The Lost Salt Gift Of Blood (1989) - Plot & Excerpts
I found this in the way that lots of us semi-literate plodders find books, from an obituary. Before his death in April, 2014, I had not previously been aware of MacLeod or his work. The praise that accompanied his obituary sent me to Amazon, and the only one of his books available (at the time) in Kindle format.Almost immediately, I found myself recalling E. Annie Proulx's "The Shipping News" as I immersed myself in the stark, bleak environment of MacLeod's North Atlantic coast. I particularly enjoy being there with them, in their stories, and even found myself nostalgically recalling an Alistair MacLean adventure novel set nearby.I thoroughly enjoyed a few of the stories in this collection, but wonder now if I was damaged too much by the opening story, which disturbed and depressed me. I don't mind being depressed by a story, but I feel like I might be a sucker for some level of redemption, and the stories here have little of that. In "The Shipping News," Quoyle eventually found happiness, so maybe I was subconsciously expecting that for the characters in these stories, but they were repeatedly denied.Now, that's a personal preference thing, and I wouldn't impose that on my friends who might love to be left disappointed that the unicorns didn't show up to carry the hero away. The characters here were interesting and well developed, and there was some true artistry in some of the descriptive writing, most particularly in the story "The Road to Rankin's Point."
What do You think about The Lost Salt Gift Of Blood (1989)?
