Andrew (andrewspink@mastadon.green) reviewed Salt Path by Raynor Winn
Review of 'Salt Path' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
In many ways, the book follows a classic 'road movie' format. A life-changing event forces the characters to make a journey, the journey is transformative and as they reach the end point, a new phase in their lives begins. There are a number of elements by which the author uses that basis to go beyond Hollywood road story. Firstly, it is autobiographical and, fact being inevitably stranger that fiction, means that a number of events happen which would otherwise be difficult to credit. It is not much of a spoiler to disclose that within the first few pages they both become homeless and the husband gets a fatal diagnosis. I don't think I would have found the husband's name very credible in fiction either. Like any autobiographical novel, you are occasionally left wondering as to how much exaggeration and selective memory or plain selection is involved, but that belongs with …
In many ways, the book follows a classic 'road movie' format. A life-changing event forces the characters to make a journey, the journey is transformative and as they reach the end point, a new phase in their lives begins. There are a number of elements by which the author uses that basis to go beyond Hollywood road story. Firstly, it is autobiographical and, fact being inevitably stranger that fiction, means that a number of events happen which would otherwise be difficult to credit. It is not much of a spoiler to disclose that within the first few pages they both become homeless and the husband gets a fatal diagnosis. I don't think I would have found the husband's name very credible in fiction either. Like any autobiographical novel, you are occasionally left wondering as to how much exaggeration and selective memory or plain selection is involved, but that belongs with the genre, and is indeed one reason why I'm generally not so keen on autobiographies. It is sort of non-ficton, but not really.
There is no doubt that it is more pleasurable to read a book like this if you know the landscape a bit. I lived a couple of summers close to the coast path, not far from Lulworth Cove in Dorset. That was also a little bit of a fact-is-stranger-that-fiction experience. I lived on a farm in a converted turkey shed (still with turkeys in the other half), about 100 cats living half wild on the farm and the occasional deer carcass cut open in front of my shed, for the cats to feast on.
The books was also a little reminiscent of teenage cycling holidays, camping without paying in farmers' fields (but with permission, never a problem in those days) and almost no money. But of course, their journey was not a holiday and there is a world of difference between choosing to live in a tent for a couple of weeks and wild camping because you are homeless. An excellent aspect of the book is the way that it gives the reader understanding both of just how many homeless people there are in England (especially the largely hidden rural poor), orders of magnitude larger than the official figures and that the vast majority are not in that situation because of alcohol or drug dependency.
One aspect of the book which was surprising and a little disconcerting was the repeated mention of the fact that as 50-year-olds walking the path, many people commented on how old they were for such an activity. As a 56-year-old I am not used to the idea that I am 'old' yet. Perhaps their years of working as farmers in the open air made them look much older?
Bottom line; even if you don't know the coast path, definitely worth reading.