| Title | : | The Salt God's Daughter |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1619020025 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781619020023 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 352 |
| Publication | : | First published September 1, 2012 |
The Salt God's Daughter Reviews
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The seem to be a book that you either loved, or loathed. I actually did both. There were parts of this book that were wonderful, but as a whole, I felt it was too disjointed and painful to read.
It’s told in three parts; the first part is about Ruth’s childhood with her abusive/inspired homeless mother Diana and her sister Dolly. The second part is about Ruth’s adolescence and young motherhood, and includes her romance with a man she dubs the Salt God, who may or may not be a selkie. The third part is about Naida, Ruth’s daughter, and her youth and adolescence. There’s also a prologue and epilogue, which to me only muddled the book, rather than clarifying or tying it together.
The theme, I believe, is that a girl’s first love is her mother; certainly most of the book, including the last third, is about the relationship between mothers and daughters.
What I liked about this:
Mother Diana was obsessed with the phases of the moon, with the almanac, and trying to tie them to what had happened, and what she believed was going to happen, in their lives. She and the almanac called the moon different names: the Hunger Moon, the Wolf Moon, the Harvest Moon, and told stories and myths for how it related to the earth; sometimes it was a sibling, sometimes it was a child, sometimes it was the spouse of the earth.
I like that it was set in local areas to Southern California, and loaded with details. The Belmont Shore area of Long Beach, the Santa Ana winds, the Oxnard strawberry fields, the desert areas, the artfully disguised Long Beach oil derricks, the seals and the bougainvillea. This gave the book a very rich, sensual texture.
There were wonderful details about the time era: the green station wagon that Diana dubbed The Big Ugly, the obsession with soap opera General Hospital, and the theme of Luke and Laura and rape, the elaborations about the toys and the clothes.
I liked the recurring theme of the selkies, magical creatures who are generally seals at sea, but who can remove a magic cloak, and take on human form, on land. Ruth’s lover, Graham, seems to have all the characteristics of a selkie; it seems Ruth both wants to believe he is, and that he is not.
What I didn’t like about this:
The editor(s) should be shot, or at least flogged. There were so many distractions that were not cleaned up, so many doors that were opened that led nowhere, and so many bad grammar and spelling mistakes that totally ripped me out of the story.
For example, there’s a legend that the waterhorse (a legendary sea creature) causes earthquakes deep under the sea, by a shifting of tectonic plates. In the Salt God’s daughter, this is referenced three or four times. Except it’s always spelled as “Teutonic plates.” WTF is a Teutonic plate, and what does German crockery have to do with anything? Somebody serves up brisket in one place, and “briscuit” in another.
All in all, this was a very interesting read, and I felt like it had so much potential, but I still cannot say it was a good book. I hope the author goes on to write more, and I hope she works with a better crit group and editor. -
Ruby's THE SALT GOD'S DAUGHTER reads like an extended dream, this novel unlike anything else I've ever read. This story is written in a language somewhere between poetry and prose, about a world somewhere between reality and fantasy, and the characters somehow between human and mythological.
The story of three generations of women, it is also about motherhood and nature and the cruelties of humankind. Set in southern California primarily in 1970s and 1980s, most of the novel is dedicated to Ruth, the daughter of a bohemian mother who fails her daughters at seemingly every turn. But it also offers us Naida, Ruth's daughter. I found Naida to be the most endearing character, and my heart ached for her as she struggled to free herself from her own heredity and history.
It took me forever to read this simply because I wanted to linger over certain sentences. The lyricism reminded me in many ways of WE, THE ANIMALS by Justin Torres; the prose was so lush and rich. -
The SALT GOD'S DAUGHTER, by Ilie Ruby is a profound literary work that segues from descriptions of the hard-scrabble life of two girls and an itinerant mother to a mythic sea world that washes back on land with the strength of its myths. (Or are they just myths? Ruby makes them so real, so relevant, by the time the novel is over, this reader believed in them.--Just as I heard the sound of the sea long after the novel was over. ) This novel loops back to generations and then back again. But unlike many novels that span generations, THE SALT GOD'S DAUGHTER has extraordinary unity. Interestingly, the first section of the story gave me the same cosmic jolt about ultimate homelessness that HOUSEKEEPING by Marilyn Robinson gave me when I read it ten years ago. I fell in love with Ruthie as a child and as a mother and with her daughter, Nadia, as they struggled to find their origins.
In a world where--in some sense--all of us are homeless, Ruby illuminates the things we can call home--in myth, in connection, and in the sea itself. Ruby's language is beautiful and poetic without ever being over-written. The rhythm and energy always serve to illuminate what she is writing about--whether exhuberance, pain, or longing. The dialogue is wonderful. People talk the way you hear them talk in ordinary life. A simply wonderful read. -
It's the 1970s and Ruthie and Dolly are living on the road with their mother, Diana. Traveling through California in "Big Ugly", their station wagon, Ruthie and Dolly are just young children forced to work strawberry fields and trash pick to survive. Diana lives her life by the moons, obsessing over her Farmer's Almanac, always changing her course depending on what the book has to offer that day. Diana's moods are constantly shifting as well, drinking often and punishing Ruthie for very small mistakes.
