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The Book of Salt, by Monique Truong

Whenever I go into Little Sister’s bookstore, I make a point of buying at least one book, and this time it was Monique Truong‘s The Book of Salt. The premise is that the protagonist is a Vietnamese cook hired by Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas. This fellow, Thinh Binh, is a gay lad, and so understands his employers, yet doesn’t, as they are a gender and two cultures away, as he filters their behaviour as Americans living in Europe. Truong counterpoints Binh’s experiences in Vietnam with those in Paris, in the French countryside, and en route. There are multiple worlds inside this book, and the travel is seamless. In fact, I’m planning to send this book to a friend of mine who loves language and would completely enjoy this book.