The Salt God's Daughter By Ilie Ruby

Daughter of the salt king

But can shed their skins and walk when on land Traditional tales of the selkie often lead to tragedy as a selkie and human fall in love or not and make a life together It s the making a life together element that s tricky since often this part happens because the human partner steals and hides the selkie s skin so s he cannot go back to the sea I know you re thinking of The Little Mermaid the Disney version Stop This folklore is a lot complex and dark than anything anyone from Disney ever conjured. The salt god's daughtergard The Salt God s Daughter is also about mother daughter relationships As a daughter I know how conflicted and complex these relationships are Ruby weaves a tale of mothers and daughters and their bonds Rich in imagery of the sea and of the moon.

Daughter of the salt king

Ruby s THE SALT GOD S DAUGHTER reads like an extended dream this novel unlike anything else I ve ever read This story is written in a language somewhere between poetry and prose about a world somewhere between reality and fantasy and the characters somehow between human and mythological. The salt god's daughterhouse The story of three generations of women it is also about motherhood and nature and the cruelties of humankind Set in southern California primarily in 1970s and 1980s most of the novel is dedicated to Ruth the daughter of a bohemian mother who fails her daughters at seemingly every turn But it also offers us Naida Ruth s daughter I found Naida to be the most endearing character and my heart ached for her as she struggled to free herself from her own heredity and history. The salt god's daughtera lyrics It took me forever to read this simply because I wanted to linger over certain sentences The lyricism reminded me in many ways of WE THE ANIMALS by Justin Torres the prose was so lush and rich Ilie Ruby The seem to be a book that you either loved or loathed I actually did both There were parts of this book that were wonderful but as a whole I felt it was too disjointed and painful to read. The salt god's daughterest It s told in three parts the first part is about Ruth s childhood with her abusive inspired homeless mother Diana and her sister Dolly The second part is about Ruth s adolescence and young motherhood and includes her romance with a man she dubs the Salt God who may or may not be a selkie The third part is about Naida Ruth s daughter and her youth and adolescence There s also a prologue and epilogue which to me only muddled the book rather than clarifying or tying it together. The salt god's daughterjae What I liked about this Mother Diana was obsessed with the phases of the moon with the almanac and trying to tie them to what had happened and what she believed was going to happen in their lives She and the almanac called the moon different names the Hunger Moon the Wolf Moon the Harvest Moon and told stories and myths for how it related to the earth sometimes it was a sibling sometimes it was a child sometimes it was the spouse of the earth. The salt god's daughterchrist I like that it was set in local areas to Southern California and loaded with details The Belmont Shore area of Long Beach the Santa Ana winds the Oxnard strawberry fields the desert areas the artfully disguised Long Beach oil derricks the seals and the bougainvillea This gave the book a very rich sensual texture. James and her daughter salt There were wonderful details about the time era the green station wagon that Diana dubbed The Big Ugly the obsession with soap opera General Hospital and the theme of Luke and Laura and rape the elaborations about the toys and the clothes. The salt god's daughterface I liked the recurring theme of the selkies magical creatures who are generally seals at sea but who can remove a magic cloak and take on human form on land Ruth s lover Graham seems to have all the characteristics of a selkie it seems Ruth both wants to believe he is and that he is not. The salt god's daughterjoy What I didn t like about this The editor s should be shot or at least flogged There were so many distractions that were not cleaned up so many doors that were opened that led nowhere and so many bad grammar and spelling mistakes that totally ripped me out of the story. The salt god's daughtere book For example there s a legend that the waterhorse a legendary sea creature causes earthquakes deep under the sea by a shifting of tectonic plates In the Salt God s daughter this is referenced three or four times Except it s always spelled as Teutonic plates WTF is a Teutonic plate and what does German crockery have to do with anything Somebody serves up brisket in one place and briscuit in another. The salt god's daughterien Ruth s apartment at Wild Acres seem to be whatever size you wanted to be At one point it s a studio apartment with a Murphy bed the kind of folds up and down from the wall Graham wants her to place his tokens under the mattress which makes no sense for bed that s folded up because wouldn t they fall out Oh but now it seems like a much bigger apartment with a separate bedroom and a walk in closet although she hasn t moved She