| View Larger Image | The Salt Roads | Paperbackby Nalo Hopkinson (Author)
| List Price: | $21.99 | | Price: | $18.80 | | You Save: | $3.19 (15%) | | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours |
| | Binding: | Paperback | | Publisher: | Grand Central Publishing | | Page Count: | 416 Pages | | Publication Date: | November 01, 2004 | | Sales Rank: | 456,321th |
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
- The Salt Roads was published in Warner hardcover (0-446-53302-5) in 11/03 and received rave reviews.- Nalo Hopkinson made her debut with Brown Girl in the Ring (1998), winning the Aspect First Novel Contest and the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer.- The author's previous book, Skin Folk (Aspect, 2001), won the World Fantasy Award for Best Collection, was named Recommended Fiction for 2002 by Black Issues Book Review, and was named a New York Times Best book of the Year. Hopkinson's Midnight Robber (Aspect, 2000), a New York Times Recommended Book of Summer 2000, received an Honorable Mention for the Casa de las Americas Prize. It was a finalist for the Nubula Award for Best Novel, the Hugo Award, and the Philip K. Dick Award. |
Amazon.com Review
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 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. Ezili becomes entangled with Mer because the midwife's prayers helped draw her into the mortal world. The novel presents a reasonable, though undeveloped, connection between Meritet/St. Mary, the Virgin Mary, and the goddesses of Africa. However, it's not clear why Ezili becomes entangled with Jeanne Duval. This is because The Salt Roads is sketchy, its three storylines compressed; the novel reads more like three novellas incompletely braided. This is a shame, because each mortal character's life could have made a fine, full, fascinating novel by itself. John W. Campbell Award winner Nalo Hopkinson's first novel, Brown Girl in the Ring, won the Warner Aspect First Novel Contest and the Locus Award for Best First Novel. Her second novel, the New York Times Notable Book Midnight Robber, was a finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, Philip K. Dick, and James Tiptree Jr. Awards. The Salt Roads is her third novel. --Cynthia Ward |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 16 reviews)
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Engaging writing, misrepresentation of the Goddess by Mami_Wanga (NYC, USA)  2 Stars
September 05, 2008
This is my first reading of Nalo Hopkinson's writing. Although, I find the book engaging to some degree, I get really turned off by the misrepresentation of the Goddesses Ezili and Het-Hru (mistakenly called Hathor--the wellknown Greek name for the Goddess). If you're writing from the perspective of the people who originally worshipped the goddess, at least get her name culturally correct. It would lend more authenticity to the storytelling. The limitations given to Ezili in the story are painful to read (a goddess trapped inside a human?? A goddess being birthed in the 1800s??). Sorry doesn't sit right or fly right with me. The modern vulgar language used by the goddesses are insulting and disturbing. I was excited to read this book. I was dissappointed. Nalo is a talented writer. I give the writing 4 stars, however, because of the way the goddesses and African descended women are presented in the story, 2 star rating overall.
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ASTOUNDING.......... by Venessia Young (Ridgeland, MS United States)  5 Stars
June 24, 2006
I am a 22 year old college student and I chose this book because I was tired of reading all of the street fiction out there. From the first page of this book, Nalo captures me. I am entagled in a story about Ezili, the African goddess of love. She emerges in the lives of three women: Mer, a slave healer who was also a lesbian, Jeanne, a mulatto woman who was the mistress of poet Charles Bedulaire, and Meritet, a Greek slave/prositute. Each of these women had their own battles to fight. Mer, was sent on a mission to see why the salt roads were blocked from the African Gods. Jeanne was given a disease by her lover than untimately diabled her, and Meritet was given self-awareness and the sense to hear people's thoughts. Nalo's poetic prose was what made the book SO good........I couldn't stop reading it. I can't wait until her new book comes out and I'm going to purchase all of her other novels. READ IT!! You won't be disappointed.
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Worth a Look by J. Ball  3 Stars
November 23, 2004
I absolutely loved Ms. Hopkinson's debut novel, BROWN GIRL IN THE RING, so I was really hopeful about this ambitious novel.
THE SALT ROADS is a non-linear story in four parts. The narrative switches back and forth between women of color from all over the world. The characters are Mer, a Haitian healer on a plantation; Jeanne, a mixed race woman in Baudelaire's France; Thais, an Egyptian hooker in Greece; and Ezili, the goddess figure that loosely ties the narratives together.
SALT ROADS tells their tales of love and lost. While the premise is engaging, I was never really aborbed with it and didn't find any of the characters (except for Mer) engaging. Self-absorbed Jeanne, for example, is particularly unsympathetic and distant.
Hopkinson's strength is in her poetic use of language. Her scenes and dialog are lush and sensual but the story itself left me hanging. Most of the characters are so isolated that it's difficult to see how they truly interact with their surroundings.
In the end, I think I might have enjoyed the novel more had
Ezili been a more dominant character.
