Arts & Entertainment
Salt Rock Mysteries
Review by Tina Barney
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The biggest mystery of this book was how its editor let the writing pass.
That was solved in the publishers’ insert, which notes that Zschokke wrote her PhD thesis on the lesbian figure in fiction. The stamp of academia could explain how a potentially great tropical story line could get so lost and buried in ponderous prose. In scholastic discourse, the creation of overarching, unifying theories is celebrated as synthesis. In this novel, the effect is of a story heavily contrived. The disparate threads of story lines become densely knotted rather than intriguingly woven. In theory, redundancy reduces the risk of being misunderstood. In fiction, it pummels the reader.
I’ll be generous. Zschokke could have intended this as a parody, exposing risks of academic style, and painting a caricature of lesbian culture, prodding us to see the roots of stereotypes. Janet, her protagonist, sets out to write an historical book for tenure. A few gems of insight sparkle through the foggy research approach. Janet’s blind spots highlight the fallacy of “objectivity” of an academic observer, when in fact we all have grown up with acculturated biases.
Zschokke attempts cultural relevance by attending to racism, the influence of drug trade and corruption, coercion, and homophobia in the Caribbean, but there is a forced quality to each additional overlaid theme. The analytical style of the academic sleuth is laborious, as is Janet’s progress in gathering clues. She embodies the intrusiveness of research in her close-minded, controlling, and disrespectful conduct with the islanders. Her repetitive worrying and list-making provides a glimpse of an obsessive mind that focuses on the details, but misses the big picture.
Zschokke can build effective tension and emotion when she writes in the present tense, as in the rare erotic scenes. She loses credibility by shying away from any development of the main characters, or of depth in their relationships. Janet considers giving up her entire academic career for a married woman she’s known about a month. She is primarily attracted by the woman’s beauty, and her best ever orgasm, which incidentally is how she decides she is a lesbian.
There is no model of gay pride, but there are redundant examples of lesbians ashamed and trapped and silenced. The most resilient female character may be the elderly woman who finally reveals her family’s secret lesbian heritage and love. Without any parallel strength in the current women, the story suggests that the only way for a lesbian to survive is to masquerade. Perhaps this means to amplify historical reality, but it is depressing. To be fair, the story’s straight relationships are also abysmal and ripe with adultery, deceit, and violence.
This book might be enjoyable when one is stuck in an airport for hours. Perhaps the movement of the story was meant to mirror the pace of the Carribean. Or perhaps Zschokke simply forgot the difference between writing a dissertation and writing fiction.
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Salt Rock Mysteries by Magdalena ZschokkeNew Victoria Publishers |