THIRST FOR SALT: THE BOOK FOR YEARNERS

About a year ago I was on a train to New York City. It was the day after Christmas, my mother and I hoped the hustle and bustle of tourism was at its end as the holiday season was almost over. Growing up on the shore of Jersey my whole life, I got used to the lazy afternoons spent slumped on NJ Transit, watching the city skyline grow closer and closer as you pass another track. I realize now that I take this for granted—how close New York City is to me, and how some people spend their whole lives trying to make it there. Nonetheless, I decided to pass the time by reading a book I came across on the Books app on my phone.

The title drew me in first, Thirst for Salt, an oxymoron that was perfectly poetic and suggested a desire for something inherently dehydrating. Thirst for Salt takes place in a fictional Australian beach town, Sailor’s Beach, where we follow our unnamed, 24-year-old protagonist during a summer spent crusted in salt, sand, and sunscreen from her days spent lounging. The description of her summer seemed scarily similar to my hazy days spent at the Jersey Shore. Except there was a hint of the mundane in her descriptions that stuck out to me. I realized then, through her sultry descriptions she was reflecting on her memories and her perspective through ocean-colored lenses. Where everything seems blue and foggy and just a little misty, not quite able to see through everything clearly.

“On our first evening, we shelled and ate prawns with  our fingers, dipping our hands in a bowl of warm water and lemon.” Maybe this is an ordinary sentence, but as I re-read this book for the third time, I realized that it was her writing that made me observant of the ordinary. Made me appreciative of everyday things like shucking shells on a wooden table to suck the meat out, squeezing a tube of sunscreen on your pink back, brushing your hair when its wet and letting the droplets fall around you—evidence of movement, of live and nourishment. 

And there were other sentences in the book that I read over and over again. Lucas’ writing is so simple yet sticks to you like a jellyfish. “At a certain time down south, sea and sky seem to merge, to kiss. Mirroring each other, like lovers do.” I think that quote satisfies most questions about love. How you can be so infatuated with someone your movements start to mimic theirs, your words melt into one another's like putty.

I will not spoil it for you, but I’ll leave you with this. If you have any questions about relationships—whether it’s with a good friend, significant other, or even family—this book addresses all the complicated feelings a young woman finds with her relationships this fateful summer. Each page is beautiful, so much so I didn’t want it to end on that train ride. As I got off at Penn Station and walked through the noise polluted streets, my mind was singing songs of the sea. The book was all I could think about that whole trip, and I found myself reading it in between ‘don't walk’ signs and whenever we grabbed coffee. I finished the book on the train ride home. 

I am forever yearning for a trip to Australia, so I can write my own story about that foreign ocean salt. 

CITATIONS:

Lucas, Madelaine. Thirst for Salt: A Novel. Tin House, 2023.