The Taste of Salt

by Martha Southgate

Award-winning novelist Martha Southgate (who, in the words of Julia Glass, can write fat and hot, then lush and tender, then just plain truthful and burning with heart) now tells the story of a family pushed to its limits by addiction over the course of two generations.

Josie Henderson loves the water and is fulfilled by her position as the only senior-level black scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. In building this impressive life for herself, she has tried to shed the one thing she cannot: her family back in landlocked Cleveland. Her adored brother, Tick, was her childhood ally as they watched their drinking father push away all the love that his wife and children were trying to give him. Now Tick himself has been coming apart and demands to be heard.

Weaving four voices into a beautiful tapestry, Southgate charts the lives of the Hendersons from the parents' first charmed meeting to Josie's realization that the ways of the human heart are more complex than anything seen under a microscope.

Genres: Fiction, African American, Contemporary, Family, Addiction, Divorce, Literary Fiction

283 pages, Paperback

First published September 13, 2011

About the author

Martha Southgate is the author of four novels. Her newest, The Taste of Salt, is available in bookstores and online now. Her previous novel, Third Girl from the Left won the Best Novel of the Year award from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association and was shortlisted for the PEN/Beyond Margins Award and the Hurston/Wright Legacy award. Her novel The Fall of Rome received the 2003 Alex Award from the American Library Association and was named one of the best novels of 2002 by Jonathan Yardley of the Washington Post. She is also the author of Another Way to Dance, which won the Coretta Scott King Genesis Award for Best First Novel. She received a 2002 New York Foundation for the Arts grant and has received fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and the Bread Loaf Writers Conference. Her July 2007 essay from the New York Times Book Review, “Writers Like Me” received considerable notice and appears in the anthology Best African-American Essays 2009. Previous non-fiction articles have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, O, Premiere, and Essence.

Reviews

[CJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having grown a bit weary of novels featuring black characters saddled with the plight of slavery, I was glad to find this contemporary novel centering an everyday, middle-class family dealing with the uneven dynamics surrounding addiction, and the coping mechanisms they employ in the name of emotional survival.

Josie Henderson's lifelong love for the ocean has translated into a successful career in marine biology. Now settled near the Massachusetts shore with her similarly employed, white husband, Daniel, she has finally escaped the broken, blighted despair of her Ohio hometown, keeping both her emotionally absent, alcohol-dependent father and post-rehab, wayward brother at a comfortable distance.

Notions of class, gender, and race are incorporated into the story in an organic way, never feeling forced. That Southgate has gifted Josie with a career as a marine biologist -- certainly, not a position that we typically see being held by black, female protagonists -- initially piqued my interest in the novel. It is also worth noting that Josie is not written as a "white-washed" black woman, but as a driven, proud, confident one who rocks a natural and excels in her field, while struggling to gain her footing in a sea of white colleagues.

Southgate also inserts a handful of ocean-related metaphors, keeping things colorful and interesting. In cultivating my own relationship with the water these days, I found Josie's affectionate description of the ocean and of her isolated position on land, equally comforting and unsettling:

"Rolling in backward and letting the water close over my head... I was buoyed up and breathing... the fish would swim up and hover around me like jewel-colored birds or butterflies over a field. I love breathing underwater but still being safe, held, protected. I love the weightlessness. I never feel that the rest of the time."

Josie's attempts at fighting against her roots ultimately reveal her own deep-seated issues that a flight to White New England Suburbia cannot fix. Ironically, Southgate allows Josie to come alive as she circles back to what seems familiar -- the moments in which we start to witness her slow, painful slide through the cracks that begin to form in the perfect world that she has painstakingly constructed.

The Taste of Salt explores not only the complexities of addiction and its multipronged impact on the Henderson family, but the humanization of their struggle. Told through the voices of several characters, we receive a three-dimensional account of this complicated tapestry of events. Southgate has a gift of delivering beautifully intricate prose in this sad, but quietly sensual tale, artfully composed with heart and hope, that will reverberate in your bones, leaving you wanting more.

[jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

this starts off quite simply. a 30-something african american woman is a marine scientist at woods hall, which is a pretty groovy place in which to be a marine scientist. at first the novel focuses on this über-unusual fact, an african american woman, still young, as a senior scientist at a prestigious institution. so blah blah about her always being the only black person in the room, and sometimes even the only woman and in the room, and blah blah about how much she loves water and her job and the fishies* and blah blah about how once she was mistaken for a cleaning person at a conference at which she was the presenter, yougetthepicture.

but then the scene changes entirely and she's back in cleveland, where she was born, to get her brother out of rehab and settled in their mother's basement. this brother, whom she loved terribly when they were kids, didn't grow up to be an educated man. he worked as a trainer for an NBA team (lebron's team!) till alcohol and drugs got the best of him and he had to drag his ass into rehab.

while working with his team (i don't remember the name, but everyone reading this is guaranteed to know the name of the cleveland basketball team, right?) tick (brother's nickname; josie doesn't have a nickname, only an abbreviation) has slid into "black" talk and now, as they drive home from rehab, this educated boy who didn't speak ghetto one day in his life growing up is all cool and groovy and vernacular.

so on the one hand you have the black girl that got away entirely, and on the other hand you have the family that stayed. and the gulf between the former and the latter is way deeper than ghetto talk or job choice or no longer living in declining cleveland. josie is profoundly distant from her family, and this distance seems pretty much insurmountable. something inside her has frozen and died and burned and withered and the way back seem irreparably compromised.

so josie discards her duty of seeing her brother settled and goes back to her academic life and her white husband.

this happens in the first third of the novel or less. the rest is a multi-voiced narrative that tries to give a history to the family disaster that pushed josie away and tick to addiction. and the beauty of this book is that it never, as far as i can see, pinpoints this disaster with clarity and precision. sure, josie's and tick's father turns out to have been an alcoholic for most of their lives at home. now, i must say that i don't know what it's like to live with an alcoholic, but the stereotypes -- violence, mostly -- are not there. ray comes home very late at night and when he's home he sits in front of the tv guzzling beer. on the day of his birthday, he disappoints everyone by getting drunk and not showing up for his party. so, above all, he is totally and irredeemably absent. and then his wife kicks him out, and his children cut off all ties with him, and it's over.

and to me, to this person who never had any experience with alcoholism, this doesn't sound too terrible, you know. so all through the book i experienced josie's profound distance (not only from her family but also from her husband and from herself), her refusal to talk about her childhood, her inability to relate to her family, as a bit of a mystery. and this mystery kept me entirely hooked, because it seems to me that families are made of feathers, and a little hit of breeze can easily upset delicate balances that remain upset for life. and this upset doesn't stay just like it was when the breeze broke, but it grows and grows and becomes its own thing and brings with it unforeseen miseries. and i was happy that martha southgate was able to represent this, the train wreck that sometimes results from breezes and feathers.

i want to add two things: one, that i haven't even begun to give away the plot. this is a dense and engaging story and i have said nothing of what happens. two, that i wish southgate had chosen to end the book differently. but it's okay. this book reminded me a lot of louise erdrich's superb Shadow Tag, a book that depicts a family that turns into a train wreck with breezes and feathers, too, and both books impress me greatly.

* dear martha southgate, scuba divers don't use oxygen tanks (those are for sick people), they use air tanks. you did that twice! tsk tsk. also, i don't think a marine biologist who studies marine mammals would talk so much of fish, but i'm going to leave that to the experts.

[Shannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

In The Taste of Salt, Martha Southgate has written a book that could be about me, my life and how I experience life. Depending on what your story is, you may not relate to the book as deeply and instantaneously as I did. Read it anyway.

The Taste of Salt is narrated by Josie Henderson, marine biologist, wife of a scientist, daughter of an alcoholic, sister of an alcoholic addict. It's the story of Josie's current life, but told partly through the lens of her entire story. And isn't that the way our lives work? It's impossible to separate our current experiences from all of the things from our past. In real-life stories, you can't pull out one thread without the entire story (or life) unraveling.

Josie is not necessarily a likable character. She is emotionally distant, frightened by intimacy, running from her past, afraid to deal with her problems and beautifully broken. In short, she's a believable character who stays in your heart and imagination. She takes up residence in your mind as you read.

If you're looking for a light-hearted, pick-me-up kind of book, you should look elsewhere. A book that deals with addiction and the way addiction weaves its way through families, taking prisoners in each and every generation is not light reading. But a story as real as the one told here is worth reading. And there IS hope at the end of the book. I'm not sure it's a hope I can share for my own life, but it's a hope that is fitting for Josie and it left me hopeful for her as the reader and imaginer of where Josie goes from here.

The Taste of Salt has a quote at the beginning by Isak Dinesen: "The cure for anything is salt water - sweat, tears, or the sea." Read Josie's story if you want to think about the hard things in life - and how they are the only places where we'll ever truly find beauty.

[Larry H · Rating 4 out of 5]

Josie is a marine biologist, one of only a few senior-level black women in her position at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. In achieving professional success, she has finally been able to free herself of her childhood in Cleveland, of her alcoholic father and addicted younger brother, and she can spend her time in the ocean, where she loves to be more than anything. But she has never fully disentangled herself from the trauma and disappointments of her childhood, and that has a ripple effect in her personal relationships, including her marriage to Daniel, who is also a marine biologist.

