—and do it well. Something I appreciated about this book was how it depicted various characters’ disparate reactions to the pervasive sense of uprootedness—in some, it brings out a strengthened desire to cling more strongly to loved ones, and in others, it causes deep rifts that are difficult to repair. Through it all, though, we see a family that has each other as one of the sole constants in life—for better or for worse.
Fans of A History of Burning and The Mountains Sing will love this one. If you enjoy books that are firmly situated against the backdrop of real-world historical events, that examine the contours of family and immigrant identities, or that consider how displacement can forever shape a family’s trajectory, this might be right up your alley!
Beginning with the Six-Day War of 1967, during which a young family is displaced from their Palestinian home, we follow multiple generations of this family as they search for a place they can call home. Over the years, the family bounces between Lebanon, Jordan, Kuwait, France, and the United States, all along questioning whether there will ever be something to return to in Palestine, and if there isn’t, what can home look like elsewhere? What role does remembrance play when you are far from the sites of memory? And, behind all of this is one man’s secret that continues to haunt him for years, no matter how far from “home” he finds himself.
I am always impressed by authors who can pull off inter-generational family sagas in 350 pages or fewer—and do it well. Something I appreciated about this book was how it depicted various characters’ disparate reactions to the pervasive sense of uprootedness—in some, it brings out a strengthened desire to cling more strongly to loved ones, and in others, it causes deep rifts that are difficult to repair. Through it all, though, we see a family that has each other as one of the sole constants in life—for better or for worse.
Fans of A History of Burning and The Mountains Sing will love this one. If you enjoy books that are firmly situated against the backdrop of real-world historical events, that examine the contours of family and immigrant identities, or that consider how displacement can forever shape a family’s trajectory, this might be right up your alley!
Content Warnings
Graphic: War