also has the biggest clawfoot bathtub in the history of clawfoot bathtubs she s 5 10 Graham is enough bigger to pick her up and carry her yet there s room not just for both of them to squeeze into the bathtub but for them to comfortably play in it He arrives at her apartment wearing jeans and a white shirt both are dry but he s carrying his wetsuit which is still dripping. The salt god's daughterchart When Graham returns in October he puts down his bag and two lines later he puts it down again Ruth is the only person caring for the elderly residents of Wild Acres but she can take off for a couple of days here and there or go off painting for hours without any mention of who else might be covering her duties And later she takes on a job at a restaurant how why There is language that is beautiful and evocative I liked a soft shade of lavender that wanted both to be seen and to remain quiet Yet the language was not consistent There were sections where Ruth the narrator spoke in a very young childish voice hugest nauseous rather than nauseated and in the same paragraph would break into a phrase like deep seated neglect with stunning moments of maternal protection The horrible mentally ill alcoholic mother Diana was very hard to take She abandons them to go off with her boyfriends she abandons them period driving off to teach Ruthie a lesson she tells them you kids have absolutely ruined my life she feeds them crap when she feeds them at all she lies about homeschooling them uses them for child labor in the strawberry fields and harvesting trash I fully understand get that young children will accept whatever abnormal circumstances occur in their childhoods and at the time think nothing of it But later only Dolly is angry at Diana and only because Diana has somehow signed a DNR and abandoned them via death Ruth never seems to feel angry at her mother at all. The salt god's daughterbook pdf Ruth is raped as a very young teenager and this trauma affects her for years This part of the story is told very well and I understand Graham s part in helping her heal and supporting her past this while at the same time being someone who rips the scabs off her abandonment wounds Lovers can be like that. The salt god's daughterheart Yet there s a throwaway part of the story at 18 Ruth marries a man who s alcoholic and who beats her She divorces him by 19 and has no trouble getting a divorce even though the abusive husband is an attorney It s all covered in a few paragraphs and never referenced again she seemingly is never haunted by these experiences again never thinks about them the ex never shows up to cause trouble. The salt god's daughtera song There s also the painting Ruth learns to paint she s good at it she loves it and then she drops it We never see Ruth do anything for herself that feeds her own soul she is nobody except in relation to her mother her sister the old people at Wild Acres to Graham to her daughter Who is Ruth How has she learned grown changed All in all this was a very interesting read and I felt like it had so much potential but I still cannot say it was a good book I hope the author goes on to write and I hope she works with a better crit group and editor Ilie Ruby The SALT GOD S DAUGHTER by Ilie Ruby is a profound literary work that segues from descriptions of the hard scrabble life of two girls and an itinerant mother to a mythic sea world that washes back on land with the strength of its myths Or are they just myths Ruby makes them so real so relevant by the time the novel is over this reader believed in them Just as I heard the sound of the sea long after the novel was over This novel loops back to generations and then back again But unlike many novels that span generations THE SALT GOD S DAUGHTER has extraordinary unity Interestingly the first section of the story gave me the same cosmic jolt about ultimate homelessness that HOUSEKEEPING by Marilyn Robinson gave me when I read it ten years ago I fell in love with Ruthie as a child and as a mother and with her daughter Nadia as they struggled to find their origins In a world where in some sense all of us are homeless Ruby illuminates the things we can call home in myth in connection and in the sea itself Ruby s language is beautiful and poetic without ever being over written The rhythm and energy always serve to illuminate what she is writing about whether exhuberance pain or longing The dialogue is wonderful People talk the way you hear them talk in ordinary life A simply wonderful read Ilie Ruby It s the 1970s and Ruthie and Dolly are living on the road with their mother Diana Traveling through California in Big Ugly their station wagon Ruthie and Dolly are just young children forced to work strawberry fields and trash pick to survive Diana lives her life by the moons obsessing over her Farmer s Almanac always changing her course depending on what the book has to offer that day Diana s moods are constantly shifting as well drinking often and punishing Ruthie for very small mistakes From childhood to adulthood Diana s ways stay with Ruthie who constantly struggles with life s injustices and who wants nothing than to find love