The Taste of Salt is a book about the unending power of addiction and the harm it does not only to the addicts, but to those around them. But more than that, this is a book about relationships, about allowing yourself to feel worthy of love, to express your emotions, and trust those around you. The book is narrated mostly by Josie, with chapters told by each of her parents, her brother, and her husband, and it is tremendously compelling.

Martha Southgate, author of the fantastic The Fall of Rome (which isn't about the ancient Romans), has written another terrific book filled with complex characters and beautiful prose. Like the ocean that Josie loves, where what appears on the surface is only a glimpse at the complexities that lie beneath, Josie's relationships and her way of relating to those in her life are far more complicated than they first appear. While Josie might not appear to be the most sympathetic character at the start of the book, I'd encourage you to keep reading, or you'll miss a well-told story of human emotions and interactions.

[Roy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Taste of Salt chronicles the effects of alcoholism on an African American family. Liquor destroys a marriage that begins with much promise, its grip not loosening on the father until he has been sent off to make a new life for himself. Their son Tick becomes an alcoholic as well, remaining sober for long enough stretches to set up an enviable situation working on the training staff for a NBA team, but repeatedly losing his battle to take things "one day at a time" and having to start all over again. His sister, like their mother, is not cursed with alcoholism but with having alcoholics as her closest blood ties. Josie copes with the pain and embarrassment by being away from her family. She has a dream fulfilled job as a scientist who studies her beloved ocean far removed from Ohio where her parents and brother reside, and she is married to a good man who treats her with respect and tenderness. In this setting it seems she has escaped the hurt that her parents and brother must endure. But Josie has self destructive tendencies also. She may not need a drink to make it through the day, but her inability to reach true intimacy with the man who has opened his heart completely to her wreaks its own brand of havoc. To survive their separate yet connected hurts, Josie and her brother and parents need to forgive each other and themselves. In clean and easy to read prose, Martha Southgate shows us that not everybody in this often sad world is strong enough to do that.

[Des · Rating 4 out of 5]

As I was reading this two words came to mind (and remained ever present): train-wreck and tragic. This is a simple tale told through the eyes of Josie and you get to experience the story from her overarching perspective. It's also told in other voices (her mother, her brother Tick, her dad Ray & minor contributions from two other characters) but it's obvious Josie's voice serves as the center. Because it was in first person, the text felt very personal especially because it seemed Josie & the other characters were voicing their innermost thoughts and it made for a very smooth read.

What I really liked about the book was the fact that although the characters are shown to be flawed you still find yourself rooting for them. The cycle of addiction started by Ray and continued by Tick is heartbreaking and you can't help but feel for them and hope they both overcome it.

Josie's arc was interesting. The part about her cheating on Daniel was a little bewildering because I felt her struggles were of a different nature. It just seemed like an interesting tangent in a narrative filled with addiction. I get that she needed love and support but Daniel was there for her so does that mean what she wanted all along was just something unpredictable and wild? I vacillated between empathizing with her and just wanting her to finally open up especially when the parties involved were trying to make amends and reach out. In light of this, I was satisfied with the way the book ended.

[She Reads for Jesus · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Henderson family is all too familiar with the claws of addiction. Despair and disappointment are not strangers amongst this family of four, plagued by the torments of substance abuse. The Taste of Salt is a compelling story that highlights the tribulations of addiction as well as the emotional, physical and mental effects it sustains on a family.

Martha Southgate created quite an intriguing read, with an equally captivating title. Throughout the narrative, salt is used metaphorically to designate the basic innate human yearning for love, acceptance, and nurture. Wikipedia describes the taste of salt as, “one of the basic human tastes”. Identified as a mineral, salt has several properties that help to regulate the body’s water content, electrical signaling in the nervous system, and consists of preservation and healing qualities.

The symbolic connection of salt is further accentuated by the description of the main character Josie Henderson. A scientist with an expertise in marine biology, Josie has always had an insatiable connection to the water and its salty quality. She is intrigued by the mystery of underwater life and finds solace surrounded by water. The brilliant yet quirky first born to Ray and Sarah Henderson, Josie departs her family in their hometown of Cleveland, Ohio to embark on a successful career and to leave behind the disturbing childhood memories of her drunken father as well as the power that alcoholism holds on her beloved baby brother Edmund “Tick” Henderson. However, when she is elicited by her mother to pick up her brother from his second stint in rehab, Josie’s perfectly controlled world begins to unravel. She will undoubtedly be forced to face the idea of forgiveness concerning her father, the unraveling of a marriage, and the disturbing depth of her brother’s illness.

