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The Book of Salt

3.48 of 5 stars 3.48 · rating details · 2,363 ratings · 401 reviews

Binh, a Vietnamese cook, flees Saigon in 1929, disgracing his family to serve as galley hand at sea. The taunts of his now-deceased father ringing in his ears, Binh answers an ad for a live-in cook at a Parisian household, and soon finds himself employed by Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas.

Toklas and Stein hold court in their literary salon, for which the devoted yet ace...more

Paperback, 272 pages

Published June 15th 2004 by Mariner Books (first published 2003)

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Mar 27, 2011 Whitaker rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: contemporary-fiction, gay, 2011-read, multiple-countries

An epic failure of research and imagination.

The reviewers on GR who have rated this novel highly have generally praised its poetic evocation of love and loss. Okay, I can get that. The novel is an extended dirge of a life spent in unrequited longing as a result of a loveless childhood and an equally loveless adulthood. All of it told in prose like this:

I am at sea again. I am at sea again. Not the choppy, churning body that bashes open a ship's hull like a newborn's soft skull. Yes, a sapphire

...more An epic failure of research and imagination.

The reviewers on GR who have rated this novel highly have generally praised its poetic evocation of love and loss. Okay, I can get that. The novel is an extended dirge of a life spent in unrequited longing as a result of a loveless childhood and an equally loveless adulthood. All of it told in prose like this:

I am at sea again. I am at sea again. Not the choppy, churning body that bashes open a ship's hull like a newborn's soft skull. Yes, a sapphire that a ship's bow skims and grooves. A calming blue expanse between now and Sunday.

That little paragraph is a description of the main character's emotions after learning that his current lover wants to see him again the next weekend.

Here's another sample, this time the main character, Bình, describes love:

Quinces are ripe, GertrudeStein, when they are the yellow of canary wings in midflight. They are ripe when their scent teases you with the snap of green apples and the perfumed embrace of coral roses. But even then quinces remain a fruit, hard and obstinate—useless, GertrudeStein, until they are simmered, coddled for hours above a low, steady flame. Add honey and water and watch their dry, bone-coloured flesh soak up the heat, coating itself in an opulent orange, not of the sunrises that you never see but of the insides of tree-riped papayas, a colour you can taste. To answer your question, GertrudeStein, love is not a bowl of quinces yellowing in a blue and white china bowl, seen but untouched.

If that kind of writing is what you like, then go for it. Unfortunately, that is all you are going to get here. And frankly, that's far too little for me.

It's irritating to be jerked out of a prose induced reverie when a metaphor for the forming of opinions is written thusly:

But once they are formed, ours become the thick, thorny coat of a durian, a covering designed to forestall the odour of rot and decay deep inside.

Now obviously, the writer does not know (a) that among us South-east Asians, durians are called the king of fruit and that odour is highly prized and (b) yes, you can smell that odour even with the thick thorny coat on. No indigenous Vietnamese man would describe the durian thusly. It would be the equivalent of a French chef referring to the smell of a Roquefort as putrid, decaying rot.

In a fairly crucial plot point, she refers to Bình’s grandmother giving jade earrings as a dowry for his mother. That jangled for me instantly, since in Vietnamese culture it is the groom that is required to give a dowry (or, strictly, the bride-price).

She writes of ancestor “worship” thus:

After my mother gave birth to me, there were many things she could no longer pray to her father and mother about. They would have disowned her. Then whom would she have left to worship, whose likeness would she have left to reconfigure from memory for her family altar? There is no forgiveness in ancestor worship, only retribution and eternal debt.

That is extremely irritating to read. It's an outsider’s description marking mostly a complete failure of understanding. Asians don’t worship ancestors the way Christians worship their God. A closer term would be ancestor veneration. There is no prayer or conversation with ancestors akin to confiding in God and the saints. Incense, food, and other offerings are made by way of both showing respect and to feed them in the afterlife. And the family altar is never never never kept via the woman. That’s why sons are so important. A woman is married out into the husband’s family. She takes HIS ancestors.

