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Bread and Salt
Compelling and vivid, the stories in Bread and Salt use the metaphor of salvage to consider the reclamation of the natural environment, human relationships, and material objects. The characters in these stories live and travel in Tunisia, India, Indonesia, Italy, Turkey, France, and the United States and consider their individual agency in both local and global contexts. The characters' conflicts reveal how family and friendships are enriched by differences.
- GenresShort StoriesFiction
300 pages, Paperback
Published September 5, 2020
1309 people want to read
About the author
Valerie Miner
28 books36 followers Valerie Miner is the award-winning author of fifteen books. Her new story collection, Bread and Salt, will be published in September, 2020. Her latest novel, Traveling with Spirits, will be published in September, 2013. Other novels include After Eden, Range of Light, A Walking Fire, Winter's Edge, Blood Sisters, All Good Women, Movement: A Novel in Stories, and Murder in the English Department. Her short fiction books include Abundant Light, The Night Singers and Trespassing. Her collection of essays is Rumors from the Cauldron: Selected Essays, Reviews and Reportage. In 2002, The Low Road: A Scottish Family Memoir was a Finalist for the PEN USA Creative Non-Fiction Award. Abundant Light was a 2005 Fiction Finalist for the Lambda Literary Awards.
Valerie Miner’s work has appeared in The Georgia Review, Triquarterly, Salmagundi, New Letters, Ploughshares, The Village Voice, Prairie Schooner, The Gettysburg Review, The T.L.S., The Women’s Review of Books, The Nation and other journals. Her stories and essays are published in more than sixty anthologies. A number of her pieces have been dramatized on BBC Radio 4. Her work has been translated into German, Turkish, Danish, Italian, Spanish, French, Swedish and Dutch. In addition to single-authored projects, she has collaborated on books, museum exhibits as well as theatre.
She has won fellowships and awards from The Rockefeller Foundation, The McKnight Foundation, The NEA, The Jerome Foundation, The Heinz Foundation, The Australia Council Literary Arts Board and numerous other sources. She has received Fulbright Fellowships to Tunisia, India and Indonesia.
Winner of a Distinguished Teaching Award, she has taught for over twenty-five years and is now a professor and artist in residence at Stanford University. She travels internationally giving readings, lectures, and workshops. She and her partner live in San Francisco and Mendocino County, California. Her website is www.valerieminer.com
Valerie Miner’s work has appeared in The Georgia Review, Triquarterly, Salmagundi, New Letters, Ploughshares, The Village Voice, Prairie Schooner, The Gettysburg Review, The T.L.S., The Women’s Review of Books, The Nation and other journals. Her stories and essays are published in more than sixty anthologies. A number of her pieces have been dramatized on BBC Radio 4. Her work has been translated into German, Turkish, Danish, Italian, Spanish, French, Swedish and Dutch. In addition to single-authored projects, she has collaborated on books, museum exhibits as well as theatre.
She has won fellowships and awards from The Rockefeller Foundation, The McKnight Foundation, The NEA, The Jerome Foundation, The Heinz Foundation, The Australia Council Literary Arts Board and numerous other sources. She has received Fulbright Fellowships to Tunisia, India and Indonesia.
Winner of a Distinguished Teaching Award, she has taught for over twenty-five years and is now a professor and artist in residence at Stanford University. She travels internationally giving readings, lectures, and workshops. She and her partner live in San Francisco and Mendocino County, California. Her website is www.valerieminer.com
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
March 7, 2023
Disclaimer: ARC via LibraryThing
Valerie Miner’s short story collection “Blood and Salt” offers up a group of stories that give use glimpses into moments and lives. The majority of the stories are quiet ones, though there a few dark ones in this collection. As in most short story collections some stories stand out more than others.
There were a few stories that one wanted more from. This doesn’t mean that the stories felt unfinished, but that the feeling of there should have been more lingers after the story has been finished. This is very true of “Iconoclast”. Yet there are many magnificent stories.
The best stories in the collection focus more on the quiet interior of life as opposed to the darker stories. “Under the Stars,” for instance, is a quiet story that takes place over an evening at a party in India. To say that nothing happens is both at once correct and incorrect. There is no major action but there is plenty of internal action. There is such simple and wonderful beauty in the story.
This is also true of “Far Enough”. Yet that supposedly simple story captures the essence of guilt, of complicated friendship, of desiring company, and desiring solitude so strongly and believably illustrated and described.
Many of the stories have to do reconciling with the past and the ghosts of the past that haunt us. But they are also concerned with what exactly makes a family, aptly illustrated by the first story in the collection “Il Piccolo Tesoro”, which is about family and art.
