The Salt Garden by Cindy Martinusen - A Book Review

  

     I read this book in fits and snatches between advanced reader copies of books I'd committed to review. This book deserved better. It deserved a long snowy or rainy weekend, or a vacation retreat. It deserved cuddling up with a favorite hot beverage and the quilt your grandma made. I love it when I discover such treasure that has been on my bookshelf just waiting to be discovered.

I was in the last chapter when I mentioned to my husband that I still had not discovered how this book got its title, then there it was on the very last page, and a more perfect title there couldn't have been. “What comes from sorrow, watered by tears, grows something of beauty. A salt garden.” The reader of course must then stop and reminisce about their own salt gardens, the ones so tenderly nurtured. That being said, please don't let me leave you with the idea that this story is characterized by sorrow. No indeed! It is characterized by beauty: the beauty of three stories melded together, the beauty of the lives of three women from three different times but in one place held in common, and the beauty of the author's words. It was the beauty of the language that caused me to want to dwell in this book rather than be satisfied with brief visits.

     Josephine Vanderook was rescued following a shipwreck in 1905. She washed up on the shore of Orion Point. Many aboard that ship were not so fortunate among them her husband, the ship's builder. The cause of the shipwreck would remain a mystery for almost a century. Reclusive writer, Sophia Fleming had lived on Orion Point since she was a small girl, only she and her childhood friend, Ben, remained. Ben was her only connection between her and the outside world of the nearby community of Harper's Bay. Having fled from New York society following a tragedy that personally was of epic proportions, Sophia had found it more and more difficult to reenter society of any type. Claire O'Rourke, a budding journalist, gets stranded after a trip home to Harper's Bay, then finds herself tethered there by unexpected circumstances. The lives of these three women become entangled, and through her connection to the others, Sophia discovers the opportunity to once again grasp hold of life, but is she strong enough and determined enough to seize that opportunity?

     I encourage those who like to read books that do more than entertain to spend some time in this one. I hope that your own salt gardens have become a thing of beauty.