There were other clunkers like this that kept popping up, but what finally did the novel in for me were Bình’s descriptions (and this is first-person narrative) of things that happened between Alice B Toklas and Gertrude Stein, private conversations that he, a servant who could not speak English, could not possibly have overheard or—having overheard—understood. He describes, for instance, a fight that takes place between Gertrude Stein and her brother Leo before he arrives to work for them, and the ensuing private conversation between Alice and Gertrude:

[Leo]…concluded for all to hear that Gertrude’s writing was nothing more than babble…“Babble!” GertrudeStein complained to Miss Toklas. “Lovey, there can only be one,” Miss Toklas whispered, repeating the phrase that would absolutely, mercilessly sever GertrudeStein from her brother Leo, her only one…. Leo wrote a note to his sister, as they had chosen to no longer speak, accusing Miss Toklas of stealing her away from him. When Miss Toklas read this, she laughed, and wrote back, “Your sister gave herself to me.”

Okay, Bình doesn’t speak English much less read it, so the only way he would know of the contents of the two letters is if the two of them told him of this. Yes, I can see that happening: the two mistresses confiding this very private event to their cook. Total bollocks!

But why include this event then? Does it pertain in any way to Bihn's story or his development as a character? No. It seems to be written in only so that Truong can impart this stunning bit of writerly post-modern wisdom: “How true, I think. A gift or a theft depends on who is holding the pen.” If Monique Truong had wanted to write a fictionalised account about Gertrude Stein and Alice B Toklas, she should have done just that rather than putting words into the mouth of a badly realised, imperfectly imagined sock puppet who would also come off sounding like a cross between a badly written Hallmark card and a Vietnamese version of Charlie Chan.(less)

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Nov 06, 2007 Suzy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

what can i say...this is the only novel where i rediscover the novel every time i read it. not only are the plot and the characters SO very well developed, but the research into gertrude stein & alice b toklas' lives were extremely well done -- not to mention all the social issues addressed and all the boundaries crossed. who could ask for more? monique truong, you are a genius!

5 likes · like · see review

Sep 28, 2007 Andrew rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: buibooks2006

A beautiful find. This gem of a novel by first time writer Truong shows great promise. A lyrical meditation on love, sex, food, and post colonial identity, this novel about a Vietnamese chef who works for Gertrude Stein and Alice Toklas in Paris, is so comfortable in its dreamy imagination and adaptation that is feels ceaseless. It lingers like an ocean voyage.

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Oct 19, 2007 Phillip Smith rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: EVERYONE

I read this book for a course on queer historical fiction. The story is told by a gay Vietnamese cook who works for Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas in Paris during the late '20s/early '30s. There's not too much plot, but what's there is dispensed slowly, with another piece being added to several timelines with each chapter. The story is drawn from a brief mention in The Alice B. Toklas Cook Book about their actual Vietnamese cook, and it is satisfying to read this novel from the latter perspe...more

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Aug 30, 2007 Sierra rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: fans of strong narrative voice & literate foodies

This book made me want to cook a humongous meal and gorge myself, even though I can't cook my way out of paper bag. Monique Truong's descriptions of food are sensual, but not in the massage kind of way. When she talks about mangoes, it's as though it's a really hot day and you've just plunged your sweaty face into a big bowl of freshly cut mango and shaved ice- that kind of sensual. The book's overarching conceit is also really interesting; its narrator is Anh Binh, a Vietnamese expatriate whose...more

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Dec 17, 2007 Lauren rated it 4 of 5 stars

My friend Naomi lent me this book a couple months ago while she was very homesick for Paris. I took advantage of today's awful weather to sit inside and read it. I can see how some could read it and not quite remember much about the book. One seems to glide in and out of scenes (Vietnam, somewhere in the middle of the ocean, Paris) with total ease. It's amazingly sensual. Descriptions of cooking and eating are as visceral as the descriptions of the books' lovers. I have really enjoyed reading th...more

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Jun 05, 2008 Amy rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-fiction, not-good

I initially picked this book up because I'd been hearing good things about another title - Salt: A World History - so I kind of had salt on the brain.