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A Time-traveling poltergist! by Loose Leaves Book Review (Atlanta, GA USA)  4 Stars
November 03, 2004
The Salt Roads is the third novel by science fiction writer, Nalo Hopkinson; however, this novel is really more of a historical fantasy. Hopkinson combines elements of voodoo, mythology and Christianity to weave a very interesting story that shares a common symbolic thread -- salt -- the salt in tears, in sweat, in blood and even in the sea.
With the unfortunate burial of a stillborn infant, the goddess Ezili is evoked from the prayers of three Caribbean slave women to their individual gods. Ezili is the goddess of sex and love. She possesses the ability to occupy the minds and bodies of three different women during various periods of time. With her birth and inhabitation of these women, Ezili offers the strength to love and hope for a better life.
In eighteenth century Saint Dominique, Mer, a Caribbean slave women, has the gift of healing. She is content with her life as a slave and spending time with her female lover until she receives a visit from the spirit Lasiren, who gives her a message to save the slaves on the plantation. Ezili gives her the strength she needs to take on the responsibility. She faces several challenges with a sorceror named Makandal who is starting a slave revolt on the plantation. Her relationship with her lover is threatened when her lover's husband returns to the plantation with an invitation for Tipingee to leave with him.
In nineteenth century Paris, Jeanne Duval, a dancer and the lover of poet Charles Baudelaire, is seeking true love and security. Because she is of African descent, she can never be more than Charles' mistress because he is too cowardly to stand up to his overbearing mother who controls all of his money. Theirs is a twisted love affair that leaves Jeanne unsatisfied. Jeanne is the first body that the spirit Ezili possesses. In Jeanne, Ezili learns and grows. When Jeanne is inattentive or asleep that Ezili is free to travel through space and time. The spirit of Ezili gives Jeanne the strength to find true love even after falling victim to a devastating illness.
In fourth century Alexandria, Meritet is a nubian prostitute. Meritet is inspired by the tales of Jerusalem and decides to travel there. She takes along her friend Judah, a male prostitute, and they use their bodies as payment for their fare to Jerusalem. Once they arrive in Jerusalem, Judah seems to prosper while Meritet is faced with misfortune. After the spirit of Ezili possess her, Meritet is changed from a prostitute to a saint, a founder of a religion.
The Salt Roads is a very good book. It is not a quick read and does not follow a logical storyline; it's fantasy, so the elements would not make sense to a logical thinker. The book can also be pretty graphic and extremely gross at some points. Overall, it was an excellent read. I applaud Nalo Hopkinson on this effort.
Reviewed by Paula Henderson of Loose Leaves Book Review
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Amazingly Original, Breathtakingly Beautiful by Josh Aterovis (Baltimore, Maryland United States) 5 Stars
October 13, 2004
Mer, a healer and midwife, is an African slave on a sugar plantation on Saint Domingue (renamed Haiti in 1804). Jeanne Duval is an Afro-French dancer and courtesan living in Paris, and the mistress of 19th-century poet Charles Baudelaire. Meritet is a Greek-Nubian prostitute in fourth-century Egypt, better known to the world as Saint Mary. Something connects these three women across the span of time--something larger than any of these women could ever suspect.
When three Caribbean slave women, led by Mer, come together to bury one of the women's stillborn son, their powerful grief and prayers call the attention of Ezili, an African-Caribbean goddess. Using the unused life force of the dead child, Ezili moves back and forth across time, possessing and working her will through various bodies.
Jeanne is one of the goddess' most frequent vehicles--mainly because Ezili finds herself inexplicably tethered to the beautiful French dancer. She is free to inhabit other bodies only when Jeanne, slowly dying of syphilis, is in a deep dream state. Ezili plants the seeds of revolution in Saint Domingue through Mer, and sends Meritet on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
What all these women have in common is salt--in all its various forms. Whether the salt of tears, the salt of the ocean, or the salt of sweat, the goddess travels the Salt Roads to accomplish her goal. The question is "What is her goal?" Not even Ezili fully understands at first, but as she grows more powerful, and comes to know the many aspects of herself, all is revealed--both to her and the reader.
Author Nalo Hopkinson beautifully weaves her stories together in a broken narrative, jumping back and forth through time and between characters. Some readers may have a little difficulty finding the rhythm of her storytelling, but the reward for their perseverance is great. Hopkinson writes in a flowing, sensual, sometimes poetic, style, but her rich use of history keeps the book grounded in realism. While the stories of the three women are often heartbreaking, Hopkinson skillfully breaks up the sometimes heavy narrative with light touches of humor sprinkled throughout--the way a good chef uses salt.
Ultimately uplifting and filled with hope, The Salt Roads is a beautiful book-one that stays with you long after you close the cover. The Salt Roads is the winner of the 2004 Gaylactic Spectrum Award for Best Novel.
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