| View Larger Image | The Book of Salt: A Novel | Paperbackby Monique Truong (Author)
| List Price: | $13.95 | | Price: | $10.04 | | You Save: | $3.91 (28%) | | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours |
| | Binding: | Paperback | | Publisher: | Mariner Books | | Page Count: | 272 Pages | | Publication Date: | June 15, 2004 | | Sales Rank: | 246,761th |
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FEATURES | - ISBN13: 9780618446889
- Condition: USED - VERY GOOD
- Notes:
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
"[He] came to us through an advertisement that I had in desperation put in the newspaper. It began captivatingly for those days: 'Two American ladies wish to hire . . .' " It was these lines in The Alice B. Toklas Cook Book that inspired The Book of Salt, a brilliant first novel by an acclaimed Vietnamese American writer. In Paris, 1934, Binh has accompanied his employers, Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, to the train station for their departure to America. His own destination is unclear: will he go with "the Steins," stay in France, or return to his native Vietnam? Binh has fled his homeland in disgrace, leaving behind his malevolent charlatan of a father and his self-sacrificing mother. For five years, he has been the live-in cook at the famous apartment at 27 rue de Fleurus. Before Binh's decision is revealed, his mesmerizing narrative catapults us back to his youth in French-colonized Vietnam, his years as a galley hand at sea, and his days turning out fragrant repasts for the doyennes of the Lost Generation. Binh knows far more than the contents of the Steins' pantry: he knows their routines and intimacies, their manipulations and follies. With wry insight, he views Stein and Toklas ensconced in rueful domesticity. But is Binh's account reliable? A lost soul, he is a late-night habitue of the Paris demimonde, an exile and an alien, a man of musings and memories, and, possibly, lies. Love is the prize that has eluded him, from his family to the men he has sought out in his far-flung journeys, often at his peril. Intricate, compelling, and witty, the novel weaves in historical characters, from Stein and Toklas to Paul Robeson and Ho Chi Minh, with remarkable originality. Flavors, seas, sweat, tears -- The Book of Salt is an inspired feast of storytelling riches. |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 3.5 based on 42 reviews)
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Too Poetic by J. Edgar Mihelic (Chicago)  2 Stars
September 01, 2009
I wish I had a better, more reasoned critique, but the narrative voice for the character didn't fit with the image I had of him. The consciousness of the conceit of an uneducated Vietnamese cook telling his own story in such poetic language didn't fit. It made me like the book less and less as I read it.
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One of the best books of the decade by Dianna B. Johnston (Alexandria, Va United States)  5 Stars
August 12, 2009
No need to reiterate the plot, which has been repeatedly well summarized on this site. I can only add that this relatively unknown book is utterly charming and beautifully written. I recommended it to my book club and it was one of only three books (of 80) that we all loved.
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A journey by M. Newmark (Forest Hills, NY) 5 Stars
June 27, 2009
THE BOOK OF SALT is not an easy read but is well worth reading. As its narrator, binh, makes his Candide-like journey across the universe, he makes observations and has experiences which will linger with this reader for a long time to come,. Salt, in many guises, is the unifying thread for the n=many characters, real and fictional, whose stories are tightly woven in the fabric of this novel.
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an Outsider's Voice by Kathleen Knopoff (Palo Alto, CA)  4 Stars
March 08, 2008
As I read the debates here, mostly about prose style, I have to smile. For me, other than the sensuality of her descriptions, the book is primarily about the voice of an outsider. Someone who, no matter where he goes, is always on the outside looking in. And, I surmise, is most comfortable with life that way. Raised as an outsider to his own family and home by his father, Bihn seeks out one night stands, or dabbles in relationships with people "out of his league" with whom he ultimately has no chance. He experiences a moment "inside the circle" with the Steins, and the next day gets so drunk as to vomit all over the kitchen, ensuring his place back "outside" the circle. Perhaps his fantasy of real, yet unrequited, relationship is the engine for his very apt and sensual descriptions of life and food (check out why love is a quince to understand the point). I found the book well written, and the depth of the character's point of view well drawn.
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Boring... But Well Written by Book Dork (Southern California) 2 Stars
September 08, 2007
I was supposed to read this novel for an Asian Literature class as an undergrad at UCLA (over three years ago) but I could never get past the first few pages. Figuring I'd give it another chance I recently set out determined to discover why a university professor would select it for her class. Apparently I was right the first time; the only thing that got me to the end was Truong's exceptionally well written prose- the actual plot itself literally bored me to sleep on several occasions. Bare in mind, though, I am not particularly interested in Vietnamese history or Gertrude Stein, so if those are topics that interest you it may be a worthwhile read.
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