SALT SLOW

 WHAT A GREAT READ THIS BOOK IS!

One of my operatives came across this book by accident and thought it might be worth a look.  SHE WAS MORE THAN RIGHT ABOUT THAT.  

This book by Julia Armfield, ISBN 978-1529012590, is a collection of short stories.  All the stories have their points, but I want to draw your attention to the one they used to give the book a title: the last one, right in the back.  All the stories in here are about Naked Ape women going through some sort of transformation, and some of them were a little PUZZLING, to be frank.  But that last story, "salt slow," is JUST THE SORT OF TRAINING MATERIAL I AM ALWAYS HOPING TO FIND FOR YOU LADIES.

The story is about a couple set adrift in a rowboat after the RAINS COME, and DRY LAND IS A THING OF THE PAST.  The woman is telling the story and significantly, she has no sense that the water will ever recede.  This is her life now.  Bobbing on the waves, hoping to find something to eat.  She's ravenous because she's pregnant, see, and this doesn't seem to worry her much at all.  Being almost alone in the world...not knowing or caring what day it is...unsure how long she has been pregnant or when the baby is due...not really getting along anymore with the baby's father and not worried about that, either...One point that really struck me is that she's permanently out to sea and seems completely unconcerned with finding drinkable water.

See where I'm going with this?

As you know PERFECTLY WELL, ladies, most of these post-apocalyptic stories are presented to us as HORROR of some sort.  Not this one.  This story has a perfectly happy ending that I refuse to spoil for you.

Go ahead and read the rest of the book first.  It's quite good.  It comes across as if a non-human wrote it, in fact, quite a lot of the time. 

DID a non-human write it?

You really think I'd let information like that slip?

The rest of SALT SLOW gets 1 fin up, but "salt slow" gets two fins way, way up.

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