This book - The Book of Salt - left me very unsatisfied. I don't have a particularly good recollection of why, as I read it several years ago - I just remember some vague thoughts that the writing was not very good, and for some reason I didn't really warm up to Bin (I believe that's how his name was spelled). Unfortunately, I can't cite any specif...more

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Jul 23, 2008 Kate rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

It's told from the point of view of a Vietnamese cook who works for Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas. The cook is the narrator, and we learn throughout the story his compelling, and devastating, family history and why he left Vietnam.

I was only a few pages into the book when I realized that I don't have the voice yet for my historical novel I'm writing. Truong has captured a rich, unique voice in her book that is addictive and haunting. I only have ideas and notes, not that voice that will dri...more

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Dec 02, 2008 Antof9 rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2008-read, biographies-memoirs, unfulfilling

I was 3/4 of the way through this when I took a phone call from a friend and was trying to explain to her why I didn't like it. "You just don't love the dykes," she said (nice). "Actually," I said, "there's not enough about the dykes in this book for me to know if I like them or not!"

... and I realized the problem -- this book isn't about "GertrudeStein" (LOL!) and Alice Toklas; it's not about the chef; it's not about cooking; it's not about Americans living in Paris; and it's not about an unpub...more

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Jan 17, 2013 Beth Jusino rated it 3 of 5 stars

Beautiful prose, fascinating setting, no plot.

Yes, the book has strong, thought-provoking elements of what it means to be "other" -- the miserable approach of the narrator, a gay Vietnamese cook in 1920s/30s Paris, or the brave, positive approach of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, the gay American couple who hired him.

Yes, the author can turn a phrase. But there's no story for the pretty words to describe.

It's all flashbacks of relationships real and imagined, mis-directions and lies, and...more

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Dec 22, 2012 Jill rated it 3 of 5 stars

The Book of Salt isn't normally the kind of book I'd pick up. Reading the blurb - that the Book of Salt is the story of Binh, the Vietnamese cook employed by Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, and how he "observes their domestic entanglements while seeking his own place in the world" - made me fear that this would be another one of those cliched "Asian trying to find self in another country" tales. One of those tales that gains appeal by romanticizing and exoticizing the East with a Capital E....more The Book of Salt isn't normally the kind of book I'd pick up. Reading the blurb - that the Book of Salt is the story of Binh, the Vietnamese cook employed by Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, and how he "observes their domestic entanglements while seeking his own place in the world" - made me fear that this would be another one of those cliched "Asian trying to find self in another country" tales. One of those tales that gains appeal by romanticizing and exoticizing the East with a Capital E. But I was intrigued when a friend of mine told me she loved this book and had devoured it in one sitting.

In a way, I was right. The Book of Salt pressed all the usual buttons, evoking the mysterious East with Binh's recollections of "sour sweat", rice, quinces. Sentences like: "I am an Indochinese laborer, generalized and indiscriminate, easily spotted and readily identifiable all the same. It is this curious mixture of careless disregard and notoriety that makes me long to take my body into a busy Saigon marketplace and lose it in the crush. There, I tell myself, I was just a man, anonymous, and, at a passing glance, a student, a gardener, a poet, a chef, a prince, a porter, a doctor, a scholar. But in Vietnam, I tell myself, I was above all just a man.

The Book of Salt does try to add a new spin to the identity tale. We learn that The Book of Salt isn't just about a young man trying to find himself in a foreign land. As we read on and piece together the various snippets of Binh's life in Vietnam that he chooses to reveal, we learn why Binh left home. We learn about Binh's trick to coping with emptiness, what he does to feel alive. And there are some lovely bits of prose in the book, some lovely metaphors, like when Binh meditates on the nature of love:

"Quinces are ripe, GetrudeStein, when they are the yellow of canary wings in midflight. They are ripe when their scent teases you with the snap of green apples and the perfumed embrace of cora roses. But even then quinces remain a fruit, hard and obstinate - useless, GertrudeStein, until they are simmered, coddled for hours above a low, steady flame. Add honey and water and watch their dry, bone-coloured flesh soak up the heat, coating itself in an opulent orange, not of the sunrises that you never see but of the insides of tree-ripened papayas, a color you can taste. To answer your question, GertrudeStein, love is not a bowl of quinces yellowing in a blue and white china bowl, seen but untouched"

