The Book Of Salt: A Novel

This is a hauntingly beautiful story of Binh, an Indochinese world traveler (and world class chef) who ends up in the Paris home of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas. This is NOT a story about food or grand cooking anymore than "The Grapes of Wrath" was about picking vegitables. This is a richly drawn character study. I found the story compelling and colorful and poignant. Binh's interactions with the two ladies is priceless. The scenes between him and his family - especially those envolving his mother - are quite elegantly rendered. The entire tale is told with exquisite attention to detail. If you love literary novels that use historical figures as characters, you'll not want to miss this one.

Monique Truong's first book is one of the most sensual books I have read recently, in the proper sense of the word. Binh the narrator is the main character of the book, whose story crosses continents, in an era that we are familiar with only from its bottled-up version. We learn early on that Binh the Vietnamese man is the house cook for the Steins in Paris, as in Gertrudestein and Miss Toklas. But we will only learn much later how this Vietnamese man ended up in his current position, and in the end we will be left wondering how he will move on from there. Unlike many first-time authors, Truong does an excellent job of weaving the story together. The evocations throughout the book gives more and more insight into the big story, in small enjoyable pieces. I don't get why many other reviewers on this page decided to basically summarize the book in a linear fashion, were they writing for people who have read the book? Nonetheless, this book is one of the few which made me truly feel like I was experiencing the story from the first person's perspective: Binh's narration explains his senses in aching yet flowing detail, from his belabored breathing while taking in the smell of certain herbs, to his sense of touch, and of course his lovestruck affairs and heartbreaks. The story fuses together Binh's station in the kitchen with the story of his life, regaling in how his memories are embedded in the dishes that he created for the Steins. I can't wait for Truong's next book!

A book to be savored a few pages at a time; chewed and digested slowly like a fabulous meal. More than just "a read," THE BOOK OF SALT is an experience that involves all five senses -- and a sixth sense, if you possess it.Among other things, Binh is the Vietnamese cook of Alice B. Toklas and Gertrude Stein. He is also an intellectual, a lover, a dreamer, a son, a man. We are privy to his inner life, insofar as he wishes us to be, both humorous and sad. The story is told in almost poetic fashion; each word is savored for its own merit, and, like the ingredients of any fine cuisine, craftily blended to perform the perfect meal. It is more than satisfying; it is exquisite.There is no more to tell about Binh; Truong has said it all. But there must be plenty of other fascinating characters lurking about in Truong's brilliant mind. Surely there's more! We await her next story excitedly, like children at bedtime.

Debut novelist Monique Truong appears blessed with a delightfully fecund imagination. Of her cooking the Saigon born author says, "I cook for pleasure. I cook to experience something new.....I always cook or rather I always `taste' the food first in my mind. I approach a recipe like a story. I imagine it. Sometimes I have a dream about it, then I go about crafting it." From her description most of us would relish joining her at table. Fortunately, all of us can join her through the pages of her poignant and mesmerizing first novel "The Book Of Salt." Inspiration for this fictional memoir was found as Truong was reading the Alice B. Toklas Cook Book, and ran across references to Indochinese men who cooked for Toklas and Gertrude Stein. Thus, Binh, Truong's protagonist and narrator was born. The opening scene is the train station in 1934 Paris. While Toklas and Stein are going to America Binh's choice of destinations is not revealed. Will he go to America with the two formidable mesdames, stay on in Paris or return to his native Vietnam? As these possibilities are considered, Binh recalls his younger years, his ostracism for his sexual orientation, his nights in Parisian haunts, and his unhappy love affairs. Weaving her tale between Binh's life and the fascinating goings-on in the Toklas/Stein household the author allows readers to savor numerous sumptuous meals and meet celebrities, including Paul Robeson and Ho Chi Mihn. Sensuous, mouth-watering details enrich this artful examination of fascinating lives.. We await with eager anticipation the next offering from this uniquely gifted author. - Gail Cooke

The first person account of the household cook hired by Alice B. Toklas and Gertrude Stein serves up a tale of culture, food, family and sexuality on a bed of beautiful language."Thin Bin," as Gertudestein (one word, in his parlance) calls him is a narrator into a world of his own making. Binh,is a product of a deeply rigid and malevolent father and a devoted mother whose self sacrifice gave Bin both a perspective on life and sense of isolation that shapes his narrative. Set against the backdrop of Vietnam under the french, the smells, tastes, rituals and traditions give the reader a sense of time and place that is heat and spice, water lily and devastation.At an early age, Binh joins his brother in the kitchen of the French Governor General, where the art of food becomes work and avocation. The role of power and nationality and the tension between colonialism and identity play out in the foods demanded, called for against the natural inclinations of the ingredients aned the preparers. The description of preparing a sabayon in Vietnamese heat is rich and heady with cultural depth. When the head chef leaves he is replaced by another Frenchman, rather than a native, and the imperious replacement variously dominates and seduces Binh, whose sexuality plays as an emerging subtext throughout the book.Once his relationship with the chef is discovered, Binh flees in shame for a prolonged sea voyage, and finds himself in Paris, where he cooks for a variety of clients. In fact, his very identity becomes blended with his ability to feed those who will hire him to do so: "...I scramble to seek shelter in the kitchens of those who will take me. Every kitchen is a homecoming...a familiar story that I can embellish with saffron, cardomom, bay laurel and lavender. In their heat and in their steam, I allow myself to believe that it is the sheer speed of my hands, the flawless measurement of my eyes, the science of my tongue that is rewarded..." Eventually, he answers an ad that begins "two American ladies wish to hire..." and becomes so much more than just a cook to Stein and Toklas, with insights into their special love for one another, and they trading off on his discretion and cooking genius for his own frailties and imperfections.For food lovers, this book is an inhalation and a taste of everything that makes the difference between cooking and cuisine. For lovers, it is the sensual wording of touch and proximity. For the literary, it is an insight into the imagined life of Toklas and Stein as lovers and creators of literary works. For those looking for cross-cultural storytelling, it is the bridge betweeen Vietnam, France and America that results in a crossroad of Binh at the Gare in Paris, deciding whether to go to America with his sponsors, to stay in Paris where he has found lovers, or to go to Vietnam, where his story began and his identity belongs.This book is spellbinding, compelling, beautfully written. I read it slowly because I knew as soon