Book Review: Of Women and Salt by Gabriela Garcia

I've just finished reading Of Women and Salt by Gabriela Garcia.   It was a GMA Book Club book and I recall Robin Roberts commenting that "they" "always get it right".  I didn't know what that meant but figured she had to say that and I always request the ebook from my library, which I did with this book as well.

 

To be perfectly honest, I didn't expect to like this book.  I delayed the delivery of the book several times and when I did finally check out the book from the library, I immediately felt regret and figured it would likely go unread.

 

Then yesterday I checked to see if I still had it checked out (sometimes they warn me when the return date is close, sometimes they don't - and they don't ask before pulling it back when it's due!  they just take it!).  I had three days and four hours left!  If I was going to read it, I had to start right away.

 

Much to my surprise, it immediately drew me in.  I had been working around the house all day and was asleep by 8:30 but still managed to read almost half of the book yesterday - I didn't want to put it down!  And then, of course, I finished it today.  Such a good book!

 

In general, the story is about immigration.  Why people immigrate.  Why they don't.  There are two "families" followed.  One is a mother (Gloria) her daughter (Ana).  The other is a multi-generational  story about a daughter who comes to Florida from Cuba, her daughter and the family she's left behind and how their story integrates with Gloria and Ana, who have migrated from El Salvador.  

The stories are told from the perspective of each of the primary characters - sometimes in third person POV and other times in first person POV - all women.  It's not told in chronological order, which threw me at least once until I realized that part of the story happened before the other part of the story for that character.

So, while the story is about immigration - in general - for me the story is about relationships.  Relationships with family members, the general public and even with ourselves.  The secrets we keep, hoping they won't hurt us or anyone else anymore and how that impacts our relationships.  The things we do to cope and survive.  There's rape, murder, addiction, death and racism in their stories.  It's pretty powerful and complex.

I read the description from amazon and felt the first paragraph description misrepresented the story - there were things that were completely wrong about the characters but I did like the second paragraph:

From 19th-century cigar factories to present-day detention centers, from Cuba to Mexico, Gabriela Garcia's Of Women and Salt is a kaleidoscopic portrait of betrayals—personal and political, self-inflicted and those done by others—that have shaped the lives of these extraordinary women. A haunting meditation on the choices of mothers, the legacy of the memories they carry, and the tenacity of women who choose to tell their stories despite those who wish to silence them, this is more than a diaspora story; it is a story of America’s most tangled, honest, human roots.

 

It's that, and more.  I highly recommend it!