From childhood to adulthood, Diana's ways stay with Ruthie, who constantly struggles with life's injustices and who wants nothing more than to find love. This comes in the shape of Graham, a mysterious man who comes and goes without warning, ultimately giving Ruthie what she always wanted: Naida, a daughter. The Salt God's daughter follows the lives of Diana, Ruthie and Naida as they struggle to make sense of their pasts and determine what promise their future holds.
First, I have to say that this novel is written quite beautifully. Almost lyrically. The author has an exceptional skill and it shows. But have you ever finished a book that left you feeling confused? That is how I am feeling right now, confused. When I first came upon The Salt God's Daughter, I knew right away that I wanted to read it. I am drawn to stories about unstable families, especially mothers and daughters, and this one sounded very promising. The stunning cover definitely helped grab my attention as well. But it was far different from what I was expecting.
The story takes place in three parts: Ruthie before Naida, Ruthie immediately after Naida's birth, and Naida's childhood. I was immediately drawn to Ruthie, her childhood was harsh and I wished I could snatch her right out of the book to live with me each time her mother left her standing alone in the desert for hours just to teach her a lesson, always wondering how long she would be there before her mother's mood changed and she came back for her. Many times I was left feeling uncomfortable for the girls, knowing that things would not get better for them yet still aching each time another vicious act was committed against them. I felt for Dolly too, although her smug attitude sometimes turned me off to her, and especially Naida. Born with a defect but also the gift of sight, she is tortured at school and her only friends are the old folks in the retirement home in which she lives.
But as much as I loved the characters and felt every heartache they endured, and as beautifully written as it was, I still struggled to keep up with the storyline. Reality is fused with folklore throughout the story and this is where I came into trouble. I had a very hard time figuring out if these tales were meant to be believed or were just used as metaphors. Did these strange things actually happen, or were they meant to explain other things altogether? I just don't know, and I'm not sure I will ever figure it out, short of actually talking with the author. I think I would have enjoyed the book much more had I known about this ahead of time. I like knowing beforehand if there is a mystical aspect to a story, for this very reason.
However, that being said, please do not let this discourage you from reading this story. I know for a fact that had I known from the beginning that there was this aspect to the story, I would have really loved it. So now that you know, you will not be confused as I was. Please do not let my bias stop you from giving this a chance. The writing is lovely and the story is heartbreaking, two crucial elements to a wonderful read. -
THE SALT GOD'S DAUGHTER was at times worth 5+ stars in my mind, but it was also only 3 stars at times. I settle for 4 stars over all.
I was very drawn to Ilie Ruby's book by the cover and the beautifully poetic rhythm of the opening pages I read as a sample. This, I thought, is what I strive to write; what I always want to read. And as it turned out, much of the book fulfilled this promise.
Following the lives of multiple narrators is always a risk. I had just recently read another such book that benefitted from this choice much more than it suffered. But in THE SALT GOD'S DAUGHTER, I found that I didn't care about all three narrators equally, or at least, I didn't care about each narrator at each phase of her life that was captured. This disappointed me, especially because the characters and phases of their lives are so intertwined. The story follows three generations of women of the same family, through extraordinary and often fairytale-like lives. There were points, however, when I thought the more concrete details were chosen not for their logic but for the necessity of some sort of concrete detail to fit the plot and magic that surrounded it. Specifically, Ruthie does not seem to me to be a caretaker, yet this detail is necessary to move the story in the direction it does.
There are moments in this book that caught my breath upon first reading, then second, then third. One in particular struck such a chord with me that I had to step away from the book for a while. These are the book's finest moments. But there are other moments that quickly became blurs to me--too poetic or too whirlwind without purpose.
I will definitely read more of Ruby's work in the future. I hope that it will bring me more of the magic and less of the blur. -
I've been very fortunate over the past several weeks to read a number of wonderful books that take folk tales, fairy tales, mythology as their heart. The Salt God's Daughter is one of those books. Ruby's story, based on the Celtic tradition of the selkie - uncanny creatures who appear as seals on the sea, but can shed their skins and walk when on land. Traditional tales of the selkie often lead to tragedy as a selkie and human fall in love (or not) and make a life together. It's the "making a life together" element that's tricky since often this part happens because the human partner steals and hides the selkie's skin so s/he cannot go back to the sea. I know you're thinking of The Little Mermaid (the Disney version). Stop. This folklore is a lot more complex and dark than anything anyone from Disney ever conjured.