The Taste of Salt is a rather short read, reaching 288 pages. I enjoyed the audacious lyrical prose that author Southgate used to create the narrative. Readers are given intermittent looks at the lives and thoughts of each character, as each chapter is assigned to a different character speaking in a first person narrative. Moreover, each character provides brief memories of the past that seem to highlight the origins of the family’s problems.

Although I felt that this book was quite a delightful read, I tend to appreciate a story that consists of intricate and detailed plot and character development. The main narrator, Josie Henderson, was developed into such a profound character, and the story ended at a significant period of transition in her life. As a reader, I desired to read more. For a rather quick read about the darkness of addiction, I recommend this book to others.

[Phyllis | Mocha Drop · Rating 4 out of 5]

Martha Southgate’s The Taste of Salt is a sensitive story centered on a woman attempting to save herself from her family and the serious repercussions that develop from her self-imposed separation. Josie is an accomplished marine biologist from Cleveland, OH raised modestly in a hard-working middle-class family; her father is largely a self-taught retired auto worker, her nurse mother is the daughter of a doctor. She and her younger, good-looking and popular brother (Tick) bonded in early childhood as their father slowly surrendered to alcoholism. Josie, the child, immerses herself in books and extra-curricular activities to avoid a miserable home life. It is no wonder, that the same pattern of escapism continues into adulthood as Josie pursues a successful career, a myriad of lovers and continually distances herself from her family – physically, emotionally, and mentally. Unfortunately, Tick, having succumbed to alcoholism in his early teens, battles his demons and loses, hitting rock bottom (again). Worlds collide when Tick shows up unexpectedly at his sister’s door forcing Josie to deal with her issues up close and personal.

At its core, The Taste of Salt, examines the effects that alcoholism has on any family. Its venom makes all loved ones victims destroying each relationship at various speeds. Although initially Josie seems to be the protagonist, the author tells the story in shifting first-person narratives from other key characters to provide insight into their heads and hearts. It is here in these snippets of memory we learn of difficult childhoods, broken dreams and disappointments and the never-ending hopes for healing. Despite Josie being African American, this could be anyone’s story because pain and dysfunction are not bound by race; however, there are unique perspectives from an African-American viewpoint that are skillfully rendered and factor into the story: their father’s migration North from the Deep South, Josie and Tick’s experiences at an all-white prep school, Josie’s demand for respect and recognition in a profession dominated by white males and her interracial marriage.

Southgate’s clever use of metaphors and similes tying the title and the aquatic themes into the story is clever and refreshing in this deliberate, solemn and well-written tale. Recommended for those interested in novels dealing with familial dysfunction, alcoholism, drug abuse, Alcoholics Anonymous/rehab and urban decay.

[Adwoa · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Taste of Salt is a tour de force. The writing itself was mostly excellent, but what made it so strong for me personally was the way I felt both spoken to and skewered. Josie, the protagonist, is a ferociously (at times aggressively, defensively) smart woman.

She’s obsessed with the ocean, and has given it a sensual starring role in the otherwise buttoned-up, anhedonic way that she lives her life. This is not to say that her life is completely without pleasure. But it is to say that her relationship with pleasure is strictly regulated to its cost, and that in almost every other area she has chosen a lessened chance of pain over true indulgence and exploration of possibility.

Josie uses sex and location to create and maintain distance, without examining the truth of what she’s really running from: family, her past, and the possibility that the collision of all of these elements will eventually swallow her alive. (As they ultimately do.) One interesting connotation I’m just now getting from the book’s title and central themes is the parable of Lot’s wife. There are times when not looking back feels like the only way to be saved.

Southgate's writing explores that in excellent, conflicted detail. She has such a tight grasp of her characters' nuances that the casual, almost throwaway observations she sprinkles throughout the novel are some of the best tiny keyholes into their inner lives. (My favorite, from Josie: "He was good in bed; he had the kind of authority that you sometimes find in men who don't think too much.")

The book got problematic when the characters seemed like they were trying too hard to explain themselves to the camera, Lifetime movie style. But Southgate is excellent at showing even when she is telling, and the book has a powerful pull into the salty unmoored longings, the multitudes and oneness of the sea.

[Toni · Rating 4 out of 5]

The cure for anything is salt water-
sweat, tears, or the sea.

These words by Isak Dinesen begin The Taste of Salt and I don't think I've ever seen a quote used more appropriately. All three play roles in this family story mostly about how addiction affects the members - users and non-users.