This comes in the shape of Graham a mysterious man who comes and goes without warning ultimately giving Ruthie what she always wanted Naida a daughter The Salt God s daughter follows the lives of Diana Ruthie and Naida as they struggle to make sense of their pasts and determine what promise their future holds. The salt god's daughterchrist First I have to say that this novel is written quite beautifully Almost lyrically The author has an exceptional skill and it shows But have you ever finished a book that left you feeling confused That is how I am feeling right now confused When I first came upon The Salt God s Daughter I knew right away that I wanted to read it I am drawn to stories about unstable families especially mothers and daughters and this one sounded very promising The stunning cover definitely helped grab my attention as well But it was far different from what I was expecting The story takes place in three parts Ruthie before Naida Ruthie immediately after Naida s birth and Naida s childhood I was immediately drawn to Ruthie her childhood was harsh and I wished I could snatch her right out of the book to live with me each time her mother left her standing alone in the desert for hours just to teach her a lesson always wondering how long she would be there before her mother s mood changed and she came back for her Many times I was left feeling uncomfortable for the girls knowing that things would not get better for them yet still aching each time another vicious act was committed against them I felt for Dolly too although her smug attitude sometimes turned me off to her and especially Naida Born with a defect but also the gift of sight she is tortured at school and her only friends are the old folks in the retirement home in which she lives But as much as I loved the characters and felt every heartache they endured and as beautifully written as it was I still struggled to keep up with the storyline Reality is fused with folklore throughout the story and this is where I came into trouble I had a very hard time figuring out if these tales were meant to be believed or were just used as metaphors Did these strange things actually happen or were they meant to explain other things altogether I just don t know and I m not sure I will ever figure it out short of actually talking with the author I think I would have enjoyed the book much had I known about this ahead of time I like knowing beforehand if there is a mystical aspect to a story for this very reason. The salt god's daughtera song However that being said please do not let this discourage you from reading this story I know for a fact that had I known from the beginning that there was this aspect to the story I would have really loved it So now that you know you will not be confused as I was Please do not let my bias stop you from giving this a chance The writing is lovely and the story is heartbreaking two crucial elements to a wonderful read Ilie Ruby THE SALT GOD S DAUGHTER was at times worth 5 stars in my mind but it was also only 3 stars at times I settle for 4 stars over all. The salt god's daughterjoe I was very drawn to Ilie Ruby s book by the cover and the beautifully poetic rhythm of the opening pages I read as a sample This I thought is what I strive to write what I always want to read And as it turned out much of the book fulfilled this promise. The salt god's daughterchrist Following the lives of multiple narrators is always a risk I had just recently read another such book that benefitted from this choice much than it suffered But in THE SALT GOD S DAUGHTER I found that I didn t care about all three narrators equally or at least I didn t care about each narrator at each phase of her life that was captured This disappointed me especially because the characters and phases of their lives are so intertwined The story follows three generations of women of the same family through extraordinary and often fairytale like lives There were points however when I thought the concrete details were chosen not for their logic but for the necessity of some sort of concrete detail to fit the plot and magic that surrounded it Specifically Ruthie does not seem to me to be a caretaker yet this detail is necessary to move the story in the direction it does. The salt god's daughterhood There are moments in this book that caught my breath upon first reading then second then third One in particular struck such a chord with me that I had to step away from the book for a while These are the book s finest moments But there are other moments that quickly became blurs to me too poetic or too whirlwind without purpose I will definitely read of Ruby s work in the future I hope that it will bring me of the magic and less of the blur Ilie Ruby Set in Long Beach California beginning in the 1970s The Salt God s Daughter follows Ruthie and her sister Dolly as they carve out a life in a place filled with meteorological myths and exotic folklore where female rites of passage are met with startling discoveries Raised by a mother drawn to the ocean and guided by the moons their heritage is a mystery and with their mother often absent they are forced to