The Salt God's Daughter is also about mother/daughter relationships. As a daughter I know how conflicted and complex these relationships are. Ruby weaves a tale of mothers and daughters and their bonds. Rich in imagery of the sea and of the moon, The Salt God's Daughter is a great follow-up to Ruby's first novel, The Language of Trees. Ruby has a talent for threading disparate parts of story into a coherent whole and I am glad to say that her sophomore effort is just as wise and wonderful as her first. Highly recommended. -
I can't wait to read this--am swept up by the language I've read so far and story.
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The Salt God's Daughter
Ilie Ruby
Counterpoint/Soft Skull Press
September 2012
The Salt God’s Daughter, Ilie Ruby’s latest novel, is set in the 1970s in Long Beach, California, on the frigid, mysterious and unassuming Pacific Ocean. With remarkable diction and cadence, Ruby has skillfully sculpted an epic tale about the lives of three generations of women and written it with such eloquence, the pages often sang to me, leaving me salt-drenched, feeling protected by fuchsia bougainvilleas, and in a state of breathlessness. From the first sentence, this book careens the reader through a whirling, magical voyage into the color and richness of Scottish myth and Jewish mysticism. Suddenly, we find ourselves considering anew the shifting moons, eclipses of the sun, changing tides, cloud formations, selkies, “groatie buckies,” barnacles and a plethora of other animal and plant life in and around the water.
The story begins with Diane, a young single mother to two daughters, Ruthie and Dolly, who struggles with drinking and depression. They live in a station wagon, are often hungry, miss school, and endure the disconnectedness of that reality. With life like this, Ruthie and Dolly are often at the mercy of their mother’s moods and health, and learn early to tend to and comfort her. They begin their rite of passage early in life. “Dolly and I had time on our hands to fantasize and create, to conjure and compose, to experiment and dramatize, to create a world wholly experienced in the imagination. We’d frequent the pier, our bare feet slapping the wood slats as we played chasing games ….”
Years pass and daughters become mothers. Mothers become grandmothers. The sisters change individually, but stay solid in the tight bonds between them. Like everyone, however, they are destined to seek out a lover and a partner, like their great grandparents, Ruth and Daniel, found in each other for seventy years--as was the story Diane told the girls while she leaned on the car, smoking, and made them all feel hopeful. Achieving this goal meant accepting and loving themselves fully, before loving another. This is not easy. Both women must come to terms with their own mistakes, and the toll taken by errors or atrocities that were never theirs to bear. Loving themselves through those difficulties takes strength—especially after being traumatized, labeled 'other,’ unworthy, or immoral by misguided, cruel peers and adults. Both find solace in the home, performing valuable work as caregivers to some of the women who nurtured them and doing everything possible to keep the family and its stories safe and intact.
While enchanting in its musicality and vivid imagery, this book is also gritty, evocative, and relevant to the cultural and socio-political climate in the United States and world today, especially in the area of sexual politics, predominantly rape and abortion. Reading and reviewing The Salt God's Daughter has had a huge impact on my own life. Through Ruby's voice, I rediscovered my own unheard and silenced cries in the dark from decades ago. It felt freeing to know that the loss of young girls' lives to suicide--from bullying, other crimes committed against them, landing on the wrong side of current sexual mores, or other oppressive rules and laws--has stimulated healing. In fact, I believe this work has released a groundswell of women’s energy and emboldened words which resound right now like an echo in a canyon. I hope we will all find the courage to heed Sister Mary’s words: “Speak, Ruthie. As often and as loudly as you can. Keep speaking it,” she said. Therein lies the secret of The Salt God's Daughter. -
The Salt God's Daughter by Ilie Ruby follows three generations of women in California. Set mainly in Long Beach, the novel opens in 2001 with Ruthie's daughter, Naida, and then jumps back to 1972 and follows Naida's grandmother, Diana Gold and her two daughters, Ruthie and Dolly, to the present. Diana raises her daughters on the road, living out of her station wagon, based on what she sees in the Old Farmer's Almanac and the phase of the moon. Many of her inventive names for the moon's phases are tailored to fit their situation. The women keep returning to Dr. Brownstein's beach hotel, which later becomes a retirement home, in Long Beach.
The Salt God's Daughter is an atmospheric novel that explores the complex relationship and love between mothers and daughters while portraying the female experience. It is also about being different, a non-conformist to the world and how violence and bullies can influence a person's self esteem. Always present is a tantalizing pull toward the sea or repulsion from it, depending upon the character. There are also several heartbreaking passages where the characters bear painful, life changing experiences.
