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Published in USA
Apr 2021
224 pages
Genre: Novels
Publication Information
A sweeping, masterful debut about a daughter's fateful choice, a mother motivated by her own past, and a family legacy that begins in Cuba before either of them were born.
In present-day Miami, Jeanette is battling addiction. Daughter of Carmen, a Cuban immigrant, she is determined to learn more about her family history from her reticent mother and makes the snap decision to take in the daughter of a neighbor detained by ICE. Carmen, still wrestling with the trauma of displacement, must process her difficult relationship with her own mother while trying to raise a wayward Jeanette. Steadfast in her quest for understanding, Jeanette travels to Cuba to see her grandmother and reckon with secrets from the past destined to erupt.
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.
You can see the full discussion here. This discussion will contain spoilers!
Some of the recent comments posted about Of Women and Salt:
Compare and contrast the mother-daughter relationships in this novel. Which relationship did you connect with the most?
Compare and contrast the mother-daughter relationships in this novel. Which relationship did you connect with the most? - davinamw
Did the book add any new perspectives to your understanding of the U.S. immigration system? If you have read other fiction that focuses on immigration, how does Of Women and Salt compare?
It was nothing new about the U.S. immigration issue, but I did learn a lot about Cuba and it’s history. - elise
Garcia shows how the decisions women make on their own can have powerful effects on family members and even impact future generations. What do you think this perspective adds to popular notions of history, politics and immigration?
I think many of us have known the decisions women make can have far reaching impacts on all aspects of our lives. Unfortunately, many people in our country resist any attempt to introduce, acknowledge or support the importance and contributions of ... - gerrieb
How did you feel about jumping through time and place in this novel? What value can narratives that defy chronological or sequential order have in telling a story?
I too had to constantly refer to the family tree to acclimate myself to time and person. - kkovatovic
How do you feel men are portrayed in the story in general? What effects do they seem to have on women's lives?
That's a very good point swchis39 - bookfabulous
"[A] dexterous debut...The jumps across time and place can occasionally dampen the various threads' emotional impact, but by the end they form an impressive, tightly braided whole. This riveting account will please readers of sweeping multigenerational stories." - Publishers Weekly
"While the nonlinear structure of the narrative sometimes makes the story feel disjointed, Garcia has carefully layered the novel so that each chapter delivers revelations about the motivations and psychological burdens of the characters...A relevant and timely work delivered with empathy." - Library Journal
"This gripping, accomplished debut follows generations of Cuban women, from María Isabel, rolling cigars as she listens to the words of Victor Hugo and men die around her, to Jeanette, struggling with addiction in Miami, and trying to find a place in the world that feels real. An interlocking portrait of women striving, loving, losing, getting lost and getting found." - Lit Hub
"Garcia's debut novel is a...stunningly accomplished first novel...both epic and intimate." - O Magazine
"From the perspectives of several generations of Cuban women, this remarkable debut shines a brilliant light on the broken immigration system and legacy of trauma for the people who endure it." - Ms. Magazine
"Gabriela Garcia captures the lives of Cuban women in a world to which they refuse to surrender and she does so with precision and generosity and beauty." - Roxane Gay, bestselling author of Hunger and Bad Feminist
"Of Women of Salt is a fierce and powerful debut. Garcia wields narrative power, cultivating true and profound work on migration, legacy, and survival." - Terese Marie Mailhot, bestselling author of Heart Berries
This information about Of Women and Salt shown above was first featured
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Gabriela Garcia is the recipient of a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer's Award and a Steinbeck Fellowship from San Jose State University. Her fiction and poems have appeared in Best American Poetry, Tin House, Zyzzyva, Iowa Review, and elsewhere. She is the daughter of immigrants from Mexico and Cuba and grew up in Miami. Of Women and Salt is her first novel.
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