It is these lovely bits of prose scattered about the book that kept me going. The Book of Salt was, on the whole, an entertaining enough read. But to call it magical, extraordinary and fascinating - as some of the reviews did - might be overreaching it a little. (less)

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Jul 15, 2012 Philippa rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Review published in the New Zealand Herald, 18 September 2004

The Book of Salt
Monique Truong
(Random House, $26.95)

Reviewed by Philippa Jamieson

"Two American ladies wish to retain a cook…" This much is true: that sapphic duo Gertrude Stein and Alice B Toklas advertise for a live-in cook during their sojourn in Paris, and an 'Indochinese' is hired. From this snippet of information, Vietnamese-American writer Monique Truong has conjured up a stunning début novel, a banquet for the mind and the sense...more Review published in the New Zealand Herald, 18 September 2004

The Book of Salt
Monique Truong
(Random House, $26.95)

Reviewed by Philippa Jamieson

"Two American ladies wish to retain a cook…" This much is true: that sapphic duo Gertrude Stein and Alice B Toklas advertise for a live-in cook during their sojourn in Paris, and an 'Indochinese' is hired. From this snippet of information, Vietnamese-American writer Monique Truong has conjured up a stunning début novel, a banquet for the mind and the senses.
"Twenty-four figs, so ripe that their skins are split. A bottle of dry port wine. One duck. Twelve hours." Her writing has all the ingredients for a luscious menu of food and desire, served with elegant lyricism and a soupçon of irony. Salt, whether culinary, in tears, sweat or the sea, is a pervading metaphor.
The story begins in 1934, when the lesbian literary luminaries are leaving Paris for their homeland. After five years in their employ, the distinctive and idiosyncratic narrator of this story, Binh the Vietnamese cook, reflects on his time with them, reminisces about his youth in Saigon, and wonders what his future holds. His father is an alcoholic tyrant and gambler who haunts Binh's thoughts; his mother a subservient child bride who passes her dreams of fairytale romance on to her son
Binh trained as a cook, first in his mother's kitchen, then under the wing of his older brother in the French colonial Governor General's residence. There he mastered haute cuisine despite the climate, where milk curdles and egg whites must be beaten outdoors in the cool of the evening. When his homosexuality is discovered, he is fired immediately and disowned by his father, whereupon he sets sail into the world, washing up in Paris.
Binh has an inner life as fertile as his outer expression in the borrowed tongue of French is impoverished. At night he roams the streets, musing, meandering, inhabiting cafés where he drinks to remember and to forget. He is an outcast longing to belong, thrown by fate into a gay milieu, but kept apart by his servant status and his race. Prior knowledge of his 'mesdames' is not required; Binh gives us intimate and amusing glimpses of his employers, their domestic quirks, and their avant-garde coterie.
There are all flavours to savour: the sweet of desire, the sour of exile, the bitter of betrayal and the salt of servitude, and a second reading of this complex and poetic novel will no doubt yield more.

Philippa Jamieson is a Dunedin freelance writer and reviewer.
(less)

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May 09, 2012 Karen White rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: just-for-fun

This was lent to me by a writing group friend, who knew that I like historical fiction. This debut (published 2004) novel is a first person narrative written from the point of view of Binh, the Vietnamese live-in chef employed by Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas in Paris in the 1930s. Ranging back and forth from his life as a young man working in the Governor-General’s kitchen in Saigon, where scandal led him to flee to the sea and eventually to Paris, to his current work for his “Mesdames” in...more

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Jun 08, 2011 Tocotin rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: contemporary-literature, far-east, historical-fiction, i-can-has-slash, my-own-books, used-books

Wow, I liked this! Maybe it has something to do with a big surprise I got when I began reading: the main character is gay and his sexual orientation is important the book, and it's subtly written but very suggestive, and the character is sincere and strong, and refuses to feel sorry for himself despite troubles his love life lands him in. I was happy, really happy about this.