The Salt God's Daughter is not a light read. This is a multi-layered novel with many complexities woven into the plot. Folklore, magic realism, mysticism, and mythology infuse the whole novel with a dream-like quality. Certainly having a character named Diana following the phases of the moon so closely is no coincidence. (Diana, a huntress, is the Roman goddess of the moon, nature, fertility and childbirth.) And, while the women are Jewish, that fact was simply another tradition that was ultimately tied into all sorts of other belief systems, including Celtic lore.
Ultimately, this is a beautifully written novel that will have many readers turning back to relish a sentence or paragraph again. While admittedly I also had to turn back a few times because I got lost in the mythology (magic realism can trip me up), that didn't deter me from the pure joy I felt in reading such a finely crafted novel. Even though I normally try to avoid magic realism, this novel was the exception to my rule as I enjoyed it immensely.
Very Highly Recommended - one of the best
It is very evident that Ilie Ruby is a painter, as well as an author, in her descriptions of Ruthie painting. She is also the author of the critically-acclaimed novel, The Language of Trees, which debuted in 2010 and was selected as a Target Emerging Author’s Pick and a First Magazine for Women Reader’s Choice.
Disclosure: My copy was courtesy of Spark Point Studio for review purposes. -
I really loved this book. It's magical in an Alice Hoffman way. Ethereal, surreal, and...well, just plain magical. At the same time, it's real in a poignant, sometimes painful way. It brings you back to the seventies as only someone who grew up as a child in the seventies would understand. A truly beautiful, at times poetic, novel that follows three generations of women over the decades of the seventies through the present. It will leave you pondering the lives of these women for days after you finish the book. Hypnotic with a lingering aroma of Love's Baby Soft...
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It isn’t often that when reading a novel I’m rendered speechless, but that’s what happened while reading Ilie Ruby’s second novel, THE SALT GOD’S DAUGHTER. I found myself swallowed in a magical world, rereading sentences so I didn’t miss their beauty. The novel was certainly unlike anything I expected and while this is a good thing it created some distinct challenges as I sat down to write my perspective of the book. This assignment presented a refreshing task I normally I don’t engage in when writing a review, so here it goes.
THE SALT GODs DAUGHTER is set in 1970s Southern California, specifically Long Beach.
Diana raises her two daughters Ruthie and Dolly in the back of the family station wagon driving around being guided by the Old Farmer’s Almanac and the moon’s calendar. Marginalized by society, Diana an alcoholic, the kids never know where their next meal will come from and dumpster dive for the clothes on their back they finally end up living in an old motel retirement home, Wild Acres on the beach run by Dr. B.
“If I told you that I ached for a different mother, I’d be lying. I ached for my own, every minute, as motherless daughters do.”
The first half of the book is told by Diana who dies young. The second half Ruthie and her sister, Dolly are each other’s saviors. It adds up to a very complicated novel about mothers and daughters.
“She was our child. We didn’t know anything different. Everyone knew a mother was a daughter’s first love.”
Life is not easy for Ruthie and Dolly. The world does not understand them. Their lives are affected by rape, violence, poverty, but they are anchored by Wild Acres the people living there and the sea. Ruthie meets a man at a bar who works on a ship out at sea and they have a child, Naida. He comes and goes, making no promises to her somehow more committed to the sea, saying it is his job to protect the animals of the oceans. Their daughter, Naida is born with a foot deformity, that has toes stuck together to form a web. She gets bullied at school and called “Frog Witch.”
THE SALT GODs DAUGHTER incorporates the Celtic tradition of the Selkie – creatures that appear as seas in sea, shed their skin and walk on land. If a loving relationship with a human develops, it can turn tragic because they cannot live together. Ruby uses folklore and myths to go back and forth between the 70’s and current times.
Ilie Ruby is also an abstract painter. She paints whimsical thought-provoking canvases with incredible movement. She uses mystical and ethereal realism in her painting as well as in her writing. It’s more spiritual than representational. Her novel is filled with myths, folklore - one might argue her writing is more mythical based than reality, too.
THE SALT GODs DAUGHTER is not chick-lit. This is something very different. If you’re looking for something unique, I say go for it. It’s not a quick read. Plan on spending some time, and I think you’ll be happy you did. -
From
Lilac Wolf and Stuff
The Salt God's Daughter isn't an overly long book, but it is full of poetic and descriptive writing. The story itself is gripping and I enjoyed the writing. But I do want to give fair warning, it does get wordy. Now you just have to decide if you like that or not. I thought it was beautiful and moved quickly through the tale.
It's split into two parts. The first part tells the story of Ruthie's childhood, which was mostly unsupervised and spent homeless and traveling. Ruthie grows up to give birth to Naida and swears her daughter will never question her love. Ruthie has a terrible fear of water, yet lives near the ocean. Her daughter, Naida, loves the Ocean completely.
There were plenty of happy moments within the story, but you spend a lot of time with your heart breaking for Ruthie and Naida. The author doesn't pretend that it's all rosy when you are considered to be on the fringe of society. If you are different, you are a target.
