Book Review: Fish Heads and Duck Skin
Fish Heads and Duck Skin by Lindsey Salatka
My rating: 1 of 5 stars
I very much wanted to love this book. I had a preconceived notion that it might be in the spirit of Erma Bombeck’s mishap-adventure books, which I loved in my younger days. The premise is promising – young professional workaholic mother of two gives up the American dream so her husband can take a job in Shanghai.
I was intrigued by her confusing, frustrating immersion into Chinese culture, but the gems of storytelling were difficult to extract from the juvenile gross-out humor. After a stomach-turning first chapter which went into way too much detail about an accident in a dirty trench bathroom, I thought we might be done with the body-function humor. But then, her daughter ate too much candy and got airsick on another passenger on the flight over. Subsequent chapters happily referred to more potty antics, and just *had* to mention the smell of pee in the air.
I made it to the halfway mark and had to stop. In an ideal world, this book would be re-written to focus more on the adventure, and less on stuff that comes out of our bodies.
My thanks to author Lindsey Salatka, NetGalley, and She Writes Press for allowing me to read a digital advance review copy of this book. This review is my honest and unbiased opinion.
Lori Alden Holuta
Lori Alden Holuta lives between the cornfields of Mid-Michigan, where she grows vegetables and herbs when she’s not writing, editing, or playing games with a cat named Chives.
