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Salt
'These were the nights when the German bombers growled through the sky, their bellies full with steel and cordite. When the moon was low their dark shapes and still darker shadows came over the coast. Several hours later they'd return again, wearily, lighter in weight, fewer in number, dropping the occasional bomb on the forgotten land of creeks and channels beneath them. On one of those nights it all began for me - war, after all, starts many things, and even though I wasn't born for another twenty-five years, my story began there.'
It is May 1945 and as church bells ring out Victory in Europe over the Norfolk saltmarshes, Goose's daughter Lil is born. But as Lil enters Goose's world, her father leaves it, in a makeshift boat bound - or so the story goes - for Germany, his home.
Forty years later it is Lil's son, Pip, who begins to make sense of his family's fragmented history. Who was his grandfather, who fell from the sky into Goose's life and then disappeared as suddenly as he came? What was the truth of his mother, Lil, who lived and lost her way between the creeks and the samphire? And what does it all mean for Pip, whose heritage of flood, fireworks, fish and clouds, has left him ill-prepared for life beyond the marshes?
336 pages, Paperback
First published July 19, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews
May 22, 2021
Salman Rushdie of the Salt Marshes
A three generational tale, set in the saltmarshes and creeks of Morston and Blakeney in North Norfolk and (as a secondary location) in the Fens in the far West of Norfolk, one shot through with explicit allusions to classical mythology (particular the story of Oeudipus) and biblical imagery, but which also appears to draws heavily on Rushdie’s “Midnight’s Children”, and Gunter Grass’s “Die Blechtrommel” and Charles Dickens “Great Expectations”.
The story is narrated by Pip – himself largely mute for most of his life, communicating instead by a notebook which is tied on a string around his neck (a little like a certain tin drum) and is an attempt to explore the stories and myths around his family story and his own origins.
It begins in the second world war – when his grandmother Goose spots a man buried up to his neck in mud on the other side of the creek – a man who at some point she realises is a bailed-out member of the Luftwaffe. She intuitively decides to hide him from the attentions of a patrolling longshoreman by covering him in Samphire – and then takes him back to her hut where they (his name is Hans) form an uneasy relationship and she falls pregnant with “Lil” Mardler – Pip’s mother who is exactly as the bells signal the end of the War (at which point Hans absconds in Goose’s boat).
Grass fans will of course see the very close similarities with the opening of his novel (and the birth of Oskar’s mother) – and the timing of the birth (later Pip is born exactly as Apollo touches down on the moon and the idea of birth’s occurring in line with momentous events is of course reminiscent of the titular origins of Rushdie’s Saleem).
Oskar famously knows his grandmother by the smell of rancid butter and here instead Pip has another butter related recurring image – butter dripping from freshly picked Samphire which is grandmother’s stock dish for crises.
Pip himself is born to his mother and one of a pair of twins – the Langore’s Shrimp/George (his father) and the more dominant Kipper – whose only apparent concession to/defeat by his brother is in their mutual attraction to Lil. Shrimp first encounters the scary and almost witch like Goose (a cloud reader) when she cons him into bringing her the tongue of a cow he is forced to slaughter – and the alert reader cannot help seeing a link to Pip’s lack of speech years later.
For reasons unspecified at the time (but perhaps a little clearer later) Shrimp (who then reverts to his given name) and Goose elope to the Fens – where George works as a gamekeeper and Lil sinks into melancholia. Pip’s only real friend is a girl called Elsie (one is of course reminded of Estella and Pip from Dickens) whose parents seem to have an odd relationship with his.
Pip’s relationship with his father does not survive the death of his mother and he escapes back to his origins going to live back in Morston – his own key decisions being taken around the (real life) Fens village of “Three Holes” which (together with an incident where he is hung up by his ankles by his father to try to get him to speak as well as their mutual antipathy) causes Pip himself to acknowledge the Oedipal links.
The book is shot through with recurring imagery – including clouds, salt, fire (and fireworks), boats (of which there are several all of which play key ad often repeated parts in the family’s story – my favourite two being the Norfolk dialect inspired “Bishy” and “Thistle Dew”) and dreams.
