The Book of Salt by Monique Truong
Nov. 8th, 2009 03:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meganbmooreSet in 1930s Paris, Truong filters the world of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas through the eyes of their gay Vietnamese cook, Binh. Stein and Toklas, of course, were real, while Binh, I believe, is mostly fictional, based on the fact that the women did employ an Indo-Chinese cook.
The book is in first person and alternates between both past and present tense and in several settings and timeframes-Binh’s life with Stein and Toklas, his difficult childhood with an unloving father, and his time at sea in between, all seemingly narrated to a lover. While the first person present tense was handled well, it remains one of my least favorite narrative devices, and I often found it difficult to follow the tense and setting changes, especially as the different storylines weren’t in chronological order. This made it especially confusing to follow Binh’s relationship with Stein and Toklas, as his attitude towards them changes throughout the book, and so can seem inconsistent.
Binh’s voice is excellent and engaging, and the book well-written with a captivating world, but I’m afraid the stylistic approach often worked against me, I think more because of the tense changes than due to not telling Binh’s story chronologically.
The book is in first person and alternates between both past and present tense and in several settings and timeframes-Binh’s life with Stein and Toklas, his difficult childhood with an unloving father, and his time at sea in between, all seemingly narrated to a lover. While the first person present tense was handled well, it remains one of my least favorite narrative devices, and I often found it difficult to follow the tense and setting changes, especially as the different storylines weren’t in chronological order. This made it especially confusing to follow Binh’s relationship with Stein and Toklas, as his attitude towards them changes throughout the book, and so can seem inconsistent.
Binh’s voice is excellent and engaging, and the book well-written with a captivating world, but I’m afraid the stylistic approach often worked against me, I think more because of the tense changes than due to not telling Binh’s story chronologically.