The story is told from the point of view of Binh, a 26-year-old Vietnamese who lives in Paris with Gertrude Stein and Alic...more Wow, I liked this! Maybe it has something to do with a big surprise I got when I began reading: the main character is gay and his sexual orientation is important the book, and it's subtly written but very suggestive, and the character is sincere and strong, and refuses to feel sorry for himself despite troubles his love life lands him in. I was happy, really happy about this.

The story is told from the point of view of Binh, a 26-year-old Vietnamese who lives in Paris with Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas as their cook. (I've read somewhere that they really had two "Indochinese" cooks.) He observes the two ladies and their (predominantly male) guests and admirers, although it must be said that these observations are very sparse. The reader is constantly told about the genius of Gertrude Stein, the reverence she inspires and the fame which surrounds her, but not much of it is shown. The conversations cited are mostly of a household kind (food, shopping, vacations etc.). Actually, much more spotlight is given to Binh's private life, his adventures, the romance he has with a young American doctor, and the reminiscences of his family and his life in Vietnam. The Vietnam story line and the Paris one are in fact parallel, unraveling steadily till the very end of the book. I liked them both; I'm not a fan of the prevailing trend of interrupting the current story with backstories, but it's very well done in this book. Also, it was a good thing that Binh was not obsessed with the famous ladies (positively or negatively) and that more space was given to his own concerns and experiences. It was, after all, his story. And all the plots were connected very very skillfully.

What I also liked was the subtlety of it all. Racism, colonialism, bigotry, fanaticism, social injustices are all themes of this book, but they are introduced rather by the means of irony than of outright and plain condemnation. The main character is passionate and ironic at the same time, which is a great mix.

What I didn't like was... I don't know, sometimes the language was so lofty, ornate and ostentatiously snobbish that it not only weighed the story down, but made it unbelievable. The main character is not an educated man, apart from him being a chef. In fact it's not even explained how he had learned to read and write. There's nothing about the school or even his parents or older brothers teaching him. The only thing he reads is letters, notes and newspapers. Yet his language is one of an educated person and his thought processes show him as someone with interest in religion, philosophy, sociology, medicine and whatnot. The other thing I thought lacking was the descriptions of Saigon - there were almost none. I couldn't actually tell if his family was very poor or moderately well-to-do; I had no real feeling of the character of the city, or the people, or the General Governor's mansion. I only remember that it was hot.

But all in all, I read this book almost in one sitting and enjoyed it a lot. And all the food details were great.(less)

1 like · like · see review

Aug 26, 2009 Ayse rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: debut-novels

It's distinctly a debut novel. You can tell it's written in a state of transition, whether that's from poetry or from short stories to novels. The writing comes and goes in spurts, and no single story strand ever appears long enough to pick out a delicate pattern. It's just a mass of tangled threads at the end. But somehow the underlying fabric remains steady, and you're pulled through the narrative without meaning to be.

The narrator, supposedly complex, is more a collection of traits than an in...more It's distinctly a debut novel. You can tell it's written in a state of transition, whether that's from poetry or from short stories to novels. The writing comes and goes in spurts, and no single story strand ever appears long enough to pick out a delicate pattern. It's just a mass of tangled threads at the end. But somehow the underlying fabric remains steady, and you're pulled through the narrative without meaning to be.

The narrator, supposedly complex, is more a collection of traits than an individual. It's easy, almost too easy, to slip your conception of yourself in the clothes that hang too loose on Binh (that's what he's called, even if it's not his name). His history becomes yours, his desires become yours, and slowly, your impressions of last Tuesday's dinner creep into the story, and your memories of genius become intertwined with the portrayals in the prose, and your desire for a home becomes more important than anything Truong underscores. Your deficiencies, and your strengths, give Binh a body. He is nameless, transient, easily overpowered by reality.
And I'm not certain that this is a bad thing. Unintentionally or intentionally, this sublimation of the individual through the prose echoes the sublimation of the individual through language, which echoes the sublimation of the individual through colonialism. I'm leaning favorably towards this reverberation.

