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caseythecanadianlesbrarian 's review for:
The Salt Roads
by Nalo Hopkinson
My first thought after beginning to read The Salt Roads by Nalo Hopkinson was “Why did it take me so long to read this book? It’s SO AWESOME.”
My second thought: “Holy crap, there’s lesbian sex twice in the first fifteen pages—why doesn’t the blurb for this book make it clear that’s it’s queer?”
Uh, let’s back track a little. I’ve read Caribbean-born and raised, current Torontonian Hopkinson’s first and most recent book and enjoyed both, but I really loved The Salt Roads. It’s an ambitious, wide-reaching novel that is at once historical, spiritual, magical, and fantastical. I love the kind of historical fiction that reimagines and brings women from the past alive and into the spotlight, and Hopkinson does this so well, but she also refuses to stay within the bounds of realist historical fiction. There’s a dash of Caribbean voodoo, fourth century Christian pilgrimages, and smoky visions emerging out of a pot of surprising liquids. It’s a tantalizing, fabulous mix and a moving recreation and celebration of black women’s voices and spaces, with a lot of attention to shadism throughout...
See the rest of my review at my website: http://caseythecanadianlesbrarian.wordpress.com/2014/03/26/a-magical-tantalizing-recreation-of-historical-space-for-queer-black-women-a-review-of-nalo-hopkinsons-the-salt-roads/
My second thought: “Holy crap, there’s lesbian sex twice in the first fifteen pages—why doesn’t the blurb for this book make it clear that’s it’s queer?”
Uh, let’s back track a little. I’ve read Caribbean-born and raised, current Torontonian Hopkinson’s first and most recent book and enjoyed both, but I really loved The Salt Roads. It’s an ambitious, wide-reaching novel that is at once historical, spiritual, magical, and fantastical. I love the kind of historical fiction that reimagines and brings women from the past alive and into the spotlight, and Hopkinson does this so well, but she also refuses to stay within the bounds of realist historical fiction. There’s a dash of Caribbean voodoo, fourth century Christian pilgrimages, and smoky visions emerging out of a pot of surprising liquids. It’s a tantalizing, fabulous mix and a moving recreation and celebration of black women’s voices and spaces, with a lot of attention to shadism throughout...
See the rest of my review at my website: http://caseythecanadianlesbrarian.wordpress.com/2014/03/26/a-magical-tantalizing-recreation-of-historical-space-for-queer-black-women-a-review-of-nalo-hopkinsons-the-salt-roads/