The Book Of Salt By Monique Truong Summary
The novel the Book of Salt by Monique Truong is a story about Binh, a vietnamese chef for Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, who undergoes numerous life difficulties such as discrimination, language barrier, and ethnocentrism in a foreign land, France. The author uses the symbol of salt to depict Binh’s life. He leaves his homeland of Vietnam for France and works as a chef for Gertrude Stein and ALice B. Toklas. The narrative continually shifts in time and place, switching between Saigon, Paris, and the sea, as Bình slowly recounts his life story. As his story unwinds, Bình is disowned by his abusive, alcoholic father to whom Bình refers only as "Old Man" when he learns that Bình has had an affair with the Frenchman Blériot, the chef at