The ease by which all these flashing threads dazzle their way across the narrative, never quite settling down or allowing another to take center stage, makes this a fast read. It's a haphazard stream-of-consciousness, and that's not redundant. It's not stream-of-consciousness in that all thoughts just expel themselves onto the page. Binh's thoughts are still sheltered. But we read them, as if we were reading his face, as he remembers desire. The memories integrate themselves into our own consciousness so subtly that we're never sure if we're recalling his home, or ours. It doesn't matter. Neither of us has one.

I loved reading this. I'm not sure if I loved digesting it, though. It packs a punch, without touching.(less)

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Mar 09, 2007 Molly Jones rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: fans of oppressed people

Such a brilliant premise for a book--Truong, based on a few lines from Toklas' real cookbook, imagines what it would be like to be the Vietnamese cook/servant to the famous ex-patriot couple Gertrude Stein & Alice B. Toklas in Paris. The story intertwines the difficult life of Binh (the homosexual Vietnamese servant) with the glamourous & hilarious lives of the Steins. This book revolves around reconciling traditional cultures with that culture's ever-changing future. Painful and wonderf...more

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Jun 13, 2012 Korri added it · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, queer, food

While there is much to be said about Truong's historical research, her decision to place her cook in the home of one of the most famous American couples in Paris, homosexuality in 1920s Paris, and the history of Indochine in general, what stood out to me was the language in which the tale is told.

Our narrator Binh jumps between straightforward prose and poetical, grandiose language several times on the same page. I wondered if he was drunk (and, bien sur, he enjoys a drink or seven when he has...more

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Jul 03, 2011 Dana Wilk added it

There are books that I know are too sophisticated for me and this is one of them. This book is so perfect, so full of poetic, gorgeous phrasing, that it's unreadable to me. I read some pages aloud, accompanied by sublime cups of jasmine and oolong paired with lychee fruit in china that matched the color of the book cover, but I couldn't continue reading after the cups were empty, the flesh of the lychee stripped from the nut. My intrigue in the words and the story lasted only a few cups of tea,...more

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Sep 24, 2012 Adam Calhoun rated it 1 of 5 stars

Rare is the book that makes me put it down with twenty pages. Normally I try to keep going, but sometimes you can just tell. I think this is the passage that did it for me:

"And so, like a courtesan, forced to perform the dance of the seven veils, I grudgingly reveal the names, one by one, of the cities that have carved their names into me, leaving behind the scar tissue that forms the bulk of who I am."

This is not in response to some grueling interrogation; no, employers are interviewing an appl...more

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Jul 07, 2008 Margaret rated it 2 of 5 stars

The Book of Salt contains too many stories and too many
loose ends. The narrator is a gay Vietnamese cook hired by Alice B. Toklas and Gertrude Stein for their Paris kitchen.
One sympathsizes with the cook in a country not his own, but
one doesn't really care because Truong doesn't tell enough.
For more information on Toklas and Stein,try Hemingway's A
Moveable Feast or Stein's own Autobiography of Alice B Toklas.
My bookgroup shared my sentiments.

1 like · like · see review

Oct 21, 2011 Cow rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: rainbow

The book was interesting. A very strange combination of interesting and intensely boring; it was a bit of a slog, but I had a six-hour train ride and nothing else to read, so...

The back cover notes that it's a "take on Paris in the 1930s through the eyes of Bình, the Vietnamese cook employed by Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas." It's also worth noting here, since it isn't on the back cover, that Bình, too, is gay. As such, the book really spends a lot of time looking at class (servant vs maste...more

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Aug 08, 2009 Bookshop rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

Like so many, I thought it was a book about food. Paris, Gertrude Stein, Vietnamese cook. What's not to like? I find review excerpts on the back cover misleading as it is full of food-related phrases such as:
"... cooks up a story of...";
"...writes about food... ";
"... to be savoured...",
"A rich, poetic feast...";
"... different foodstuffs... so articulately and emotively described."