There is a hint of magic in this tale with the tale of the people with animal skins who live in the water, never really belonging on land or to the sea. Ruthie's mother was obsessed with the moon and drawn to the ocean. It wasn't presented in a way to be "true" but it is never quite written off either. I truly loved all the mini-tales within this book. I was sorry to finish. -
If you liked this book, you might also enjoy:
✱
Monstrous Beauty
✱
The Brides of Rollrock Island -
I could not put this one down. Ilie Ruby's second novel is even better than her first. Imaginative but with characters searingly familiar. Painful and beautiful. Inspiring. Love it.
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Book Review: The Salt God’s Daughter by Ilie Ruby
The Salt God’s Daughter by Ilie Ruby (Soft Skull Press; 352 pages; $25).
Ilie Ruby, the critically acclaimed author of The Language of Trees, counts among her influencers some big names like Isabel Allende and Alice Sebold. Reading her moving, hypnotic new novel The Salt God’s Daughter, this reviewer clearly saw traces of both Allende and Sebold, as well as Alice Hoffmann. Ruby combines elements of mystery, fantasy, and magical realism to tell a moving story about three generations of women in Southern California. The Salt God’s Daughter is a beautifully told and seductive tale that lets Ruby show her amazing talent.
Ruby’s main character is Ruth, who, together with her older sister Dolly, struggles with an absent mother. Diana, their unconventional mother, obsesses over the moon cycles of her beloved Old Farmer’s Almanac and interprets the phases of the moon. They warn her of potential dangers or possible opportunities. Through the character of Diana, Ruby is able to imbue elements of Jewish mysticism into her story, making it richer and beguiling. With their mother inhabiting a world of her own, the sisters find themselves alone most of the time. Dolly and Ruth quickly learn to protect each other.
“We ran wild at night, effortless, boundless, under a blood red sky—to where and to what we couldn’t have known. We craved it, that someplace. We were two little girls, sisters, daughters with no mother, distrustful of the freedom we were given, knowing she shouldn’t have left,” Ruby writes. “We stole wrinkled leather sneakers that were two sizes too big, and wore them until they fit. We raced in the sand, fought in the dusk. We knew we were not invisible. We tightened belts around our stomachs at night….”
Despite their mother’s negligence, they love her and desperately long for her. “If I told you that I ached for a different mother, I’d be lying,” Ruth admits, “I ached for my own, every minute. As motherless daughters do.” When she is with them, they are a family.
Amazingly, the sisters have no idea their lives are unusual; they are isolated and insular. Their one link to the outside world is the soap opera General Hospital. When their mother dies, though, the girls face new challenges, as traditional society collides with their nontraditional, nomadic upbringing.
As the sisters grow older, each grapples with adversity, violence, and rape. Each sister must decide what to do with an unwanted, unplanned pregnancy. Violence against women, then, as well as lust and sexuality are just some of Ruby’s big themes. She does not shy away from the brutality of rape. The scene in which Ruth, a virgin, is raped is difficult to read, yet Ruby approaches the subject with realism, tact, and straightforwardness. Understandably, Ruth begins to search for a place where she can heal, where she can carve out a life that is all her own.
Ruth finds a place of stability at Wild Acres, an old hotel on the beach. There, among the fragrant and colorful bougainvillea, rising tides, sandy beach, and rough surf, Ruth makes her own kind of family with the elderly people who live there.
She quickly finds a refuge in love, but this is not an average union. Ruby falls in love with a selkie. The Salt God’s Daughter is strongest in its use of the traditional Scottish folkloric tale of the selkie, or seal wife. Ruth begins an affair with a mysterious fisherman who leaves salt in her bed and then leaves her for long periods of time. A daughter, Naida, is born from their intimacy.
Kids bully Naida and call her a “frog witch.” Naida is different and undeniably special. Watched over by three sea lions, dubbed the “sisters,” Naida swims like a fish and keeps a secret. For her, the ocean is a form of solace against the bullying and her difference. Naida, though, feels a deep sense of loss because of her absent father. She is sure he holds the key to her many gifts and determines she will find him. Her journey will have lasting consequences, and the answers she seeks may hurt more than they heal.
Ruby does not portray men in the best light in this story. Men leave; men abuse; men lie; men cheat; men rape; and even boys bully and beat up little girls. The only man of any worth in The Salt God’s Daughter is Mr. Taki, a resident of Wild Acres and former friend of Diana’s, who may or may not be Dolly’s father. Yet, women are at the heart of this story, particularly one woman: Ruth. Ruth must overcome loss and heartache to raise Naida and create a home for herself and her daughter. Ruth must choose to be a beacon in the storm for her daughter.
