The Taste of Salt (23 page)

And here's another note from that same page or two
of rumination, the birth of the other major theme of the book: “One big change today—have her go home and find out her brother's an addict. Parents flipping out. That's what she has to deal with when she gets home. Getting him into rehab or something. No sick dad. Let dad live and be present. Two parents. Crazy. And maybe we can build the marital conflict by rolling back through it. Let her relationship with her parents reflect her discomfort with her heritage, her hometown.” Then I have a note to myself to begin researching “fish, addiction, water-related jobs.” That's how it started, that one thought one day.

I've long been interested in the mechanisms and effects of addiction, but when I began work on this book, I had no idea it would become such a central theme. But that's what's great about writing fiction, the mystery of it, even as you do it. Eudora Welty once said, “If you haven't surprised yourself, you haven't written.” Those words are part of why I write fiction, to attempt to surprise readers—and myself—with some aspect of story, some aspect of life, that they didn't expect to find. I hope that readers of
The Taste of Salt
will find themselves surprised and moved. I hope that they will find themselves thinking of how one lives in a family in a slightly different way.

1. Josie, the protagonist of
The Taste of Salt
, is deeply tied to two places: Cleveland, Ohio, her birthplace, and Woods Hole, where she makes her life and work. She has very different relationships to each place. Discuss the ways in which the two places differ from one another. To what extent do they function as characters in the novel?

2. Josie's father, Ray, and her brother, Tick, both struggle with alcoholism and other addictions. Does Josie harbor any addictions of her own?

3. While there is alcoholism in the African-American community, as in any other community in the United States, relatively few memoirs or novels have been published about it. Why do you think that might be the case?

4. The author uses an interweaving narrative in which each of the six major characters speaks periodically and Josie serves as a kind of overarching consciousness going in and out of various characters' lives. Other novels that have taken this approach to a greater or lesser degree in recent years are Jeffrey Eugenides'
Middlesex
and Junot Díaz's
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.
Why do you think Southgate uses this narrative approach?

5. Josie struggles with both the family she came from and with conflicting feelings about being one of the only black scientists in her milieu. Why might successful people try to leave their past (and their families) behind? Do you think it's ever possible to do that?

6. On
page 130
, Josie says that she doesn't want to “fit the stereotype of black girl with a no ‘count brother.” Do you think there is such a stereotype? What do you think of Josie's comment or of the way it bonds her to her friend Maren?

7. The characters in the Henderson family have wildly varying reactions to the culture and tenets of Alcoholics Anonymous. What do you think of their range of responses? Are you familiar with the organization? If you are, what are your feelings about it?

8.
The Taste of Salt
is very much a story of family shame and acceptance. Does Tick ever arrive at that state of acceptance? Does Josie? Ray? Sarah?

9. What impact do you think race has on the alcoholism of the addicted characters in the novel?

10. If Josie had been able to make a life with Ben, do you think it would have been successful or would it have failed? Why? What do you think of her adulterous behavior?

11. How does the author portray her alcoholic characters—sympathetically or unsympathetically? How do those portrayals affect how we feel about everyone in the family?

12. When the author is from the same town as the protagonist, the tendency is to assume autobiography. What is gained and what is lost when the reader makes this assumption? How does it alter, enrich, or diminish your experience of the work?

13. At the novel's end, there is a strong sense of hope for a kind of reconciliation between father and daughter. What do you think would have to happen to make this a lasting reconciliation? Are you convinced by Ray's change in behavior and lifestyle? Do you think it's harder for women to make peace with deeply flawed mothers or deeply flawed fathers?

MARTHA SOUTHGATE
is the author of three acclaimed previous novels, most recently
The Fall of Rome
and
Third Girl from the Left
, and other works that have been widely anthologized. She has written for
Essence, Premiere
, the
New York Daily News
, and the
New York Times.
A graduate of Smith College, she has an MFA in creative writing from Goddard and has taught at Brooklyn College and the New School. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two children.

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