Josie Henderson has always been drawn to the sea. Even when the only body of water she could get to was a river in her hometown of Cleveland. Growing up as the daughter of an alcoholic, Josie left home as soon as she was able and created a life for herself as a marine scientist, one of the few black women in her field. But when her younger brother Tick, an addict himself, is released from yet another rehab, the past that she has worked so hard to put behind her comes rushing back. Josie is forced to face her own addictions and the fragility of the marriage that she is in.

One of the reasons that I love Martha Southgate's works, is that she is a master at relating the subleties of family dynamics and she also writes about issues of race in a compelling and thoughtful way. Her decision to make Josie a scientist made me really happy. You don't see black women (or men, for that matter) portrayed in novels in fields of study like science. Loved it.

I also recommend you read one of my favorites by Southgate, Third Girl From the Left.

[Mistinguette Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like Southgate's previous novel Fall of Rome, Taste of Salt is about African-American characters who are of the post-civil rights generation who live in mostly white places. Taste of Salt is very much a black woman's story, and is both compelling and disturbing. For this generation, anything was supposed to be possible, even becoming President. And like the Obama Presidency, Taste of Salt show how race and class still profoundly shape and truncate what should be triumphant experiences.

This novel explores this new narrative territory deftly and creatively. The protagonist, Josie, comes from a working class family in Cleveland, and seems to "have it all". An accomplished marine scientist, she has a coveted position as a researcher at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. The child of divorce, she has a stable marriage to a white man who is also a fellow scientist. Josie is simultaneously breaking glass ceilings of race and gender in her field, and fulfilling her fathers dreams of intellectual accomplishment. However, all of this success comes at a terrible price. At first, Josie seems to be an cold and unsympathetic character, but she is soon revealed to be a passionate woman who has denied and separated parts of herself in order to reach her goals. As she moves beyond that denial toward wholeness and connectedness, Josie's perfectly constructed life begins to come apart.

Taste of Salt is also the story of Josie's hard-working father, who drowns the pain of his unrealized artistic dreams in alcohol. It is also the story of her brother Tick, whose purposelessness and lack of ambition leaves him adrift in a world of sensation: sex, drugs, the reflected glory of proximity to fame. Josie's sense of obligation to succeed is driven by obligation to vindicate, and to rescue, these two men. In a larger sense, much of her life is driven by fleeing, or disproving, the image of blackness these represent.

Taste of Salt is told from multiple perspectives, but at its center is the pull of connection, and cost of disconnection, in black families today. Josie shows us, rather than tells us, the social and cultural isolation that often come from success and being the "lonely only" woman or person of color in one's field. Even if we do not like Josie, we cannot help but feel her dual/divided loyalties when her professional upper-middle class life comes face to face with the lower-middle class struggles of her family of origin. She struggles with what it means to be the first generation to rise above segregation, only to find a deep longing for the company of black people.

This is a novel I've been waiting for someone to write for a long time. When I reached the past page I felt stunned, exposed, and oddly relieved. I highly recommend The Taste of Salt, especially to upwardly-mobile black women in their 40s and early fifties. It is a difficult yet welcome mirror of the struggles, choices and consequences of lives spent trying to "lift as we climb".

[Justice · Rating 5 out of 5]

My Review (tread lightly, spoilers abound):
I received TToS from Jen, Devourer of Books, as the November Book Club read. I am happy I received it; I don’t think I would have picked this book on my own accord, and I think I would have been missing out. Southgate is a brilliant author, and I would like to read more of her work.

TToS tells the history of a family, told in several voices: Josie, our black female marine biologist; Tick, her recovering alcoholic brother; Ray, her recovering/recovered alcoholic father; and Sarah, her stalwart mother. Even Josie’s husband Daniel and lover Ben get some time with the reader, offering their own insights into Josie’s life. The multitude of narrators was not distracting; each had their own voice, their own perspective, their own struggles to fit into Josie’s family life. I was reminded of Middlesex, but TToS hadn’t been spoiled by hype and word-of-mouth promises of “you’ll love it!”

I thought to give TToS a try, and found myself unable to stop reading. I am an avid reader, but I rarely find something where the characters compel me to keep going. Usually it’s the plot that leaves me turning pages, but I just wanted to see where these characters were going. To be honest, I was surprised by their arcs. I had anticipated a fairly simple, loose-ends-tied-in-happy-bows novel. What I got was a messy nest of emotions and deep treads of addiction. In fact, the one “happy” ending was the only one I didn’t predict. Honestly, I almost prefer it that way. It was a strong, honest novel with unique characters. I haven’t read a book like this in a long time, and it made me remember why I love the feeling of curling up with a paperback, a cup of tea, and plenty of time.

