The Story of Salt (review)

After their notable success in transforming Kurlansky's adult work on cod into a children's book (The Cod's Tale, BCCB 10/01), what could be more natural than for Kurlansky and Schindler to have a go at refashioning Salt? Following a brief introduction to salt's chemical composition and its role in human and animal health, Kurlansky takes readers on a world tour of the geological milieus where salt hangs out, the ancient civilizations that developed large-scale salt production, and the culinary and economic value of salt over time. Without the strong historical trajectory of The Cod's Tale, in which the fish was both the object of pursuit and the enabler of pursuit itself, The Story of Salt lends itself as willingly to browsers as to serious readers. Sidebars and tasty tidbits range from explosive Chinese saltworks (they hadn't reckoned on the proximity of natural gas), to the heavily "sal"-ted Roman vocabulary, to the "ship of state" salt dispensers that graced the tables of French kings. Salt itself doesn't vamp for Schindler as alluringly as the more expressive codfish, but the finely detailed ink-scratch and watercolor scenes are imbued with a droll humor that will keep pages steadily flipping. Those busty French ladies conceal contraband salt fish under their straining stays, and Uncle Sam empties his massive salt shaker over the globe, while a host of representatives from other cultures and nations regard this expression of U.S. dominance of the salt trade with justifiable skepticism. A concluding timeline of "Salt through the Ages" actually supplements rather than recaps the text, inviting readers to take one last lick.