There is a huge amount to admire here – the writing is complex and hugely atmospheric on top of the layers of literary references.
The downside is that this is a difficult tale to follow – one of those literary novels where you never quite feel like you are on firm ground in your understanding, where things you had taken as solid certainties suddenly become watery doubts, where it feels like the landscape of the plot is being reinvented in front of you.
But then that is a perfect analogy for the key character of this novel – the North Norfolk salt marshes.
I purchased a copy of this book from the nearby independent Bookshop – Holt Bookshop (https://www.holtbookshop.co.uk/) which has a fabulous selection of local books
A three generational tale, set in the saltmarshes and creeks of Morston and Blakeney in North Norfolk and (as a secondary location) in the Fens in the far West of Norfolk, one shot through with explicit allusions to classical mythology (particular the story of Oeudipus) and biblical imagery, but which also appears to draws heavily on Rushdie’s “Midnight’s Children”, and Gunter Grass’s “Die Blechtrommel” and Charles Dickens “Great Expectations”.
The story is narrated by Pip – himself largely mute for most of his life, communicating instead by a notebook which is tied on a string around his neck (a little like a certain tin drum) and is an attempt to explore the stories and myths around his family story and his own origins.
It begins in the second world war – when his grandmother Goose spots a man buried up to his neck in mud on the other side of the creek – a man who at some point she realises is a bailed-out member of the Luftwaffe. She intuitively decides to hide him from the attentions of a patrolling longshoreman by covering him in Samphire – and then takes him back to her hut where they (his name is Hans) form an uneasy relationship and she falls pregnant with “Lil” Mardler – Pip’s mother who is exactly as the bells signal the end of the War (at which point Hans absconds in Goose’s boat).
Grass fans will of course see the very close similarities with the opening of his novel (and the birth of Oskar’s mother) – and the timing of the birth (later Pip is born exactly as Apollo touches down on the moon and the idea of birth’s occurring in line with momentous events is of course reminiscent of the titular origins of Rushdie’s Saleem).
Oskar famously knows his grandmother by the smell of rancid butter and here instead Pip has another butter related recurring image – butter dripping from freshly picked Samphire which is grandmother’s stock dish for crises.
Pip himself is born to his mother and one of a pair of twins – the Langore’s Shrimp/George (his father) and the more dominant Kipper – whose only apparent concession to/defeat by his brother is in their mutual attraction to Lil. Shrimp first encounters the scary and almost witch like Goose (a cloud reader) when she cons him into bringing her the tongue of a cow he is forced to slaughter – and the alert reader cannot help seeing a link to Pip’s lack of speech years later.
For reasons unspecified at the time (but perhaps a little clearer later) Shrimp (who then reverts to his given name) and Goose elope to the Fens – where George works as a gamekeeper and Lil sinks into melancholia. Pip’s only real friend is a girl called Elsie (one is of course reminded of Estella and Pip from Dickens) whose parents seem to have an odd relationship with his.
Pip’s relationship with his father does not survive the death of his mother and he escapes back to his origins going to live back in Morston – his own key decisions being taken around the (real life) Fens village of “Three Holes” which (together with an incident where he is hung up by his ankles by his father to try to get him to speak as well as their mutual antipathy) causes Pip himself to acknowledge the Oedipal links.
The book is shot through with recurring imagery – including clouds, salt, fire (and fireworks), boats (of which there are several all of which play key ad often repeated parts in the family’s story – my favourite two being the Norfolk dialect inspired “Bishy” and “Thistle Dew”) and dreams.
There is a huge amount to admire here – the writing is complex and hugely atmospheric on top of the layers of literary references.
The downside is that this is a difficult tale to follow – one of those literary novels where you never quite feel like you are on firm ground in your understanding, where things you had taken as solid certainties suddenly become watery doubts, where it feels like the landscape of the plot is being reinvented in front of you.
But then that is a perfect analogy for the key character of this novel – the North Norfolk salt marshes.
I purchased a copy of this book from the nearby independent Bookshop – Holt Bookshop (https://www.holtbookshop.co.uk/) which has a fabulous selection of local books
June 3, 2009
The landscape of the Norfolk saltmarsh is a malign character in this book. Its principle characters suffer from marsh-fever in one of its many forms.