The Bottom Line:
Lightly plotted fiction at its best, Southgate weaves a tapestry of tragic, realistic characters.

[Mandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok, I'm going a little bipolar with my review. I would like to say this book had all the makings of something great, however it fell flat. The story at hand didn't stir emotion. It did not get me close to the characters and it didn't take me on a journey thru this family's life, as was intended.

What I did like...was an African American family being shown to me in a positive light, as a normal family struggling like most do. I love that they are all hard working educated people. I loved being able to relate to their struggles as a middle class family, hard working father...scholarships to private schools etc.

What I didn't like... while tragic events do surface, it's not really a family who is riddled with addiction. While I agree this family does have addiction, and it does effect everyone, one more then others. The family comes out pretty clean in the end and I couldn't feel sorry for Josie the main character. She comes across like a brat. This story has one main tragic event, and the writing does not get you invested in the situation. And the ending was just that...it was a last page...nothing more.

All that being said, I would and do recommend this book as a quick easy read. It's vanilla pudding, good, but nothing special.

[Sarah Weathersby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Josie Henderson is a black marine biologist in a profession dominated by white men. She's a free spirit held back by the bonds of a dysfunctional family, and a loving (white) husband who wants children. She married him because he understood her passion for marine life. Yet she is afraid to trust him with her family conflicts because she thinks he doesn't "get" being black.

Then along comes a black male marine biologist whom Josie thinks understands it all, the black thing, the sea and diving thing. In trying to get everything she wants, Josie loses what she once thought was important. In the end she must return to family to restore meaning to her life.

Martha Southgate carries us through the lives of Josie, her brother, and parents, a loving family torn apart by alcoholism. I found that I cared about all of the main characters even as I could see the worst was coming. It's the kind of story that stays with you for a long time.

[Christie Williams · Rating 1 out of 5]

I did not enjoy this book, and my primary issue with it was in its structure. I found it extremely difficult to keep track of the various 1st person POVs that the author uses throughout the novel. Actually, there were 5 1st person POVs, and a couple of 3rd person POVs to be exact!

I did not find the characters believable, or even likeable. They were also flat, and I was often left wondering why they made some of the choices they made.

But, it was a quick and easy read. It ended rather abruptly. In fact, I blinked, and it was over. It seems like the author wanted the story to end as quickly as I did.

[Lorrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was drawn to the cover of this book so I decided to try it. It was a quick read & very good. It's amazing how often I'm reminded, as I was in this book, how a child needs a parent/parents in their lives to talk to & know they're not alone.

[Sheri · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book. I loved the idea of Josie. She is the ice princess, the smart girl who works hard and gets herself out of a tough home situation (as a child of addicts who herself struggles with addiction and strives to walk the line between understanding and rejecting family I can empathize here when I normally won't).

There were some great passages:
"I'm afraid that I don't have enough to give, that I can't love a baby the way it needs to be loved. Sometimes I'm not even sure I have enough to give Daniel."
"He was good in bed; he had the kind of authority that you sometimes find in men who don't think too much."
"There's this hollow place in me--this place that needs to be alone, this place that vibrates and can't sit still....I've been like this for as long as I can remember. Sure that it's never going to work out. Sure that it's all my fault...that's standard issue for someone who grew up like I did--classic adult-child-of-an-alcoholic stuff..But so what? Given that, what the fuck am I supposed to do? I have to go on from where I am."
"I had a few friends but no one that I felt I could tell the truth of my life to."
"you had to let go, how you couldn't control the circumstances of your life, every now and then he still hoped that just staying away from that bottle would fix everything. That staying sober would be enough."

But then, the whole love affair with Ben was way too 6th grade for me: he puts on the Prince song that few people know and they make eyes across the room and she says "yeah" and it just read like a bad romance novel. And Southgate doesn't appear to understand the actual work life of a research scientist. People with PhDs who work in the field do not have "lunch breaks" per say from which they have to return at a certain time (despite Josie and Ben having "a little while before we have to get back" from their lunch).

As a book on addiction there were some good nuggets and I think Southgate makes an interesting point about how Josie (despite being the one who has it all together and is not on the surface an addict) is dependent on her own self reliance to a point that it is actually damaging her ability to live a healthy life. However, it was too simplistic and not believable in the daily life. Overall it was a good quick read, but nothing special.