confront the social and sexual s of the time on their own as they search for true love and a home Ruthie s daughter Naida is born into this conflicted landscape with a secret she tries to keep hidden as she seeks out the father she never knew Woven with a traditional Scottish folktale and hints of Jewish mysticism The Salt God s Daughter examines how far we ll go to find our place in a world that is often hostile to those who are different The Salt God s DaughterI can t wait to read this am swept up by the language I ve read so far and story Ilie Ruby I ve been very fortunate over the past several weeks to read a number of wonderful books that take folk tales fairy tales mythology as their heart The Salt God s Daughter is one of those books Ruby s story based on the Celtic tradition of the selkie uncanny creatures who appear as seals on the sea The Salt God s Daughter is a great follow up to Ruby s first novel The Language of Trees Ruby has a talent for threading disparate parts of story into a coherent whole and I am glad to say that her sopho effort is just as wise and wonderful as her first Highly recommended Ilie Ruby The Salt God s DaughterIlie RubyCounterpoint Soft Skull PressSeptember 2012The Salt God s Daughter Ilie Ruby s latest novel is set in the 1970s in Long Beach California on the frigid mysterious and unassuming Pacific Ocean With remarkable diction and cadence Ruby has skillfully sculpted an epic tale about the lives of three generations of women and written it with such eloquence the pages often sang to me leaving me salt drenched feeling protected by fuchsia bougainvilleas and in a state of breathlessness From the first sentence this book careens the reader through a whirling magical voyage into the color and richness of Scottish myth and Jewish mysticism Suddenly we find ourselves considering anew the shifting moons eclipses of the sun changing tides cloud formations selkies groatie buckies barnacles and a plethora of other animal and plant life in and around the water. The salt god's daughterchart The story begins with Diane a young single mother to two daughters Ruthie and Dolly who struggles with drinking and depression They live in a station wagon are often hungry miss school and endure the disconnectedness of that reality With life like this Ruthie and Dolly are often at the mercy of their mother s moods and health and learn early to tend to and comfort her They begin their rite of passage early in life Dolly and I had time on our hands to fantasize and create to conjure and compose to experiment and dramatize to create a world wholly experienced in the imagination We d frequent the pier our bare feet slapping the wood slats as we played chasing games Years pass and daughters become mothers Mothers become grandmothers The sisters change individually but stay solid in the tight bonds between them Like everyone however they are destined to seek out a lover and a partner like their great grandparents Ruth and Daniel found in each other for seventy years as was the story Diane told the girls while she leaned on the car smoking and made them all feel hopeful Achieving this goal meant accepting and loving themselves fully before loving another This is not easy Both women must come to terms with their own mistakes and the toll taken by errors or atrocities that were never theirs to bear Loving themselves through those difficulties takes strength especially after being traumatized labeled other unworthy or immoral by misguided cruel peers and adults Both find solace in the home performing valuable work as caregivers to some of the women who nurtured them and doing everything possible to keep the family and its stories safe and intact. The salt god's daughterjay While enchanting in its musicality and vivid imagery this book is also gritty evocative and relevant to the cultural and socio political climate in the United States and world today especially in the area of sexual politics predominantly rape and abortion Reading and reviewing The Salt God s Daughter has had a huge impact on my own life Through Ruby s voice I rediscovered my own unheard and silenced cries in the dark from decades ago It felt freeing to know that the loss of young girls lives to suicide from bullying other crimes committed against them landing on the wrong side of current sexual s or other oppressive rules and laws has stimulated healing In fact I believe this work has released a groundswell of women s energy and emboldened words which resound right now like an echo in a canyon I hope we will all find the courage to heed Sister Mary s words Speak Ruthie As often and as loudly as you can Keep speaking it she said Therein lies the secret of The Salt God s Daughter Ilie Ruby The Salt God s Daughter by Ilie Ruby follows three generations of women in California Set mainly in Long Beach the novel opens in 2001 with Ruthie s daughter Naida and then jumps back to 1972 and follows Naida s grandmother Diana Gold and her two daughters Ruthie and Dolly to the present Diana raises her daughters on the road living out of her station wagon based on what she sees in the Old Farmer s Almanac and the phase of the