This is a fantastic book and here I use the adjective in its proper sense, meaning it is implausible, far-fetched; preposterous even. There are portents in the clouds, the young protagonist doesn’t appear to go to school, a mother gives away her child, a local character manufactures explosives next to a fish-smoking house and most oddly of all, during the second World War, a German parachutist with hardly any English lives unhidden but undiscovered in the spinster’s house at the end of the village. Thanks to Jeremy Page’s skill, the reader believes this all could be concealed in the Morston Marsh mist. The illusion is sustained because Page has written an engrossing story about the way people deal with adversity in all its forms and because he writes so well.
Page is a master of metaphor and simile. Water drips ‘from an overflow into a backyard it’ll never fill’. Smoke is ‘pulling through the cracks like nails being uncurled from the wood’. Tumblers of whisky ‘sparkled on the mantelpiece with their own little fires’.
He is no word hustler. In a set-piece a daughter abandons her mother, with whom she has a fractured relationship, leaving her to resume her solitary marsh existence. Page’s treatment of the mother’s dawning understanding of her fate is nothing short of mesmerising.
But for all the author’s pyrotechnics (if you read the book you’ll realise how apposite the word is) there is something missing. It took me a while to work it out but I have deduced it to be the author’s lack of conviction in his own invention. John Irving is a similar writer, peppering his plots with fantastic happenings – think of the bears in his earlier novels – and he never wavers from the illusion that even the most bizarre things are true. In the finale to Salt, Page provides a rational get-out that left me with the impression he is a conjurer who doesn’t wholly have faith in his magic.
This is a fantastic book and here I use the adjective in its proper sense, meaning it is implausible, far-fetched; preposterous even. There are portents in the clouds, the young protagonist doesn’t appear to go to school, a mother gives away her child, a local character manufactures explosives next to a fish-smoking house and most oddly of all, during the second World War, a German parachutist with hardly any English lives unhidden but undiscovered in the spinster’s house at the end of the village. Thanks to Jeremy Page’s skill, the reader believes this all could be concealed in the Morston Marsh mist. The illusion is sustained because Page has written an engrossing story about the way people deal with adversity in all its forms and because he writes so well.
Page is a master of metaphor and simile. Water drips ‘from an overflow into a backyard it’ll never fill’. Smoke is ‘pulling through the cracks like nails being uncurled from the wood’. Tumblers of whisky ‘sparkled on the mantelpiece with their own little fires’.
He is no word hustler. In a set-piece a daughter abandons her mother, with whom she has a fractured relationship, leaving her to resume her solitary marsh existence. Page’s treatment of the mother’s dawning understanding of her fate is nothing short of mesmerising.
But for all the author’s pyrotechnics (if you read the book you’ll realise how apposite the word is) there is something missing. It took me a while to work it out but I have deduced it to be the author’s lack of conviction in his own invention. John Irving is a similar writer, peppering his plots with fantastic happenings – think of the bears in his earlier novels – and he never wavers from the illusion that even the most bizarre things are true. In the finale to Salt, Page provides a rational get-out that left me with the impression he is a conjurer who doesn’t wholly have faith in his magic.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 30, 2012
Took this off a shelf in a used book store in a beachy town. The sense of place is so strong I went to google earth to see it. The characters are very real, full of hope and despair, there is an otherworldly feel to the location. The salt marshes seem cruel and willful. The image of the beached whale and all the little wrecked boats are picturesque, but somehow dreadful. The writing is beautiful, however. I will see what else this writer has to offer.
June 23, 2019
I am uncertain how I feel about this novel. The evocation of the landscape and community of North Norfolk is extraordinary. But I fluctuated between loving the meandering plot and feeling it needed a strong edit. The feverish ramble at the end was a weak point but I think some of the characters and scenes will stay with me.
July 6, 2021
This was written so beautifully about a people and their connection to the natural landscape of North Norfolk. The sense of observation was so believable and immersive - a child narrating from stories that have been passed down to him and from his own limited but growing understanding.
Many of the characters and their stories were somewhat unrelatable, but yet I felt I was learning to understand them through the lens of a hostile natural environment and a sense of acceptance.