Instead of food - there are some but not very exciting - it's about the personal and sexual battle of the cook,...more

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Sep 27, 2010 Ellen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Amazing book. The whole book is told through the emotions of the man who is eventually hired to cook for Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas. I'm not sure I can articulate why this book is so deep, but I think it is because the narrator mythologizes his own very difficult life so the reader can see how he survives what should be unsurvivable and how he takes beauty from what,as a whole is not beautiful. The obvious and extreme extent to which the narrator is exploited (because of the combination...more

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Aug 25, 2012 Lela rated it 5 of 5 stars

Completely enjoyable book. Very well written and has lots of interesting tidbits about GertrudeStein, as she was called, and Miss Toklas. The story was told by their Vietnamese chef who worked for them for the years they lived in Paris. It's a poignant story with great sadness. The main character breaks your heart - he so desperately wants to be loved and accepted by someone -- to make matters harder for him, he is gay. The only person who ever truly loved him was his mother and she was so power...more

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Aug 21, 2010 Iahc rated it 5 of 5 stars

I loved this book so much that I only allowed myself to read one chapter per day. I wanted to savor its luscious prose, its wonderful observations, its wry wit. I was sorry when it ended. The story? Let's just say a mysterious young Vietnamese man in Paris is hired by Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas to be their cook. Little by little, as the man who calls himself "Binh" gets used to his new life in Paris and his eccentric employers, we learn more about his past in colonial-era Vietnam. Why di...more

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Dec 12, 2008 MD rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

I expected to like this book a lot - it is set in a place and time that interest me (Paris in the 1930s and colonial Viet Nam) and is populated with real-life characters (Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas) who interest me. So why did I give it only one star?
1. Nothing happens. There is no plot. The main character doesn't grow.
2. I don't care for books where the main character is a victim throughout. The main character is victimized by the French imperialists, by his father, by his lovers, and...more

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Oct 23, 2007 Erin Malone rated it 3 of 5 stars

Written from the point of view of Gertrude Stein's and Alice B. Toklas' (fictional) Vietnamese cook, this book is one to savor. Though it can be slow-moving because of its flashbacks and sometimes dense prose, it's a nice read, its writing elegant, its humor and drama subtle.

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Oct 17, 2007 C(h)ristine rated it 3 of 5 stars

I read this while at Hedgebrook. She wrote part of this while staying in the same cottage. I could feel the rhythm of the same environment in the part about the mother (the part she wrote there). The rain fell on the roof, same as it did in the narrative, it was an eerie experience.

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Oct 17, 2011 Katie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: req, favorites, college, fiction, race, queer, historical, asian-americans, euro, family

This is a shining example of how studying a book can add to the enjoyment. I loved this novel. The beautiful and sometimes delicious prose made it an easy read. The stream of consciousness isn't for everyone, I recognize. Many of the complaints I have read in reviews are things that are arguably deliberate and while I will not write an essay here addressing each one of them, I will just say I am thankful for being able to study this book and add a diverse array of perspectives to this novel.
I f...more

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Apr 14, 2009 Lcbogota rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Binh, the Vietnamese cook working for Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, tells the story of his life and family in Vietnam, and his experience as a ship's cook, and his existence working as a private chef in Paris. It is a story about living and writing one's own history. Binh shares his story with the reader, a combination of fact and fabrication, delicately weaving the fabric of his life so that he can cover himself and survive in a world that has always been hostile and foreign, no matter wh...more

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About Monique Truong

Monique T.D. Truong (born 1968 in Saigon, South Vietnam) is a Vietnamese American writer living in Brooklyn, New York. Truong left Vietnam for the United States in 1975. She served in the past as an associate fiction editor for the Asian Pacific American Journal, a literary publication of the Asian American Workshop based in New York City.

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Books by Monique Truong

Charlie Chan Is Dead 2: At Home in the World (An Anthology of Contemporary Asian American Fiction--Revised and Updated)

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Quotes from The Book of Salt

“The irony of acquiring a foreign tongue is that I have amassed just enough cheap, serviceable words to fuel my desires and never, never enough lavish, impudent ones to feed them.” — 7 people liked it

“I was certain t find the familiar sting of salt, but what I needed to know was what kind: kitchen, sweat, tears or the sea.” — 4 people liked it

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