The Book of Salt in Reading with Style

Jan 20, 2021 Elizabeth (Alaska) rated it liked it

Shelves: women, twenty-first-century

If ever a book could be called non-linear, this is it. I always believed Binh told his first person story from the present, or about 1934, and in Paris. Binh is cook for GertrudeStein and Miss Toklas as he calls them. They are not always present, but they are there and, through him, we come to know them while he tells his own story.

This is not unlike those books that take place in one day where you also learn all of the backstory. The location and time changed - his early days in Paris in the mi If ever a book could be called non-linear, this is it. I always believed Binh told his first person story from the present, or about 1934, and in Paris. Binh is cook for GertrudeStein and Miss Toklas as he calls them. They are not always present, but they are there and, through him, we come to know them while he tells his own story.

This is not unlike those books that take place in one day where you also learn all of the backstory. The location and time changed - his early days in Paris in the mid-20s; as a child or a young adult in Vietnam; a young man aboard a freighter. I have laid them out as if that is the order they appear in the novel. There is almost no order to the novel. Although it didn't take much to figure out the place and usually the time period where his story unfolds. Sometimes the second person creeped in and I was nearly lost. I had to pay close attention!

With only about 60 pages to read today, I awoke thinking about what I might say about this novel. Binh is bitter about his heretofore short life, even cynical to some extent. I wanted to tell him about a conversation I had with my mother over 40 years ago about something I'd read. Happiness isn't always in getting what you like, but in liking what you get. Yeah, I know those things are only occasionally the same thing, but we're talking about happiness, an attitude. Binh, I wanted to say, you need to think about that.

I began to get tired of his attitude and what I'd hoped would be a fantastic read became one I hardly looked forward to finishing. As I started putting some thoughts together, I reminded myself that I don't always have to like the character to like the novel. Well! Take a dose of your own medicine, Elizabeth. It then occurred to me that Truong has written a characterization so real that I was starting to give him advice. Maybe this is better than I'd been thinking. Yes, it is. But I continued to find his attitude tiresome over those last 60 pages. This morning I had hopes that I would convince myself it is more than a 3-star read. I still think it isn't, but I'll wager it sits in the top 1% of that group and on another day might flop over into the 4-star group. ...more

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Apr 25, 2015 Ed Lehman rated it really liked it

It is strange, while reading the Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, I needed a book of fiction based in Paris for a book club challenge. I picked The Book of Salt from a list without really knowing what it was about. Imagine my surprise when I learned it was the later (fictional) history I was reading about in the autobiography..although, this time the focus was based not on Gertrude Stein, but on her cook. A very poetic read.

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Jan 09, 2020 Bucket rated it really liked it

Shelves: world-lit, literary, history, reviewed, bio-auto-bio, sex, experimental, food, language

Let's call my rating a 3.5 -- I was torn between 3 and 4 and decided to round up. This is an incredibly inspired work that brings our narrator Binh truly to life. His life has not been a happy one, but the traumas and tragedies are broken up by the stream of consciousness format and the occasionally moments of love (or at least loving sex) and food. Sometimes this worked beautifully, and sometimes it felt muddled and sapped of feeling.

I expected a little more creative license to be taken on Gert ...more

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Sep 20, 2014 Juniper marked it as to-read

Shelves: owned

29 september 14 -- got to page 119. the writing is beautiful, but my brain is broken right now and i feel i am not giving the book the attention it is due. will come back to this one, definitely - when i can better focus.

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Jun 03, 2015 Karen Michele Burns rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I agree with many of the reviewers here that say that this book never quite came together, but I enjoyed the book nonetheless. I liked finding out a bit about Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, empathized with the immigrant experiences of the cook and loved the food descriptions. I believe that Monique Truong will grow as a writer and that I will pick up her next book without hesitation. Recommended for those who enjoy food and cooking.

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