I really enjoyed Jeremy Page's lyrical writing, especially his style of writing about nature and the particulars of North Norfolk.
Many of the characters and their stories were somewhat unrelatable, but yet I felt I was learning to understand them through the lens of a hostile natural environment and a sense of acceptance.
I really enjoyed Jeremy Page's lyrical writing, especially his style of writing about nature and the particulars of North Norfolk.
June 3, 2008
I enjoyed this book at first - it pulled you in to an interesting world and seemed to have a lot of promise with interesting characters. I even enjoyed the retelling of stories with details switched around (which I usually hate). But the last half of the book was awful. I don't know if the author was trying to make it seem like the main character had gone insane or what, but the story just got muddled and uninteresting.
December 2, 2013
what's north of norfolk? why north norfolk of course.
this just post-wwii novel takes place in the flats and salt creeks of the low coast, where big storms rush in the re-arrange lives, german parachutists land up to their necks (there is a little tee hee scecne where the "witch lady" "hides" the german in her lap, a la tin drum, a baby ensues) in mud , and clouds are a whole world to be read. a perfect first book to read of jeremy page's, then you can read the rest
this just post-wwii novel takes place in the flats and salt creeks of the low coast, where big storms rush in the re-arrange lives, german parachutists land up to their necks (there is a little tee hee scecne where the "witch lady" "hides" the german in her lap, a la tin drum, a baby ensues) in mud , and clouds are a whole world to be read. a perfect first book to read of jeremy page's, then you can read the rest
January 31, 2019
I love this area of Norfolk, and know it quite well, so I really liked all the descriptions. I found the story a bit hard though. Mainly just because it was particularly depressing, and not the 'escapism' that I normally seek from a book. Having said this, I read this book two years ago now and I do still often think about it. It obviously left a mark on me. I am glad I read it.
October 6, 2009
wonderful...generational study, quirky, magical realism, mystery and beautiful phraseology...
March 12, 2019
I know this area of Norfolk well. Even now there feels like a tempestuous relationship between those who live on the marshes and further down the coast where the sea eats the land. Page reminds us of this fragility in Salt and in the unreliable narrator, Pip, who maybe named after his grandfather’s boat if indeed the boat is called Pip. I liked this element and the lyrical language, it’s perfectly set for this area. Just as all family stories and oral histories can become twisted and over exaggerated so does Goose’s story. The fifth star was lost for the end. I read it several times and felt that the reader deserved something a little more firm but I suspect that had it been more concise and final, it would have been odd sat with the rest of the narrative.
November 21, 2018
Beautifully written novel with unique imagery of generations who live in a northeastern UK town on a salt marsh. Living a difficult and incestuous existence, the characters of this town are not uplifting, but all seem doomed from the start, as if the harsh landscape has infected their souls. However, their sad stories are told with elegant prose. The only problem that I had is there is very little dialogue. Nearly all of the story is told from the third person, which along with the dour subject, made this required morning reading in order to hold my attention i.e.. not fall asleep, but it was worth it. Looking forward to another novel by Jeremy Page.
March 16, 2020
This is a sad, depressing book with madness, death, muteness, incest and drowning. Nobody is happy or achieves anything of significance. The women are all crazy and mysterious. The males are men of action and science, so everyone is a complete stereotype except for our narrator who is dreamy, mad and mute. But it kept me reading, mainly for the descriptions of the saltmarsh and fens, but also to see how this cursed family could survive. Answer: they don't.
It almost reminds me of Wuthering Heights where everyone is damned and living in a blighted, unfriendly landscape.
It almost reminds me of Wuthering Heights where everyone is damned and living in a blighted, unfriendly landscape.
October 13, 2020
Jeremy Page has written an interesting family tragedy from the point of view of a mute, possibly autistic man. The setting is the Fens of Norfolk, where the marsh and sea hold sway over everyone. The prose is lyrical and winding. If you can keep up, the events show themselves as a flower opening ever so slowly before your eyes. Don't expect this to be an overnight page-turner. It isn't. Rather it is more a meditation on the frailty of the family and the human condition.
