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311th out of 814 books
—
661 voters
The Salt Roads
In beautiful prose, Nalo Hopkinson's The Salt Roads tells how Ezili, the African goddess of love, becomes entangled in the lives of three women. Grief-powered prayers draw Ezili into the physical world, where she finds herself trapped by her lost memories and by the spiritual effects of the widespread evil of slavery. Her consciousness alternates among the bodies/minds of...more
Paperback, 416 pages
Published
November 1st 2004
by Grand Central Publishing
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Nalo Hopkinson's The Salt Roads centers on the spirit, Ezili's (a goddess of love and seduction) emergence in three women throughout time. The reader gets a glimpse of her in Mer, a lesbian slave woman healer, in the early 1800's on the Caribbean island of St. Domingue (Haiti) during a burial of a stillborn child. The second appearance is in the 1880's within Jeanne, a mulatto Parisian dancer and mistress to a white poet whose purse strings are controlled by his domineering mother. The third wom...more
a powerful work about the resilience of a people brilliantly written by Nalo Hopkinson. my only difficulty with this book was the three (or more) streams of narrative & the ethereal out of body being that links them all. i always find when a bunch of different narratives are going on at the same time that one is strongest & that's the one i am most interested in. in this case, the Haitian slaves working in the sugar cane fields were what caught my attention most. the storyline of Jeanne,...more
This is one of the best books I've ever read, and so far it is my favorite of Hopkinson's. The shifting point of view was well done and served an immense purpose. Every time I read one of Hopkinson's books, I feel like I've shifted a bit, not really to another land, but I feel like I've glimpsed something magical about the real world and how others see it. She makes me believe in magic again, even if it's just while I'm caught up in her pages.
If you like historical magical realism and books abo...more
If you like historical magical realism and books abo...more
This book was so good. I'm generally a fan of books with multiple narrators/multiple narrative viewpoints, and Hopkinson mastered it in this book. I'm also a new fan of indigenous science fiction, and this book set a high standard for the genre. I loved the transitions between time periods & social contexts. I didn't exactly catch on to the way that it was organized until half way through the book, so I'll definitely have to read it again to get a better understanding of that it particular....more
I need two separate reviews for this book. The first review would be for the three lives narrated in alternating chapters throughout this book - of an Afro-Caribbean slave woman, the Black French mistress of Baudelaire, and a Nubian prostitute in ancient Egypt - which as others have pointed out, read more like three discrete but interwoven novellas, and are, on the whole, splendid. The second review would be for the prose-poem, stream-of-consciousness sections in between these chapters, in which...more
Review initially published on my blog, Writing by Numbers, here.
The salt roads are fluid. They flow across continents, ages, and realms, linking African women throughout history with their deities. Full of tears, sweat, oceans, blood, alcohol, piss, and sexual liquids of all kinds.
The salt roads are painful. Sometimes fogged with pain, sometimes raw with it.
The salt roads are paved with powerful desires. The characters hunger for food, luxuries, sex, love, companionship. Respect. Freedom.
There...more
The salt roads are fluid. They flow across continents, ages, and realms, linking African women throughout history with their deities. Full of tears, sweat, oceans, blood, alcohol, piss, and sexual liquids of all kinds.
The salt roads are painful. Sometimes fogged with pain, sometimes raw with it.
The salt roads are paved with powerful desires. The characters hunger for food, luxuries, sex, love, companionship. Respect. Freedom.
There...more
Mer is a plantation slave in 18th century Haiti, lesbian and healer, contemporary and partial opponent of the insurrectionist Makandal. She is determined that her friends should endure their current circumstances, whilst holding on to their native beliefs and deities. When ritually burying a fellow slaves still-born baby, the spirit of the Ginen goddess of love and sex, Ezili, is evoked and enters into Mer, where it projects into the minds of two other women from other times and places, but simi...more
Maybe it's just that I recently finished Allende's wonderful The Island Beneath the Sea but this novel seemed a bit lackluster.
