The Salt of Broken Tears

By Michael Meehan

On the edge of the remote salt flats of Australia, a young woman blows in from nowhere and disturbs the precarious equilibrium of a family farm. The boy is fascinated by her, his mother despises her,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1559705671
• ISBN13: 9781559705677
• Release Date: May 2001
• Publisher: Arcade Publishing
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.8" x 1.3" x 5.9"

Customer Reviews

Aussie Desert Lover

We've just read and discussed this book in our local bookclub and what a lively discussion we had! I was one of the few who loved the book so perhaps I should get one of the other members to write about what they hated about it - some gave up reading it, one used up a whole box of tissues in sopping up her own tears as the tradgedies so related to where she was in her own jounrey of life, some found it very heavey reading (as I did in places and had to re-read several sections), others coundn't understand it or found the chaacters unreal, especially the barefoot lass walking out of the desert - and what did happen to her in the end? we all had our theories!! I have only skirted the areas described in the book in North-West Victoria but have certainly travelled and stayed in the Salt Lakes country of Western Australia and lived 10 years in the Pilbara in the N-W of Western Australia (1976-87) on the edge of the Great Sandy Desert and we are now reaping the environmental destructive desserts of the massive clearing of the marginal lands for wheat and sheep. I have experienced the dust storms of the denuded and overgrazed land, bought fresh produce from an itinerant Mohommad and bought feral camel, kangaroo and donkey meats from a hunter/"character" of the N-W, had my fence built by the part aboringinal wife of a "dogger"(dingo hunter), lived next door to retired jockey/horsetrainer of the country race meetings, camped in a dry riverbed with an aboriginal "mob" as my husband conferred on government busines with them (he was an Aboriginal Affairs Officer), my husband's father was given a block of land as a returned soldier (he left after a few years - he wasn't a farmer) at a marginal place called Doodlakine. I read the book and it's all true. These people exist. These places exist. The hot headed racism and tragedies exist. The kindness and community exists. The "yobboes" like Joe exist. The lonely, isolated women "holding it all together" exist (one of our bookclub members[with the tissues] worked as a single 20 year old teacher in a desert school (1970s)- she knows]. The Government policies that look good on paper but are utter idiocy in "The Bush" exist. The isolation, not as extreme now, still exists (people recently lost in the desert have been rescued because they had their mobile phones with them!!)The one thing the book brings out brilliantly, is the mysticism of the land, the desert, its' people and creatures. When you've lived there, you can't not be affected by it. And the magic of the rivers when they are full of water and the snow-white massive saltlakes.When we (bookclub)got bogged down with the seeming unreality, especially of Eileen, I said "but she isn't real". If you look at the book as an allegory, Eileen represented what everyone in their hearts wanted most of what as missing in their lives:- the mother freedom and carefreedom; Joe a woman of his own; Hannah a soulmate; the boy stepping stones to awareness and adulthood; Au

COMING OF AGE IN AN UNFORGIVING LANDSCAPE

I have to agree with one point made by the reviewer below -- Michael Meehan's darkly powerful novel is a difficult read. I can usually finish a book of this length in 2-3 days -- this one took me over a week. Upon reflection, after I completed the book, I believe that this effect might well have been part of the author's purpose in choosing the style in which he composed this work. His descriptions are intense and lenghty at times -- in many ways they are as relentless as the harsh environment in which the story takes place. They necessitate the reader taking a more leisurely pace. Things change slowly, imperceptably, in the Australian bush, and the style in which the novel is written hammers that home in the mind of the reader -- parallelling the way the characters' lives are pounded into shape by the forge, hammer and anvil of the world in which they live.Set in the sparsely-settled Ausstralian bush country, THE SALT OF BROKEN TEARS is a heart-wrenching, moving coming-of-age story. The boy who is the focus of the novel -- we never learn his given name, and only toward the end of the book is even a nickname revealed -- lives on a farm with his parents, his sister, his silent aunt and a couple of motley workmen. One day, in the killing heat of the afternoon, seemingly out of a dusty whirlwind, a young woman wanders into the yard, clad only in a thin, torn dress. She is taken in by the family -- ostensibly on a temporary basis -- and soon becomes a fixture, touching the lives of everyone who lives there in ways they will not soon forget.The girl -- Eileen -- is beautiful and alluring, a free spirit unlike anyone they have ever met. The boy's sister Hannah sees in her a friend and older sister for whom she has ached. Auntie Argie -- silent and believed lost in a world of her own for many years -- finds a kindness in Eileen's touch that brings back memories from her youth, full of joy and sadness and love. The mother eyes Eileen with suspicion and derides her for her 'loose ways' as a bad example for the children. Joe Spencer, one of the farmhands, strong and mostly silent, full of the pent-up loneliness and rage that comes along with the isolation in which the farm exists, finds in her an outlet for his lusts and aches. She is an enigma, a mystery to all.The boy is smitten by Eileen from the moment he sets eyes on her, the day she wanders in out of the bush. He is a young teenager, entering into manhood in an unbelievbaly harsh environment, whose only experience with women has been within his own family. Eileen is keenly aware of her affect on him -- she pushes him gently down a sensual path, but kindly. I never got the impression that she was teasing him or treating him with any sort of cruelty or thoughtlessness.Tensions build up on the farm -- it becomes increasingly clear to all concerned that Eileen's presence there is something that must end if order is to be restored and maintained. However, when she disappears, leaving only a