Salt house,: A novel,

by Hazel Hawthorne

Title Salt A Novel Author Hazel Hawthorne Publisher Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1934 Length 294 pages

Unknown Binding

Published January 1, 1934

Reviews

[Liana Piehler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Important note: a brand new 2025 edition via the Provincetown Arts Press is available for reading and purchase of this "lost" gem. It's really worth knowing of this edition, the text's recovery, and Allison Bass-Riccio's scholarly commentary. The edition should be noted on Goodread's list of titles.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ahead of her time, Hazel Hawthorne wrote a quintessentially bohemian novel in 1930 (or so) long before the Beats. And as a woman! The book was scandalous for the time - her independence, her promiscuity - outrageous. So tame by our standards now but many of the critiques of women and their choices are still with us. Independent women are a dangerous thing. Her writing is both straightforward but also lovely and lyrical. I underlined so many of her phrases in this short little book chronicling a summer in Provincetown and New York City. Kerouac stayed with her years after this book came out and you can’t help but see how she inspired his work.

[Steve McCarthy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a book for everyone, in fact I struggled with it at times - could be boring. After I finished it, I thought that a book written in 1934, about an independent woman living alone in fictionalized Provincetown writing about her lovers, her life, was all pretty extraordinary for the time. No apologies, guilt or justifying her drinking, lovers, her life.

[Matthew Muller · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a beautiful evocation of life in Provincetown and New York in the early thirties. It felt like reading a Beat novel, but a generation earlier. Hazel Hawthorne is a beautiful and observant writer who was ahead of her time.

[Black Cat Bookshelves · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a gift from my son while we were in Provincetown. It was a peek into a diary. Very different on its writing style. It told a story and didn’t at the same time. I enjoyed it. It wasn’t an easy life for Judith. 4🌟

[Geri · Rating 2.5 out of 5]

Given the time period and just returning from the Cape, I was intrigued by this book. However, it was dull. Enjoyed the setting of course, the artists shacks of the Ptown dunes, but that’s about it

[jerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

masterful use of metaphor, truly a woman ahead of her time, lovely to know my belovèd coastal new england has been the same for so so long