I liked New Moon's Arms by this same author, but Salt Roads seemed to be missing something vital. Characters made references to things or based their decisions on attitudes/beliefs not directly referenced in the novel. And while I probably would have eventually figured out what the island beneath the sea was if I hadn't already learned about it from Allende's book, I don...more
I liked New Moon's Arms by this same author, but Salt Roads seemed to be missing something vital. Characters made references to things or based their decisions on attitudes/beliefs not directly referenced in the novel. And while I probably would have eventually figured out what the island beneath the sea was if I hadn't already learned about it from Allende's book, I don...more
Feb 24, 2010
Madeline
rated it
2 of 5 stars
Shelves:
2010,
historical-fiction,
queer,
women,
sff,
race,
francophilia,
mythology,
colonialism,
over-rated,
novels
1. The Salt Roads is SO FRUSTRATING. Because there were a couple things I really loved about it and one or two things I hated with the fiery passion of a thousand suns. And those things seemed more significant to the book than the things I liked.
2. First of all, I love the idea of the novel. It's a powerful and layered concept for a book. There are so many angles to examine, and so many resources to mine, that the potential is enormous. It could have been remarkably affecting. It is certainly an...more
2. First of all, I love the idea of the novel. It's a powerful and layered concept for a book. There are so many angles to examine, and so many resources to mine, that the potential is enormous. It could have been remarkably affecting. It is certainly an...more
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Mer is a plantation slave in the Caribbean, a healer who both hopes for and fears liberation. Jeanne Duval is a Paris entertainer, lover of the poet Charles Baudelaire. Thais is a prostitute in Alexandria, who journeys to Jerusalem. Weaving their stories together across centuries are their shared experiences of oppression and a mysterious spirit who moves within them, prompting their actions, living their lives, and giving them hope. Hopkinson's style is lyrical, sensual, and full of vitality, a...more
Wow this book is truly trippy thus far! It's author calls this tale "speculative fiction". To me it reads like historical fiction with a generous helping of sci-fi, folklore and magical realism ala Garcia Marquez, Toni Morrison, Gloria Naylor (Mama Day and Bailey's Cafe) and Octavia Butler. The tale is a triptych one following 3 women of African descent in 3 different eras: an enslaved healer on a plantation in 18th century Haiti, a fair-skinned courtesan and dancer in 19th century Paris and a N...more
Very complicated--as compared to her first book. This is a fascinating story where Hopkinson takes the grand master narrative of the West--the creation sotry--and recreates it in grounded in black bodies and the diasporic experience of slavery as it was created in the New World. At its deepest level? The novel seeks to answer a singuale question; What happens to the Gods and Goddesses of a people when they are displaced. If deities exisit in and of themselves but are maifested in the worship, fa...more
Executed with brilliant language and scope, Salt Roads takes the reader through the story of three women from three different time periods as they deal with the fallout from the slave trade, and how society perceives them. They bumble through relationships, all the while being connected by a common spirit that travels between souls and across time. Though I didn't love the women (perhaps I didn't get enough time with any of them in all the back and forth), and I didn't love their stories (I real...more
Perhaps it is because the author is a science fiction writer...but I cannot quite put my finger on what made the book such a good read. It has the elements of magic realism, using the Haitian goddess Ezili to connect three women from three different time periods and three different places. But it's not just those three women Ezili is connecting, but everyone (we get an occasional glimpse of her floating in and out of random bodies). You are transported from one woman's story to the next...each w...more
I’m really glad I kept reading this, because the beginning was not exactly my cup of tea. There were a couple graphic sex scenes, and some mentions of bodily fluids, and well, I sometimes get a bit squeamish. But I persevered, and was happy that I did.
The Salt Roads consists of three main narratives that are connected via the experiences of the goddess Ezili. In Hopkinson’s tale, Ezili is brought forth one night as three slave women bury a stillborn child in the French colony of Saint Domingue (...more
The Salt Roads consists of three main narratives that are connected via the experiences of the goddess Ezili. In Hopkinson’s tale, Ezili is brought forth one night as three slave women bury a stillborn child in the French colony of Saint Domingue (...more
if for no other reason than the use of the line: "No $%^^ babies" i really enjoyed this book . i am a bit confused as to why the spine said SCIENCE FICTION. there was very little science about it. i reckon the author's other works are actually sci-fi; because this book was full of loa, social climbing, promisicuity, bisexuality, and revolution of the personal & societal variety. i can dig it. it was well written. the themes tied together perfectly. characters were excellent. historical refer...more
Jun 16, 2010
Sara
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
fans of the author, fan of historical fiction,
i really, really liked this book. if we could do half stars this would be a four and a half, for sure.