moon Many of her inventive names for the moon s phases are tailored to fit their situation The women keep returning to Dr Brownstein s beach hotel which later becomes a retirement home in Long Beach The Salt God s Daughter is an atmospheric novel that explores the complex relationship and love between mothers and daughters while portraying the female experience It is also about being different a non conformist to the world and how violence and bullies can influence a person s self esteem Always present is a tantalizing pull toward the sea or repulsion from it depending upon the character There are also several heartbreaking passages where the characters bear painful life changing experiences. The salt god's daughtere book The Salt God s Daughter is not a light read This is a multi layered novel with many complexities woven into the plot Folklore magic realism mysticism and mythology infuse the whole novel with a dream like quality Certainly having a character named Diana following the phases of the moon so closely is no coincidence Diana a huntress is the Roman goddess of the moon nature fertility and childbirth And while the women are Jewish that fact was simply another tradition that was ultimately tied into all sorts of other belief systems including Celtic lore Ultimately this is a beautifully written novel that will have many readers turning back to relish a sentence or paragraph again While admittedly I also had to turn back a few times because I got lost in the mythology magic realism can trip me up that didn t deter me from the pure joy I felt in reading such a finely crafted novel Even though I normally try to avoid magic realism this novel was the exception to my rule as I enjoyed it immensely Very Highly Recommended one of the bestIt is very evident that Ilie Ruby is a painter as well as an author in her descriptions of Ruthie painting She is also the author of the critically acclaimed novel The Language of Trees which debuted in 2010 and was selected as a Target Emerging Author s Pick and a First Magazine for Women Reader s Choice. The salt god's daughterclass Disclosure My copy was courtesy of Spark Point Studio for review purposes Ilie Ruby I really loved this book It s magical in an Alice Hoffman way Ethereal surreal andwell just plain magical At the same time it s real in a poignant sometimes painful way It brings you back to the seventies as only someone who grew up as a child in the seventies would understand A truly beautiful at times poetic novel that follows three generations of women over the decades of the seventies through the present It will leave you pondering the lives of these women for days after you finish the book Hypnotic with a lingering aroma of Love s Baby Soft Ilie Ruby The Salt Gods Daughter takes place in the seaside community of Long Beach CA where I was a teacher over two decades ago I adored this community and never quite forgot the enchanted landscape dotted with luminous floating islands which were disguised to mask oil rigs along the coastline Years later as I began to write a modern day folktale about the selkies shape shifters that are men on land and seals in the water the setting of Long Beach began to emerge The history of this beloved place became the bedrock of a multi generational love story. The salt god's daughterdash My first novel The Language of Trees takes place in a magical part of Upstate New York where I spent my childhood summers Canandaigua Lake Located in an area the Seneca Indians call Th The Salt God s Daughter takes place in the seaside community of Long Beach CA where I was a teacher over two decades ago I adored this community and never quite forgot the enchanted landscape dotted with luminous floating islands which were disguised to mask oil rigs along the coastline Years later as I began to write a modern day folktale about the selkies shape shifters that are men on land and seals in the water the setting of Long Beach began to emerge The history of this beloved place became the bedrock of a multi generational love story. The salt god's daughterheart lyrics My first novel The Language of Trees takes place in a magical part of Upstate New York where I spent my childhood summers Canandaigua Lake Located in an area the Seneca Indians call The Chosen Spot the lake is the source of local legends Native American folklore as well as restless spirits both living and not I have always thought of books as treasures Most book reviews I write are unapologetically given 4 or 5 stars That s because life is too short to finish a book I don t love and I d never ever review a book I hadn t finished Secondly I feel much comfortable recommending works I admire than I do criticizing things I don t My articles have appeared in the New York Times Motherlode and ParentDish among others Updated events are found on my website Website site_link www, The salt god's daughterata The theme I believe is that a girl s first love is her mother certainly most of the book including the last third is about the relationship between mothers and daughters, The salt god's daughtera lyrics com Twitter ilieruby Facebook site_link Ilie on Facebook site_link .