The darker tales, “Escape Artist” and “Hollow” are perhaps the weakest story. The characters are well drawn but the interior life that sustains that other stories seems weaker and the threat of menace does not quite fit. You can see it coming.
There is humor in the collection as well, best illustrated by the tale of a woman’s layover at an airport in “Coming Though”.
The collection also contains a story that deals with the questions and conflicts that arise around generations and privilege. “The Woman at Coral Villas” details an unlikely friendship that develops between three women, but what it looks at is how misunderstanding and privilege can effect how we see others.
The title story, the novella that closes the volume, “Blood and Salt”, is an excellent combination of the themes of friendship and family that runs though the other stories. The novella concerns Caroline who travels back to Tunisia and relives parts of her youth. The writing in this closing story is particularly good.
The stories, in general, concern friendship in particular friendship among women and predominately feature women who are in their middle or later years. The book also features LGBTQIA+ characters.
Valerie Miner’s short story collection “Blood and Salt” offers up a group of stories that give use glimpses into moments and lives. The majority of the stories are quiet ones, though there a few dark ones in this collection. As in most short story collections some stories stand out more than others.
There were a few stories that one wanted more from. This doesn’t mean that the stories felt unfinished, but that the feeling of there should have been more lingers after the story has been finished. This is very true of “Iconoclast”. Yet there are many magnificent stories.
The best stories in the collection focus more on the quiet interior of life as opposed to the darker stories. “Under the Stars,” for instance, is a quiet story that takes place over an evening at a party in India. To say that nothing happens is both at once correct and incorrect. There is no major action but there is plenty of internal action. There is such simple and wonderful beauty in the story.
This is also true of “Far Enough”. Yet that supposedly simple story captures the essence of guilt, of complicated friendship, of desiring company, and desiring solitude so strongly and believably illustrated and described.
Many of the stories have to do reconciling with the past and the ghosts of the past that haunt us. But they are also concerned with what exactly makes a family, aptly illustrated by the first story in the collection “Il Piccolo Tesoro”, which is about family and art.
The darker tales, “Escape Artist” and “Hollow” are perhaps the weakest story. The characters are well drawn but the interior life that sustains that other stories seems weaker and the threat of menace does not quite fit. You can see it coming.
There is humor in the collection as well, best illustrated by the tale of a woman’s layover at an airport in “Coming Though”.
The collection also contains a story that deals with the questions and conflicts that arise around generations and privilege. “The Woman at Coral Villas” details an unlikely friendship that develops between three women, but what it looks at is how misunderstanding and privilege can effect how we see others.
The title story, the novella that closes the volume, “Blood and Salt”, is an excellent combination of the themes of friendship and family that runs though the other stories. The novella concerns Caroline who travels back to Tunisia and relives parts of her youth. The writing in this closing story is particularly good.
The stories, in general, concern friendship in particular friendship among women and predominately feature women who are in their middle or later years. The book also features LGBTQIA+ characters.
August 19, 2020
A masterfully written collection of stories. The locations, from California to Tunisia, make you want to travel to far-away places, but it's the relationships, of all kinds, that fuel these tales. Often it's the chance meetings or strangers that make for the most interesting encounters.
April 17, 2021
A wide-ranging collection of stories around the themes of family, relationships, travel, and women's life choices. All of them were engaging, but I particularly enjoyed "Iconoclast" and "Bread and Salt," for their (to me) exotic locations, Turkey and Tunisia respectively. Most of the stories could be called literary fiction, but a few included thriller-esque elements, and one ("Quiet as the Moon") edged up to fantasy. The writing quality is excellent, creating memorable images of places and cuisine. The point of view characters are all women, usually academics or creatives. I found the stories relatable and engaging. I read them over a period of several weeks at the end of the day. Most of them made me think and none of them gave me nightmares.
October 19, 2020
I think what I enjoyed most about this book was the format. It's just a group of different stories that all bring something different to the idea of friends and family and everyday life. The format made it a quick read because every different story felt like something new. All of the stories are very human and very down to earth and that made it a fun and comfortable read.
August 1, 2020
I really liked the stories in this collection. They feel very human, very genuine, and they aren't all happy, which is refreshing. Some were only a couple pages, which was a bit jarring. The title novella was my favorite, seconded by Far Enough. The women in the stories feel very real.
August 3, 2020
I really enjoyed these short stories. They made you think about what you read. Some end kind of abruptly which leaves you wanting a little more. All in all a good way to spend an evening.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews