While I can’t say I hated this book, I can’t say I loved it either. The Salt Letters provided an interesting and easily readable account of a girl’s escape from family expectations to pursue the love of her life…and to do so required her to travel all the way across the world in a rickety, overcrowded boat. Her experiences are harrowing and the narrative voice is true: you feel Sarah’s experiences and sympathize with her.
What I didn’t like about the book was that it was written in such a vague way that I couldn’t really tell if she died or found her love in this world at the end. The narrative weaves the story through both the present and the past, but the ending isn’t clear if she’s in a dream world from her sickness or if she’s healed and will begin her life anew in the “new world.” It almost feels as if the author wants the reader to be confused, or that she’s being cute in writing a double-meaning ending, but it was unsatisfying for this reader. I didn’t like not knowing.
What I did like about the book is how the characters feel real, how you can sympathize with them, how their struggle to survive the miseries of the long boat ride (boredom, discomfort, unsanitary conditions, bad food, lack of privacy, etc.) makes them all feel a little crazy, how the narrative takes on a fantasy tone at times. The playfulness of the narrative was a stark contrast to the actual events of the story, and was, for the most part, done well.
What I didn’t like about the book was that it was written in such a vague way that I couldn’t really tell if she died or found her love in this world at the end. The narrative weaves the story through both the present and the past, but the ending isn’t clear if she’s in a dream world from her sickness or if she’s healed and will begin her life anew in the “new world.” It almost feels as if the author wants the reader to be confused, or that she’s being cute in writing a double-meaning ending, but it was unsatisfying for this reader. I didn’t like not knowing.
What I did like about the book is how the characters feel real, how you can sympathize with them, how their struggle to survive the miseries of the long boat ride (boredom, discomfort, unsanitary conditions, bad food, lack of privacy, etc.) makes them all feel a little crazy, how the narrative takes on a fantasy tone at times. The playfulness of the narrative was a stark contrast to the actual events of the story, and was, for the most part, done well.
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