The Saffron Kitchen

-by Yasmin Crowther

I really, really liked this book. There's a whole lot going on - a mother returning to Iran, child abuse, miscarriage with fault, mother-daughter relationship, woman-man relationship (in three very different ways), Islam, England, Iran, identity-seeking, cross-cultural relationships, homesickness, family, and so on. I took this book slow - reading only a bit and then setting it aside to think about it.

The narrative style was complex but not confusing. Midway through I thought, "Wait, did she just say --" and I set it aside and thought about it. By the end of the book, it was clear that yes, she did say that. I liked the confirmation, not leaving open questions.

That's not to say there are no open questions - there are loads of them - but they are not gratuitous. They represent the never-closed questions of real life.

I liked that I learned from reading it and that it brought things up I hadn't thought of.

My one criticism is her choice to use M as the first letter of each of the Iranian towns she speaks of. These may well be real places which means she didn't really "choose" - but I found it really confusing.

Maybe somebody could say the book is anti-Islam because the patriarch is so cruel, but I think that's entirely missing the point, especially when considering how very progressive Ali is and he's never ventured from small-town Iran.