i love how well planned everything was. the story weaved between multiple points of view and multiple points in history. an african goddess kept watch over all of the characters, bringing everything together in the end.
the only thing keeping me from giving out the full five stars is the fact that it took awhile for the full story to reveal itself. just when i had started to think i understood...more
i love how well planned everything was. the story weaved between multiple points of view and multiple points in history. an african goddess kept watch over all of the characters, bringing everything together in the end.
the only thing keeping me from giving out the full five stars is the fact that it took awhile for the full story to reveal itself. just when i had started to think i understood...more
i'm so glad that not only did i get
a chance to meet hopkinson at Sirens Con
back in october, but that i bought this
last copy of The Salt Roads for her to
sign. it truly is an amazing, original,
well written book containing all the
elements i love: history, folklore,
dynamic relationships, love, gods,
human foibles. it is one of those books
that i think: nalo wrote this just for me.
but yet, i didn't know so until i read it.
a thoroughly enjoyable, satisfying,
and thought provoking read. i am a new
fan.
a chance to meet hopkinson at Sirens Con
back in october, but that i bought this
last copy of The Salt Roads for her to
sign. it truly is an amazing, original,
well written book containing all the
elements i love: history, folklore,
dynamic relationships, love, gods,
human foibles. it is one of those books
that i think: nalo wrote this just for me.
but yet, i didn't know so until i read it.
a thoroughly enjoyable, satisfying,
and thought provoking read. i am a new
fan.
Excellent novel where Ezili, the African Goddess of love becomes entangled in the lives of three women in different eras. It explores the struggle of women holding onto their spiritual source against the backdrop of slavery. I really loved this book.
A beautifully written novel that tells how Ezili, the African goddess of love, becomes entangled in the lives of three women. The story alternates among the bodies/minds of several women throughout time, but she resides mostly in three women: Mer, an Afro-Caribbean slave woman/midwife; Jeanne Duval, Afro-French lover of decadent Paris poet Charles Baudelaire; and Meritet, the Greek-Nubian slave/prostitute known to history as St. Mary of Egypt. It's a sweeping story, in some ways much "bigger" th...more
The prose is very beautiful and imaginative, and especially the stories of Charles Baudelaire's lover are full of joie de vivre in addition to heart-wrenching misery and loneliness.
this right here is my girl! how very rich and deep is this book...to read something from a culture akin to my own is life affirming.
Enjoyable read, but sort of went nowhere towards the end. You expect the characters to accomplish something significant near the climax of a book, achieve the goals they were aiming for, and that didn't happen with this novel. The women whose stories were featured merely endured, they didn't conquer. Still, I didn't feel I wasted my time with it; I liked the characters, their strength and pride, and I loved their tales, so I would recommend it.
Ambitious, engrossing, thought-provoking.. Not always successful, but tries hard.
Excellent. Loved it. Can't wait to read more by her. Highly recommended.
I need to re-read this. Hopefully, I didn't pack it away.
I. Hated. This. Book.
Love love love love love!
Where have I been? Why have I not been reading Nalo Hopkinson? I loved this book - and I am particularly impressed by the way Hopkinson weaved in African fractals, history, the story of Jeanne Duval, the dynamics of sexuality (and the marketplace of desire) and threw in science fiction fantasy into the mix. I mean its fiercely clever and well executed.
Hopkinson brings each character to life and does not shy away from difficult language, images, and relationships.
Hopkinson brings each character to life and does not shy away from difficult language, images, and relationships.
Deep, powerful characters.
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Nalo Hopkinson is a Jamaican-born writer and editor who lives in Canada. Her science fiction and fantasy novels and short stories often draw on Caribbean history and language, and its traditions of oral and written storytelling.
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“How do I know anything? How is it that my arms stretched out in front of me are so pale? How to I even know that they should be brown like riverbank mud, as they were when I was many goddesses with many worshippers, ruling in lands on the other side of a great, salty ocean? I used to be many, but now we are one, all squeezed together, many necks in one coffle. ”
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