The Book of Salt

From Strand Bookstore

Novel about the household of Gertrude Stein & Alice B. Toklas seen from the point of view of their Vietnamese cook.

From the Publisher

Considering whether he will accompany his employers, Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, to America, a personal cook remembers his youth in French-colonized Vietnam, his years as a galley hand at sea, and his days cooking for the doyennes of the Lost Generation.

Review

Christopher Benfey - New York Times Book Review
"Truong has wisely resisted two temptations: to write the book in rose-is-a-rose Steinese and to round up the usual Stein entourage of Hemingway, Picasso and company. Truong's narrator, a cook she calls Binh, tells his story with a lush and exocitizing expansiveness, more sweet than savory, at the farthest remove from Stein's habitual austerity....[N]othing in this distinctive novel feels secondhand. Binh is the key that has unlocked something in Truong, less researched than retrieved."

Review

Kirkus
"[A] dazzling if sometimes daunting debut....A tour de force. Truong should take literate American by storm."

More about the book

Bình is Vietnamese, and he has been the cook for Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas for five years. Now, in 1934, his job comes to an end, and he must decide what to do with his life. As he struggles with a decision, he looks over his remarkable career, revealing himself in the process to be not only a gifted chef but a gifted--and possibly not always reliable--storyteller. A New York Times Notable Book for 2003.