Memory Of Salt
Memory Of Salt
Ali’s father is a Turkish circus musician performing in Kabul\nwhen Ali’s mother, a young doctor from Melbourne, who has trained\nin Australia’s outback regions, meets him outside the circus tent.\nTheir courtship takes them from Afghanistan across Iran to Turkey\nand London, where Ali is born, and then to Melbourne.
\n
Baba plays the trumpet, thesaz, the flute, hears voices that\nurge him to violence, sees angels in the skies and jinns in the\nstreet, and inscribes lines from the Qur’an on the walls of his\nroom, and across the suburb. Ülgezer offers a remarkable portrait\nof this tormented visionary, intoxicated with hashish and Sufism,\nwho wrecks the family, but is also, for Ali, an enchanted\nbeing.
\n\n
Review
Will Heyward
[[alice-mielke1]]The Memory of Salt, by Alice Melike Ülgezer, is a rare work of fiction that engages with multiculturalism not just as an idea or principle, but as a total and inescapable experience of life.
One half of the story is the love affair between a young paediatrician from Melbourne, Mac, and a Turkish circus performer and musician, Ahmet. When the two meet in Afghanistan, Mac is completely taken by Ahmet’s wild, carefree approach to anything and everything, and goes with him, for better or for worse, to Istanbul to meet his family. The story that unfolds from there is extravagant and breathless.
The second half is the journey their child, Ali, takes many years later in order to discover where her father is from and, ultimately, who she is herself. Ali, who is largely the narrator, has been raised in Australia by Mac and only really knows stories – some charming, some horrifying – about her unstable, magnetic father. (So convincing and compelling is Ali’s voice that I couldn’t help wondering how much, if any, autobiography might have gone into making this novel – not that it matters.)
Shifting and cutting between different decades, continents, languages and cultures, Ülgezer’s narrative navigates the often treacherous waters of identity politics. The descriptions that she uses are visceral and physical, allowing the reader to occupy the multiple identities of her characters.
For Australian readers unfamiliar with Turkish culture, many passages of this novel will be filled with fascinating details about mysticism and Sufism (Ülgezer is completing a PhD on the Qadiri Dervishes of Kurdistan). The greatest strength of the book, however, is Ülgezer’s ability to creatively highlight and contrast two cultures, which, one suspects, she loves equally.
[[will-heyward-sm]]Will Heyward
This item is not currently in-stock. It can be ordered online and is expected to ship in 5-9 days
Our stock data is updated periodically, and availability may change throughout the day for in-demand items. Please call the relevant shop for the most current stock information. Prices are subject to change without notice.
Sign in or become a Readings Member to add this title to a wishlist.