[Lissa Notreallywolf · Rating 2 out of 5]

I feel somewhat sad to report that I felt this book failed it's promise. There aren't many books about the African American middle class, and probably even fewer that deal candidly with alcoholism and addiction. My book club got all excited about it because of the backjacket blurb about an African American woman in the sciences-she's a marine biologist, a topic which takes up perhaps six pages here and there. Since I am about as comfortable in the water as your average house cat, I had a sense of challenge when she picked up the story with reports of diving with big sea critters-So make me love the water, I thought. But really it was a story about dissolution on several levels-the very thing I don't care for about immersion. And the character goes forward to loose herself in innumerable ways, failing to have an older and wiser point of view when relating her lack of presence. Someone suggested that this might be a redeeming quality-most books are not told with the fresh voice where the events are still undigested, unless of course you are reading current Young adult fiction. Personally I prefer it to this book because you anticipate that in a fifteen year old protagonist. The alcoholism depicted isn't coupled with the usual violence component-instead her father simply disappears into a beer bottle and the television. One aspect of the book I appreciate is that her character is so very thin, so evasive and this is realistic for some children of neglect, who are literally erased before they have a character.
I much preferred the male characters in the novel, even though they were alcoholic, drug addicted or possible workaholics. But it is hard to tell what they were because the narrator admits that she has written what she believes to be their stories, because she is trying to sequence the events. Her Brother Tick is the best person in the novel in my eyes, but that might be because she loved him best, and could see in to him better. I think I'll go read someone else's review to see if I missed something.

[Momreadstoomuch · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I decided to read this book, I chose it becasue of the cover and becasue I read the word "ocean" in the review. Ii was excited to see what a Black woman would write about the ocean. I have lived near the ocean my whole life. I love it and I love being in it.

Southgate delivers a story about the Black experieince. About coming from a working/middle class family and becoming something and becoming nothing at all. Most importantly it talks about the effects of substance abuse on a family. This is the first book, I've read about substance abuse and its effects on a family where no one is in the ghetto. Although I can't picture the people in the book, I can feel them. She writes in a way that is reminds me of the Renaissance writers. I feel the energy from the pages and the emotions fromthe characters. If I passed them on the street I wouldn't know who they were. The setting is described breifly, but not too much. It all adds to the fact that this book is about the people in the book and that these people are separate from the things "normal" people feel a connection to.

I was a substance abuse counselor and I wish Ihad this book when I was practicing. So many Blacks feel that they are better than others just becasue they can string a sentence together with good grammar. When the middle class black kids came in, it was like they couldn't get help becasue they weren't poor enough to be in my chair. I think this book would have set them and their parents free.

[Andre(Read-A-Lot) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some have said this book is about addiction, I disagree. The novel is essentially about family and the dynamics surrounding familial communication or the lack thereof. So, potential readers don't let the "addiction" thing keep you from reading this book. You will be sorry you skipped it. Ms. Southgate is a very talented writer, and I hope she is headed for superstardom.

The story feels so real(I know it's a cliche)and flows so easily. Literally from page one you will be interested in the story that Josis has to tell. Josie is the central character, but every family member gets a chance to speak from their perspective, and that gives the story a deeper feel. The best part about this, the family, is non-judgmental about the struggle with alcohol. In the hands of a lesser writer, this probably would not have been so. There is certainly disappointment and frustration, but it is handled very human-like. The love Josie has for her brother and father, despite her fear is handled brilliantly. The treatment of Dad, a reading lover assembly line worker is delicate.

I don't want to re-tell the story(hate when reviewers do that)or give away key scenes. I want to convince you that this book is worth your time and money, and you will thank me for recommending this to you! This will certainly be amongst the best books you will read all year!

[Karima · Rating 1 out of 5]

I missed the boat on this one. So many five stars; I could barely give it one. Dull/drab characters. Not at all engaging. Lots of lame dialogue. Here's an exchange between two marine scientists:


"Wow," he said, "What a beautiful boat."
I smiled.
"I know, isn't it? Sometimes I think I should pay them for letting me go out on it. Come on - let me show you."
We hopped on deck and I showed him all around as we pushed off - he oohed and ahhed and said "oh man, that's great" at everything.
"This is the best research boat I've ever seen. I can't believe it. I can't believe I get to work here.
Finally I say, "yeah, I can't believe it either."


Wish I had spent my time elsewhere.

[Vivienne Strauss · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read again April 2020 - loved it just as much the 2nd time.

This book fell into my hands this morning, the author previously unknown to me. I guessed that I would like her writing because another favorite author of mine (Dan Chaon) wrote one of the blurbs. What I didn't guess was that once I started reading, I wouldn't be able to put it down until I finished, sobbing by the end. Such effortless seeming prose which I know is in fact far from being so. I was able to relate so well, sometimes too well to all of the characters. What is it about human nature that makes us want to self destruct? Can't wait to get my hands on more of this author's work!