The bond between mothers and daughters is palpable in The Salt God’s Daughter. Even when Diana is absent, Ruth and Dolly still yearn for her. Her almanacs are a way for Diana to speak to her daughters and to her granddaughter even after her death. Ruby likewise does everything humanly possible to protect her daughter. Young girls need guidance and protection.
Ruby came up with the idea behind this story while reading about bullied girls. “I had been reading about four young girls who were bullied and who could no longer stand it,” she writes. “As I researched their stories, that number grew to ten girls. Then seventeen girls. There are more. I wrote their names out on a piece of paper on my desk, and I felt a strong sense of purpose. There was no way I was not going to tell this story.” Her aim was not only to tell a “beautiful story, but to give voice to every girl who has ever been tested—who has been called out, named, bullied, gossiped about. And who has found the strength to stand up in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.”
The Salt God’s Daughter is full of magic and enchantment, violence and tragedy, fantasy and magical realism, discovery and survival. Like an undertow, The Salt God’s Daughter pulls the reader in. Before one realizes, she is far from shore. Fear not, dear reader. Let the current pull you under. Ruby’s story is a tale to drown in.
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The Salt God's Daughter by Ilie Ruby was recommended for me via Amazon.com. They send you recommendations based on the books you've bought in the past. I read the synopsis and decided it was a must read. My father gifted this book to me - thank you again, Dad.
First and foremost, the cover drew me in. I'm a very visual person and a good matte book cover draws me as the moon draws water, pulling me towards the story. The colors and the picture let the reader this will be an ethereal experience; and it was.
This is a story of ambition and endurance, a bildungsroman novel tracing three generations of women. I'm not sure if Ruby intended it to be this way, but for me I vividly watched a grandmother, a mother, and a daughter grow up; not only in a traditional aging sense, but through lessons - good and bad - shaping them into the women they would become.
They are all nomads in their own right, but none as much as Diana, the mother of Ruthie and Dolly, grandmother to Naida, Ruthie's eventual daughter. Diana's bizarre way of living and raising her girls is questionable at best, but beneath the struggle of trying to find herself, there is everlasting and plentiful love for her daughters. From her, they learn to trust in themselves, trust in others, and even to trust in the ocean tides.
The book feels like walking through a dream. I kept trying to ground myself in the plot, but this is not possible; and probably not necessary as the story evolved from a Celtic myth. (From Ruby Ilie's website): The book was inspired by the confluence of real life and a Celtic myth, the latter of which comes from a folksong my mother used to play on the guitar, “The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry.” While the myth of elusive shapeshifters is the map, the plotlines reflect the real-life experiences of many women, some known and several unknown.
I find I'm struggling to write a typical review of this novel because it was so fluid. My desire to go to the beach is greater than it's ever been as Ruby's descriptions of the salty ocean and the bougainvillea of Wild Acres, the primary grounded setting of the novel, are lifelike, real, and divine. I enjoyed her incorporation of sea life and the details she gave about the historical California coast line, each minute inkling of life for the women drawn in picturesque proportion to the characters lives.
The novel is an easy read and I think would be well-suited to young adults, although this doesn't mean it isn't for the more veteran reader. The vocabulary is simple, but the story of the women is one any person can relate to, young and old. On this quest to find themselves, the readers sees the many facets of a woman's life, and relates to them in a surreal way.
Ilie Ruby is also the author of The Language of Trees, a book I'll be sure to read in the future.
About the Author (from her website):
Ilie Ruby is the author of The Salt God’s Daughter (September 2012) and the critically-acclaimed novel, The Language of Trees, which debuted in 2010 and was a Target Emerging Author’s Pick and a First Magazine for Women Reader’s Choice, and for which complex Chinese rights were sold. Raised in Rochester, NY, she attended the University of Southern California’s Professional Writing Program, where she was fiction editor of The Southern California Anthology. She holds a masters degree in education from Simmons College, and specialized in documentary filmmaking at Emerson College.
Awards include the Edwin L. Moses Prize for Fiction, chosen by T.C. Boyle; a Kerr Foundation Scholarship, and the Phi Kappa Phi Award for Creative Fiction. Ruby is also a recipient of the Wesleyan Writer’s Conference Davidoff Scholarship and the Barbara Kemp Award for Outstanding Teaching.
She has worked as 5th grade teacher, a PBS archeology series contributor, and as an education editor at Houghton Mifflin Company. Ruby is also a painter, mother to three, and teaches writing in Boston.
For more information about her and her literary involvement, visit her website at
http://www.ilieruby.com/ -
{Notes}
*Rating is actually a 4.5
*This book is just...magical. I tend to read a lot of YA fiction, and sometimes it just feels so good to sink my teeth into a real literary powerhouse of a book. It took me quite a while to read this one, simply because I would read and reread passages over and over, trying to absorb the full meaning of it all. This definitely is not a book to be rushed, it's a book to be savored.
