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spoko 's review for:
The Salt Eaters
by Toni Cade Bambara
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I always felt at a distance from this book. Bambara’s style is dense, a tangle of overlapping perspectives and voices, which makes it difficult to follow what’s happening. This is not unexpected, and to be fair, there’s an atmosphere that is sustainable without that narrative support. Still, I found it difficult to care. I would say that tone—layered, heavy, often incantatory—became the dominant experience rather than the story itself.
The more I think about the book and its themes—fractured community, ancestral power, political exhaustion, despair, healing—the less I think I actually got from it. I suspect it might be more powerful to sit and read through in one or two sittings, rather than my preferred method of stretching the reading out over some time. But since that really is my preference, this probably isn’t a book I’d ever enjoy much. I hesitate to actually assess how good it is, though.
The more I think about the book and its themes—fractured community, ancestral power, political exhaustion, despair, healing—the less I think I actually got from it. I suspect it might be more powerful to sit and read through in one or two sittings, rather than my preferred method of stretching the reading out over some time. But since that really is my preference, this probably isn’t a book I’d ever enjoy much. I hesitate to actually assess how good it is, though.