Sugar and Salt by Susan Wiggs
Sugar and Salt (William Morrow) is a beautifully written story that, like its title, is equal parts sweet and poignant. Susan Wiggs doesn’t shy away from difficult topics, but masterfully balances them with themes of hope and resilience. Wiggs’ portrayal of San Francisco feels so authentic that one might find themselves looking for the fictional restaurants she created next time they are in the Bay area. Truly, the setting is so delicious and the scenery described so vividly, I would recommend this book to anyone who considers themselves a foodie or enjoys watching shows like Chef’s Table in their spare time.
A STORY OF REDEMPTION, FOOD AND LOVE
Margot or “Margie”, our main character, is impressively determined to open a Texas barbeque restaurant in the competitive market of downtown San Francisco. Haunted by a mysterious and traumatic past, she is still able to realize her dream. Margot moves her new restaurant into a building with a fascinating history wrapped in activism and the civil rights movement. It is here where she meets the neighboring bakery owners, Jerome Sugar and his mother, Ida. Her connection and friendship with Ida are instantaneous, but a mishap upon first meeting Jerome makes their attraction to one another slightly more confusing.
As the story unfolds, we get glimpses of Ida’s whirlwind romance from the 70s as well as Margot’s harrowing past in Texas. Wiggs is able to pull together a tremendous amount of moving parts, timelines and characters effortlessly.
COZY SMALL-TOWN CHARM
The community of small businesses Margot finds as neighbors have a cozy aesthetic that is so charming it feels like a small town, despite being set in the large city of San Francisco. Perdita Street acts almost as a character itself, seeing Ida through tragedies like racism, the Vietnam war draft and the complications and joys of being in love for the first time. It also provides respite for Margot, whose tremendous success there resurfaces moments from her past that she wishes were long forgotten. Learning the history of Perdita Street while seeing it provide hope for the characters’ futures is a poignant thread throughout the book that I found very moving.
YOU’LL CRAVE ANOTHER SEQUEL
Sugar and Salt tackles some tough and triggering topics without belaboring the traumatizing events on the page or making one feel entirely hopeless. The resilience of the characters and the overarching timeline provide a brightness to the story despite its darker moments. While the writing is descriptive and rich, the pacing of the book always left me wanting more and didn’t drag.
This was my first Susan Wiggs novel and I will definitely be back for more. Though Sugar and Salt is part of a series following the local business owners of Perdita Street, I did not find myself at all confused or behind by first picking up this second installment. I’m sure the details of the book will be even richer for long-time fans, but Sugar and Salt is a novel I would recommend to just about anyone. That said, I intend to go back and read the first book in the series simply to spend more time in the local shops of Perdita Street.
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About Susan Wiggs:
Susan Wiggs’s life is all about family, friends … and fiction. She lives at the water’s edge on an island in Puget Sound, and in good weather, she commutes to her writers’ group in a 21-foot motorboat. She’s been featured in the national media, including NPR, PRI, and USA Today, has given programs for the US Embassies in Buenos Aires and Montevideo, and is a popular speaker locally, nationally, internationally, and on the high seas.
From the very start, her writings have illuminated the everyday dramas of ordinary people facing extraordinary circumstances. Her books celebrate the power of love, the timeless bonds of family and the fascinating nuances of human nature. Today, she is an international best-selling, award-winning author, with millions of copies of her books in print in numerous countries and languages.
The author is a former teacher, a Harvard graduate, an avid hiker, an amateur photographer, a good skier and terrible golfer, yet her favorite form of exercise is curling up with a good book.