[Gina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am really conflicted between giving this a 4 or 5 star rating. I thought it was great book about family and addiction. I loved that the family was a black family because there just aren't many mainstream books out there that focus on the problems of addiction in black society or about black families in general. I need to think on this one. I read it straight through in about 2 hours and loved every minute of it. I do highly recommend it!

[sheba · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this book. [I haven't been able to finish a book so quickly in the last 3 years or so!]

Fast, easy read that delved into the dynamics of a family affected by alcohol. Though very sad at times, there are moments that warm the heart too.

[Joyce · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was like an amazing dessert; I wanted to savor it, it was so good, but soon, it was finished. Highly recommended.

[Michelle Sandridge · Rating 4 out of 5]

My heart still aches for Josie. It is amazing how one person's destructive actions can ripple down and shred the lives of so many. 4 stars because the conclusion left me feeling empty.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was quite an interesting start, a black female marine biologist who struggles with her family of origin, her husband and the perception she has of herself.

I liked the book all the way up to page 77, Chapter 7. From there, the book’s voice changed from Josie to the other key characters, Ray, Sarah and Tick.

I wanted to read and hear Josie’s voice, her story. Silly of me, but I didn’t want to learn about Sarah, Ray or Tick. To me, how is it possible for an author to jump from person to person? Martha Southgate is a good writer. She wrote as if she intimately knew each person in “The Taste of Salt”. I just think the book could have been phenomenal had she stayed true to Josie and told Josie’s story.

Southgate covers addiction, oceanography and heartbreak in a way that is relatable. I am not a person who is interested in the ocean but I love when people who are passionate and follow their dreams. What a tribute! To work in a field so rarified that she (Josie) made it! Kudos! Southgate also writes about Josie caught up in others’s addiction, which she tries her hardest to outrun. I was rooting for Josie!

Its a very quick read. I like the font, the layout and the trajectory, just not the added voices of Josie’s family.

[Barb · Rating 3 out of 5]

The cover of this book caught my eye years ago, when I was still reading ebooks on a Nook. I’ve been trying to clear out some of the books I added so very long ago, so moved this up higher on the priority list.

I liked most of the characters, although Tick irritated me by his actions. I understand the point of the book was how different people deal with their addictions, which is something that is foreign to me. I’ve been incredibly lucky to never have had to deal with that in my life, so Tick’s character may have been just what I needed to open my eyes a bit.

The story is based on Josie, her family and her relationships, all of which were strained in some way. I don’t think I would have dealt with some of those relationships the way she did, but without being in her situation, with everything else going on, I can’t say that with certainty.

This author has a few other books available, and I might try one of those at some point in the future, but I won’t be in any hurry to do so.

[Tobey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Liked this but didn't love it and I think I enjoyed it more towards the latter part of the book. It wasn't really what I was expecting and left me with some good feelings, and some bad feelings.

[Michelle]

The Taste of Salt is one of those novels that requires time to sit and stew on what was just read. The power of the novel only comes after the reader has had time to reflect. While it could be construed as depressingly realistic in its portrayal of family and addiction, there is an underlying beauty that rises to the top after time.

The name of the novel itself is a subtle hint to the pleasures and pain that await the reader. Salt itself can be delicious and necessary for life. At the same time, too much of it can be deadly. Salt, in this instance, can symbolize anything that is simultaneously good and bad for you - family, love, booze. In this instance, Josie's own love of the ocean is both a hindrance and a boon for her. She uses her position to keep her distance from her estranged father and her beloved brother as he spirals downward. Yet, she also uses it to maintain a tremendous chip on her shoulder about her position as a lone black female in a white male-dominated field. This chip also impacts her relationship with her family and with her husband and prevents the reader from completely sympathizing with her.

No one in The Taste of Salt is completely without guilt at the eventual outcomes of certain plot points. Therein lies the strength of the novel, as it forces the reader to question his or her own relationships and biases that one carries and that impact those relationships. Ms. Southgate also shines a light on the messiness of family and how interdependent family members are on one another. One simple hurt can impact familial relationships forever. It is a stark reminder that family is all that one has in the end and that no matter how far one runs away from them, that link always exists.

The Taste of Salt is a deceptively simple novel that stays with the reader for a long time after finishing it. None of the characters are truly likable, but all readers can relate to Josie's struggle to find her place in her field and balance her need for her family with her disgust for what has occurred. Ms. Southgate captures brilliantly the lack of absolutes that surrounds familial love and guilt. The Taste of Salt is a must-read for those who are interested in a thoughtful novel about family and love.

Acknowledgements: Thank you to GLiBA for my copy!