An overworked 1970s Black activist finds peace in a traditional healing ceremony. Velma Henry is an activist and organiser. It's the 1970s and she's involved in many progressive causes: Black rights, women's rights, gay rights. As a leftist, she veers towards Marxist economics. Big business is taking the world to hell in a hand basket. She should know: she works as a computer programmer at a chemical plant called Transchemical that has a dodgy environmental record. The pressures on her life – both personal and political – have had their toll. Her husband Obie has been cheating on her and, despite years of work, the movements she has given her heart and soul to have achieved only marginal successes. On the brink of a nervous breakdown, she self harms and then attempts suicide. In a state of utter collapse, she is brought to a community centre in Claybourne, Georgia. It is here that the healer Minnie Ransom works to bring Velma back from the brink. Consulting with her “spirit guide”, an imaginary woman named Old Wife, the two engage in a sassy streetwise language when discussing how to treat Velma. Old Wife is a “haint”, a ghost or spirit. These passages in the novel have an earthy, Chaucerian tone, full of laughter and ribald jokes. The narrative of The Salt Eaters is non-linear. The story jumps back and forth in time and has a hallucinatory quality. Scenes appear and dissolve, describing meetings and protests, interactions between colleagues and lovers. The book has no plot and is almost totally impressionistic. What it does vividly convey is the atmosphere of hope and despair during the burgeoning Civil Rights period in America. This is the origin of “woke” culture, a term first used in 1962 by African-American novelist William Melvin Kelley. Velma's treatment by Minnie and her spirit guide, Old Wife, also has a contemporary analogy in the self-care movement of today. Some readers may find the lack of a linear plot discombobulating. The novel turns in on itself in a self-contained loop. It's evocative and dreamy, resisting conventional forms and rules. Despite this, Toni Cade Bambara's prose is moreish and addictive. Readers who submit will find much to reward in this unique piece of fiction. The Salt Eaters, by Toni Cade Bambara. Published by Penguin Modern Classics. $22.99 Comments are closed.
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