October 11, 2021
Salt intrigued me with its quirky characters, and beautiful descriptions of the north Norfolk saltmarshes. In the earlier chapters, scenes from characters' lives are revealed with several possible outcomes. The reader has to wait until later in the book to find out what really happened, which I found an interesting and original approach. The plot is compelling and my only reservation is that I hoped for a more positive ending.
December 28, 2020
I live in Norfolk and this book smacks of someone who visits Norfolk but has not ever lived here, over indulgent and ultimately disappointing.
June 21, 2024
Good, it took me a minute to get used to the style of writing. But certainly an enjoyable story to pick up.
January 5, 2009
Cover-to-cover, Salt is lyrical, evocative prose, with an indigo but definitely not purple hue. Jeremy Page's writing drew me into the world of the salt marshes in Norfolk without so much as a backward glance to the rest of the world. He made me forget that the rest of the world even existed. The first part of the book briefly takes place during the Second World War, and aside from some references to other places, the book isn't about the war--it's about Norfolk. I have immense respect for books that are able to carve out a component of the world and create their own microcosm in which events unfold.
Page's characters, like his prose, are lively, real people with real personalities--often invective but sometimes charming. And this isn't a storybook, in which each character is a flat, stock representation of a moral absolute and the main character must navigate his or her way toward the happy ending. No, all of the characters at one time or another break your heart, even though you can faintly recall wanting to hug each of them at some point. Adrift in a North Sea of ambiguity, the main character has very difficult choices to make.
Salt begins as the tale of a marshwoman, Goose, and a German pilot who falls from the sky. It traces the life of her daughter, her daughter's marriage to a local Norfolk boy and subsequent child, eventually segueing into the trials of this child, Pip, who is the narrator of the story. Nothing in his life is easy, it seems, and each time he faces an obstacle, he runs away and seeks help from someone else, only to run away again.
That, if anything, seems to be the message behind Salt. I say "if anything" because this is a novel with a ponderous, pretentious pace. There's very little open dialogue, most of it rendered through the filter of the protagonist, who's also our narrator. Likewise, the action scenes aren't dynamic so much as descriptive. If you enjoy such a voice, you'll enjoy this book.
There is a strong sense of tradition and storytelling embedded in this book. Pip retells both his grandmother's story and the story of his mother's life, which was passed to him by oral tradition. Mostly mute for the portion of his life covered in this novel, Pip may be the first generation of his family to write these stories down; I got the sense that he placed great significance in this ritual. Page makes many references to literacy, writing, and communication in general, emphasizing how the regional dialect affects the pronunciation of certain phrases.
Salt is not an action-adventure, so don't look for such among its pages. It is a character piece through and through--how strong of a character piece is up to you. While I loved the scene descriptions and enjoyed most of the first half of the book, the ending was not as satisfying as I would have liked. Too many loose ends, not enough finality for me. The atmosphere of the entire ending, which consists of a hallucination-like experience, was also confusing--I had to read it a couple of times over.
While not mediocre, Salt is not exactly great, for the reasons I mentioned above. As such, while I can't condemn it for its flaws, it's hard to extol its virtues as well.
Page's characters, like his prose, are lively, real people with real personalities--often invective but sometimes charming. And this isn't a storybook, in which each character is a flat, stock representation of a moral absolute and the main character must navigate his or her way toward the happy ending. No, all of the characters at one time or another break your heart, even though you can faintly recall wanting to hug each of them at some point. Adrift in a North Sea of ambiguity, the main character has very difficult choices to make.
Salt begins as the tale of a marshwoman, Goose, and a German pilot who falls from the sky. It traces the life of her daughter, her daughter's marriage to a local Norfolk boy and subsequent child, eventually segueing into the trials of this child, Pip, who is the narrator of the story. Nothing in his life is easy, it seems, and each time he faces an obstacle, he runs away and seeks help from someone else, only to run away again.
That, if anything, seems to be the message behind Salt. I say "if anything" because this is a novel with a ponderous, pretentious pace. There's very little open dialogue, most of it rendered through the filter of the protagonist, who's also our narrator. Likewise, the action scenes aren't dynamic so much as descriptive. If you enjoy such a voice, you'll enjoy this book.
