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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Not to like the author of The Salt Path

56 replies

Romax · 30/03/2019 21:29

I had been so looking forward to starting this audio book. Ticked every box.

I’m 90 minutes in and I have not all warmed to the author.

She lost her home and then finds out her husband has a terminal illness. My heart went out to her struggles But....

She seems deeply judgmental and actually, for want of another word, bitchy.

I feel like I could well be the only person on the planet who reads / listens to the book and feels this way.

But on the off chance I’m not alone....?

OP posts:
polarpig · 31/03/2019 08:06

I thought that as well, it put me off reading further into the book. Lots of people have said how good it is though Hmm

Original poster
Romax · 31/03/2019 08:25

Pleased I’m not alone

So far it seems that everyone they encounter she pours negative judgment over

I’m close to abandoning

OP posts:
Noteventhebestdrummer · 31/03/2019 08:44

She's really annoying! And hopelessly disorganised. I finished the book and it was worth a read but I don't see that it's as amazing as people say.

Haggisfish · 31/03/2019 08:45

Oh no! I’m just about to start this and have wanted to read it for ages!Grin

JuneFromBethesda · 31/03/2019 08:48

This is on my list of books to read so I’m intrigued to hear this ..:

HoneysuckIejasmine · 31/03/2019 08:48

I feel the same about Eleanor Oliphant. I'm about a quarter of the way through. I do not like her at all. I probably won't finish it.

PristineCondition · 31/03/2019 08:50

i read it because lots of reveiws, presumably written by her family, saying what nice inspiring person she was

Kind of thought she was absolute knob.

Original poster
Romax · 31/03/2019 13:33

@HoneysuckIejasmine

This woman isn’t a fictional character. It’s a true story.
Eleanor wasn’t meant to be likeable I don’t think. That was a bloody good book IMO

This woman I think we are most certain meant to like and root for. She’s certainly endured enough struggle

But I find her scathing, superior and unpleasant

Shame as I think the book has be potential to be great

OP posts:
HoneysuckIejasmine · 31/03/2019 16:29

Oh, I know. I just meant "here is another book about a person who I don't like". I know she's not a real person, but I've heard everyone say how wonderful the book is but I just hate it.

user1469530553 · 31/03/2019 16:35

Oh good, it’s not just me, then. I didn’t like the pair of them.

Justheretogiveaviewfrommyworld · 31/03/2019 16:36

We'll always have Paris is awful too. Self-centred and delusional author. Vile read.

KittyMcAllister · 09/04/2019 23:37

So glad I've found some kindred spirits! Just finished this one for book group and did not warm to the woman at all- selfish, disorganised & reluctant to take responsibility for the consequences of her actions.

Hopefully I won't be alone in my group!

Aquiline · 09/04/2019 23:45

I don’t think people generally turn into a combination of Mahatma Gandhi and the Virgin Mary when they lose their home and farm, income source and get a verdict of terminal illness on their partner within a couple of days of one another.

Original poster
Romax · 10/04/2019 05:28

I don’t expect Gandhi
However I don’t enjoy reading almost constant scorn being poured on all almost all those they encounter and holiday crowds. What they are wearing, eating, way they talk, the holidays they’re on... the list of features that the author essentially bitches about at every opportunity goes on and on

It was a relief to finish and no longer have that nastiness in my life actually.

OP posts:
Bloodybridget · 10/04/2019 06:11

Good to find this thread - I read The Salt Path a couple of weeks ago; I got through it quickly and wanted to find out what would happen to them in the end, but I wasn't very impressed with it as a book, it was not well written, very repetitive and flat. And I was surprised that so many of the people they encountered were apparently rude, unkind and judgemental - I did start to wonder if they were managing to put people's backs up! OTOH the observations about homelessness and just not having access to money were very thought-provoking.

Aquiline · 10/04/2019 07:23

But don’t you think you’d feel savagely critical of other people’s waste, judgementalism etc — justifiably or not — if you were suddenly homeless, incurably ill/looking at your partner’s incurable illness, hungry and desperate?

Home77 · 10/04/2019 08:02

I didn't like it either

Thought it was like 'being homeless tourism'

Didn't like the way they just buggered off after making daft financial decisions leaving teenage kids homeless and stressed about them

All about them- agree with comments about others like they are more superior- and then when they decided to go to uni to get free student loans and accommodation at the end! Kind of taking the piss really

Also didn't like all the talk about how smelly they were- so much so that children on a ferry had to move away. Nice. Hmm

Home77 · 10/04/2019 08:03

Sorry should have put spoiler alert there for the ending.

Home77 · 10/04/2019 08:03

They made themselves homeless as they didn't want to get council accommodation, btw,

PristineCondition · 10/04/2019 09:42

They didn't have to be homeless and fuck up the kids lives, there were options they were to selfish to take.
Had they made decisions like adult parents rather than petulant children i expect it would of been better for them and the poor kids but she sought of got a book out of it

Home77 · 10/04/2019 10:47

It's kind of weird how the husband was terminally ill but now seems to be completing his studies Ok etc...maybe the walk turned it around as they seem to say but who knows...

Original poster
Romax · 10/04/2019 13:17

Given how disorganised she is (Failing to submit court evidence in time; failing to cancel insurance so company took money from their account; failing to bring any docs with them in order to sort matters out, the list goes on) it makes me wonder whether they were actually “wronged” in court.

But being disorganised is not unpleasant (difficult to live with though), I have no issue with that.

It’s the pure contempt she seems to have for the massive majority of people.

OP posts:
WeepingWillowWeepingWino · 10/04/2019 13:22

Wow. I read this a while ago and really enjoyed it, didn’t get any of what the OP is getting from it at all.

But then I’m sure if she’d started an AIBU about it all the perfect parents on MN would have piled on

Homefireburn1ng · 10/04/2019 13:33

What an unpleasant thread.

Homefireburn1ng · 10/04/2019 13:39

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/dec/06/home-is-a-state-of-mind-you-dont-need-walls

Not sure homelessness, terminal illness and a physical challenge is supposed to be a fairytale.HmmNice to see empathy is alive and kicking on MN.