*The pacing did confuse me every now and then. The story would be going along quite nicely, when suddenly there would be a break in the narrative to describe something completely different - like a passage about sea life that has nothing to do with what's actually going on. It was jarring at times, and would occasionally throw me off.
*Big warning up front, this book does contain rape. If you're sensitive about that, or are easily triggered, I would actually maybe avoid this book. It's not a long, drawn out scene by any means, but it resonates through the entire novel.
*I've actually never read a book with Jewish main characters I think. I actually found it incredibly fascinating, learning different aspects of the religion.
*I did seem to miss Ruthie's narration when it switched over to Nadia. It would make more sense for me to connect with Nadia (since we were actually born the same year!), and I can relate to her situation, but something about her "voice" didn't drag me in the way Ruthie's did.
*One of my favorite things were the touches of magic scattered throughout. You're never quite sure if they're real, or metaphoric, and I love that.
*It would be amiss to not touch on the most amazing aspect of the entire book: the writing. It's not a revolutionary plot, nor does it really have a linear plot. The writing seethes in and out like the tides, and it waltzes confidently down the line of poetry and prose. This books has some of the most beautiful, amazing, breathtaking passages I think I've ever read. If you asked me to pick a favorite quote, it would be impossible. It's passionate and sad, but at the same token, hopeful and light. It's a modern fairytale, but also a stark look at three generations of struggle and heartbreak. It's like a dream you just want to keep slipping into and revisiting - this is definitely a novel I want to reread more than once, just to try and absorb all I can from it.
*It's hard to find the words to describe this novel accurately. It makes you want to talk about it in the language it's written, and to do so, just takes away from it almost. It's a poem in the guise of a book. It's so harshly real, but filled with magic at every turn. I really almost feel it's a book everyone should at least try to read just once. It's not for everyone, but for some of us, it will wedge it's way into your heart. -
I just finished reading The Salt God's Daughter -- and I didn't. It's not a book you ever really finish. In 6 months or a year, I will pick it up again and start rereading it. I will know the story, the characters will be familiar, but I will read parts of it and think, "Was this here the last time I read it? How did I miss this?" It's that kind of a book. You don't read it so much as you spend some time with it and create memories of how you thought things went. But then when you go back to visit you find out it wasn't exactly like that, it was more, much more!
There are few authors that have this effect on their readers, for me Eliot Pattison is like that, even though his writing is nothing at all similar to Ilie Ruby's, but both of them have have the ability to take me out of my body and place me somewhere else: They leave me there and I must learn fast! My eyes are constantly watching and my ears listening and my sense of touch . . . at least it seemed like that to me.
I have lived in a desert for over half a century and over the years I have savored my few trips to the ocean. Ilie Ruby not only took me to the ocean, she threw me into it! And when I surfaced, sputtering, rolling waves surrounded me completely. I could see the beach as a distant line but thinking of swimming that far -- well, it is daunting. Whoa! What's that swimming beneath me under the water?
I swam!
The time spent on land within the story is highlighted by the constant throb of the waves against the beach. I was never able to forget my proximity to the immensity of the ocean and all its life.
I encourage you to visit with The Salt God's Daughter for a time, and soon, but beware, she will draw you back again and again. -
Ilie's Ruby's second novel delivers what I think is some of her best work yet ! The Salt God's Daughter delivers a complex look at relationships of mothers and daughters. Journeys they take alone and together. You often think of the "dad" being a daughters first love. When in reality it is indeed the mother. It is often your mother you wish to please the most and work hard for their approval and love. A relationship so complex it is not often until later in life do you realize the sacrifices, the love an the gifts each give each other. I love the passion Ilie puts into her stories. You have a sense of being delivered to the story as you are reading and feeling the emotions of the characters. To often with today's literature you find books that are just put together quickly to make a sale and the emptiness of the story if evident. I appreciate the journey Ilie takes you on and appreciate her respect for her readers and for the STORY. I know for me a good story, a good journey is when you can read a line in the book if the first few chapters and as you go further in the story, that line stays with you.Even when you are not reading. Excellent second novel and I definitely have this on my to read again list. Absolutely LOVED it.
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Whew! I just finished The Salt God's Daughter and what a read. I loved this book. What imagery, so beautifully written, so evocative and mythic. The story tells of an incredible journey of three women anchored by the sea. It's a magical world of tides, phases of the moon and oceanic depths all wrapped around Jewish mysticism and Celtic myths. At the heart is a mother/daughter relationship and a daughter's quest to find her heritage and the mysterious man who fathered her. It's an engrossing mystery, one that kept me up half the night reading.
