M. H. Salter

Dove by M.H. Salter is both a coming of age story and an attempt to situate that story within the larger context of the Vietnam War (I refuse to call it the Vietnam Conflict) in the United States and Canada.

I was initially surprised by the change in pacing of the story but came to feel it was meant to reflect what was, or was not, happening at those points. That said, I think that aspect will throw some readers off. Tense shifts I also have tried to understand as representing an aspect of the story overall but have not come to an explanation I am completely satisfied with.

I enjoyed the book overall but had too many places where I was questioning something about it to really say I liked it a lot, thus the three stars. I do, however, see this as a book that some will really love, so I don't want to suggest anyone who is intrigued by the book blurb not read it.

I would recommend this book with the caveats I mentioned above. If the things I mentioned are pet peeves of yours, you might not enjoy the book. Otherwise, I think most people interested in this era, which was one of many experiences, will enjoy it. There is no single experience of the 1960s in America, so just because some reviewers claim it didn't match with theirs really means nothing. There was a long and nuanced spectrum of feelings during that time and this book successfully chooses one path and follows it along.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.… (plus d'informations)

This book is set in one of my favorite eras to read about, so I was looking forward to the experience. No doubt Salter is an excellent writer, and there is much to love about this book. She immerses us in the hippie culture through Ray's and Japhy's experiences. These kids aren't the typical San Francisco hippies. They are confused teens trying to figure things out as they go along, and fall into the hippie lifestyle partly out of shared beliefs and largely as an escape.

Salter excels at characterization. I felt the characters' emotions, whether sadness, confusion, or excitement, and I understood what drove their actions. Even the minor characters came alive.

The story itself is largely a coming of age drama, complicated by the turmoil of a war many young people did not believe in and the ever-present threat of the draft. I felt the first third of the book moved at a good pace, and I was sucked right into the story. Salter's handling of the Kent State shooting was masterful. But the entire middle of the book lagged. We have a lot of angst, introspection, and contemplation. If you're a fan of coming of age stories and dramas, then you will likely love this aspect and not be bothered by the slower pace. For me, though, the slowness took away much of that sense of foreboding and, by the time things happened, I had been expecting them and wasn't surprised at all.

One other issue I had a problem with was the author's choice of tenses. Both Japhy's and Ray's narrations are in first person, but Japhy's is written in first person present and Ray's is written in first person past. These changes threw me off, continually calling my attention to a shift from past to present for no clear reason. The different tenses made me feel that Japhy's present tense parts were immediate but Ray's were not. Switching to Ray's past tense, I felt she was telling us something that already happened, instead of narrating as things happened, even though both narrators followed the same present timeline.

If you like neatly wrapped up endings, this one might be a problem for you. The author leaves some things open-ended, letting us wonder and perhaps decide for ourselves how these aspects will resolve themselves. I didn't love the ending, though I respect the author's choice.

One final thing, which is no reflection on my feelings about the book but is worth mentioning here. The music of a real singer - James Lee Stanley - figures prominently within this story. Salter talks about it in her introduction, giving information about the soundtrack made for this book, which we can listen to and purchase. She lists Amazon as a source for this soundtrack, but I was unable to find the music there. The link for the soundtrack on her website comes up empty. It is listed on James Lee Stanley's site, but only as a purchase option. You can't even sample the songs. This was a disappointment but, as I mentioned, is not relevant to my thoughts on the book. You might find the soundtrack on iTunes. I don't use iTunes, so I don't know.

*I received an ebook copy from the publisher, via NetGalley, in exchange for my honest review.*… (plus d'informations)