There is a strong sense of tradition and storytelling embedded in this book. Pip retells both his grandmother's story and the story of his mother's life, which was passed to him by oral tradition. Mostly mute for the portion of his life covered in this novel, Pip may be the first generation of his family to write these stories down; I got the sense that he placed great significance in this ritual. Page makes many references to literacy, writing, and communication in general, emphasizing how the regional dialect affects the pronunciation of certain phrases.
Salt is not an action-adventure, so don't look for such among its pages. It is a character piece through and through--how strong of a character piece is up to you. While I loved the scene descriptions and enjoyed most of the first half of the book, the ending was not as satisfying as I would have liked. Too many loose ends, not enough finality for me. The atmosphere of the entire ending, which consists of a hallucination-like experience, was also confusing--I had to read it a couple of times over.
While not mediocre, Salt is not exactly great, for the reasons I mentioned above. As such, while I can't condemn it for its flaws, it's hard to extol its virtues as well.
November 12, 2012
I'm not sure how I ended up deciding to read this book but I found it a slog to say the least. There were times that I was tempted to stop but I kept hoping the book was going somewhere or there would be a surprise that made the book worth slogging through. Not the case. Every character for the most part is killed off. There are no real likeable characters for the duration of the book and in the end I was left with -what was the point of that book? I would definitely not recommend this book and am amazed that it was published. The only saving grace is that I did not spend money on this book but took it out of the library.
December 30, 2008
Set in a saltmarsh on the coast of Norfolk the clouds and landscape control the lives of the characters in a bleak story narrated by a young boy whose grandmother found his granfather buried to the neck in the mud; he was German Airman shot down on a bombing run. In a mix of confusion, dreams and fantasy his dysfunctional family leads to eventual disaster or freedom or some combination of the two. Very evocative writing, especially lyrical as it draws the marsh, sky and sea together.
March 27, 2012
The prose was haunting and beautiful. I knew nothing of Norfolk, the setting of the book, but I loved the landscapes and evocative descriptions mixed in with folklore and superstition. Unfortunately, the storyline tried too hard to mingle the fantasy with reality and it ended up being confusing and the characters unlike able and shallow. I really wanted to love this book, but the only reason I gave it three stars was because it was well written.
July 18, 2016
Thank goodness I only bought this from a charity shop for 50p and didn't pay the full price. I know this piece of North Norfolk like the back of my hand so I hoped for a good read. I was disappointed. It was slow and then went all over the place. I have loved books all my life and if they have a local theme that's even better but this was dire. Why do some people assume they are great writers?
December 29, 2007
I thought this had a lot of promise but in the end turned into a muddled work that petered out at the end with family members all having tragic endings, if the narrator can be trusted. He's a writer to look out for in the future but this book is not all I hoped it would be.
February 23, 2008
This is a good read with a strange plot. I've never read anything quite like it. Sort of a coming of age story, but not quite, set in north England marshland. Natural setting is important and used for a lot of symbolism.
September 8, 2008
One of those books where nothing much seems to happen for the majority. Overall, I still found it enjoyable, though I found I forgot parts of plot or characters from earlier as I read through it. I don't know...not great, but something still drew me in.
August 16, 2012
This was possibly the most boring book I have ever read. It was well written but the subject matter - 95% scenery in Norfolk and the Fens - was just not interesting. The characters were supposed to be quirky and interesting but they were 1 dimensional, boring and miserable.
BORING !!!!!!!
BORING !!!!!!!
January 4, 2013
I can't believe I actually finished this, really I should have given up on it. I don't really know what to say about it either, a life story of a boy called Pip living on the Norfolk Marsh's and the story of grandmother's life, and his mothers.
January 23, 2016
It took me a long time to finish this little book, but I really liked it. Reading about 3 generations of heartache and dysfunction was heartbreaking, but snippets of simplicity and beauty prevented this book from being too sad.
October 1, 2007
i wasn't too impressed. the story got a little too wonky for me.
July 16, 2008
Started out fun and quickly got darker. Great symbolism and foreshadowing; full of odd characters and a hint of magical realism.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews