Sugar and Salt

Sugar and Salt

By Susan Wiggs

Audio Version

Copyright 2022

I haven't been reviewing books for a while, but this one deserves a nod.

This is the fourth Susan Wiggs book I have listened to. If you'd asked me what she wrote before I listened to Sugar & Salt, I'd have said forgettable beach reads. The Apple Orchard was the only one of the four I could recall, and then I only remembered it because it was something about selling the family orchard. That would have stuck with me because I've seen that happen locally. And I live on a farm.

The other books I've read are The Goodbye Quilt, Welcome to Beach Town, and The Summer Hideaway. Honestly, I cannot tell you what they were about unless I go read a synopsis. I had Wiggs on my reading list as one of those authors I listen to or read when I want something light that I don't have to focus on.

But Sugar & Salt is a book to focus on.

This book is a break-out for me as a reader of this author. Wiggs shows she can pack a punch and address important issues with her fiction. Romance? Sure, there's a bit of romance in this book. But this book takes on all kinds of important issues - race, interracial marriage, abortion, rape, guns, and poverty, to name a few.

This book is a gut punch that says, "Hey, look around you. There's a whole world out here and I have a little something to say about it."

I liked what she said and the way she said it. She didn't sugarcoat it, either. In this story, Margo is an up-and-coming restaurant owner in San Francisco. She's reached the peak of her career. Next door to her restaurant is a bakery, owned by a Black family.

As the two family's stories intertwine, we learn lots of back history about Ida B., the Black older retired owner of the bakery, and her son who has taken it over. Then we learn Margo's backstory.

And she has quite the backstory, one of poverty and sadness. I won't go into details because this book needs to be read, but at the end of the book, the author points out that the character of Margo is an amalgamation of many women who have been treated poorly by life, circumstances, and our failing justice system. In other words, while her story may sound like it couldn't happen, it happens all the time.

Wiggs has moved up on my list of authors to look for after listening to this book. I may have found her earlier work to be light, but now I will listen to her with a different ear. She certainly caught my attention with this book.