Thank you Ilie Ruby for a beautiful book. -
Fantastic from cover to cover! The story of mothers, daughters, sea lions and swimmers was refreshing to read. I found I connected well with this book especially because it is about women's issues which I care greatly about. I am a recent college graduate and this novel took me on magical journey. Ruby did a great job of capturing some critical issues facing women today while weaving in the story of three generations of women and the mythical tale of the Selkies. I definitely recommend The Salt God’s Daughter to fellow collegiate women.
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This book was so beautifully written, so lyrical and artistic in its prose. It chronicles the lives of three generations of women; Diana, her daughters Ruthie and Dolly, and Ruthie's daughter, Naida. It is a book about the bond between mothers and daughters, and also the courage of the spirit of women, and what they have to endure. I adored this book!
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Yes, full of poetry and prose--way too much poetry and prose...and bougainvillea, over and over and over again, bougainvillea, bougainvillea, bougainvillea. The beginning and end of the book are good...but not good enough to make up for the unfortunate repetition and redundancy that flow like bad wine throughout the never-ending middle of the book. A huge disappointment.
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This book was beautifully written. It centers on the supernatural by describing the average lives of one mother and her child. I truly enjoyed the twist at the end. I also enjoyed reading about selkies!
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Poetic prose and compelling character-driven storytelling. Recommended.
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This novel is brilliant and magical. I fell in love with the characters and their culture (both regarding folklore and setting).
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*to come*
EDIT: 28.8.2015:
I'm probably going to read this book soon again. It's beautiful! -
While the writing was great and the storyline intriguing, I found the “mysticism” too much and the pace too slow at times. I do love inter generational stories, though.
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The Salt God’s Daughter offers a dreamscape that thrusts us out of logical thinking into emotional thinking. Upon entering the first landscape, we find ourselves at an edge. To walk through the first paragraph the reader must make a choice to step in and have brain waves re-patterned, or kindly leave.
The waves here are volatile, dense with invisible traces. Narrative is rent from its usual unity and suspended around us, particlized into fragments of knowledge. Strangely, these impart more information than such unified knowledge as chronology, exposition and sentence structure. Phrases trace and jab and provoke. People are glimpsed. Memories are also the future. The main characters are the self-destructive mother Diana, her two little girls Dahlia and Ruth whose lives depend on her, and Ruth’s beloved daughter Naida. Their stories intertwine half-known, half-formed, laced like a ribbon in the Santa Ana wind.
The moon, the sea, the desert, vines and flowers are all colors that Ruby swirls onto a room of canvases, stacked up to the ceiling, against each other, backwards. The scenes hum with colors that wander in and out, in and out, ululating through the years beginning in the early seventies. The images of little girls imprint in the waves, in the dust, along highways and strawberry fields, lungs filled with California brush fire and skin soaked with flood. Sea animals appear and disappear as omens, as friends, as sisters. The back seats of the station wagon stick to our legs. We taste homelessness and wandering, and we are left alone. We are abandoned and our fear settles in our lap as our mother soaks herself into unknowing… lies… follows the moon. Diana of the Moon.
This is a sad tribe of women, women who’ve lost more than was treatable, containable. We might never know why. We only know more than that; we know how these losses score right into the skin, into the soul. Beauty is a buoy, a picnic blanket among wreckage. But beauty can also herald violent betrayal to the unprotected: Ruthie, Naida. No voice, just quiet and the sea to salt the abrasions.
There are safe havens. Dr Dagmar B. are the haven and the keeper of the haven, Twin Palms, then Wild Acres? The elders keep watch. Who is kept safe and saved? Ruby offers: those who need saving the most often began as rescuers. Daughter, mother, daughter, sister—what is the texture of these connections? Here, in the Salt God’s Daughter, they are layered dream upon dream upon dream, a stack of pages written with tears, enigmas, thumbprints, and notes in the margin.
The Wanderer, the Wanderer, written repeatedly. Who is this Wanderer? And who is the Salt God’s Daughter? Clever us, we think we know. Always wanting to make things reasonable, we think we have it mapped out even amidst the floating particles, the waves, and the maze of lacing. What I knew by the end of this book was that I’m still capable of knowing a story without it being told; I’m capable of holding a picture in myself that was created by the traces between words.
Finally, there is solace. Stability can take root and love can flourish amidst abandonment. You, just like Mr. Takashi, can cut all the blooms away but they will grow again. What do we need to know about a person? For all that we don’t know or can never know, they are a part of us. Our never met fathers. Our secret-holding mothers. Our guarded children. When we can accept their touch on our lives, we can move forward instead of all the other ways sad people move. We can bury their books, we can let them go, we can fulfill the dreams they had for us that we never knew they dreamt.
We know we are the most beloved thing in our mother’s life, we are her lodestar. Even as we are lost into the sea she guides us home. We are guided to the wing that covers us after every escape, every flight.
As with all good poetry, the lives shared in these pages gave more than reality, more than what can be predicted or assumed. We drank it and breathed it and were given a lovely dream.
