A Map of Salt & Stars

Can a book be too pretty?

I found myself constantly asking that question as I read The Map of Salt & Stars. The language is undeniably gorgeous, fantastical even. Nour's synesthesia is brought to life vividly, to the point that it builds a rhythm between reader and narrator. When Nour talks of burnt pots and pans clanging together being a pitch black or sullen gray, I can see it. The synesthesia acts as a vehicle, a palpable way for the more loftier metaphors to connect with the reader through color, but with that being said, it got to be too much at times. The language in general did. I began to wonder if a twelve year old truly thought like that? I mean, I know Nour is supposed to be a precocious kid and her circumstances are extraordinary -- she goes from NYC in an apartment with her parents to a literal war zone -- the loft language just seems so elevate and out of touch. It reminds me of This Is How It Always Is, in a sense; Poppy often felt too old to me in that, too, because of how she spoke/carried herself.

But I think it works here because of the subject matter: The Syrian Civil War. I thought it was an interesting choice by Joukhadar to ground the novel first in the U.S. Why not put his protagonist in Syria from the start? And then the exchange with Itto regarding Nour's heritage.

"New York?" Itto looks down at me. "You may be American, but you are still Syrian." 

I rub  the camel's coarse hair with my palms. "How?" 

"A person can be two things at the same time," Itto says. "The land where your parents were born will always be in you. Words survive. Borders are nothing to words and blood." 

This is where the parallel stories truly hit home for me. It's where Rawiya's story and the map making and how the narrative is told truly comes to fruition.  When I first started reading, it took me a while to realise the story was being told in parallel(ish) (or maybe perpendicular?) narratives. I kept having to stop and pull back to check where I was or who I was with. I attribute it mostly to the use of the 'I' narrator. I hate the 'I' but I digress. Its Rawiya's map making and Nour's constant reiteration of the story that embodies the above exchange.