The Book of Salt

The Book of Salt by Monique Truong

Binh, the Vietnamese cook working for Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, tells the story of his life and family in Vietnam, and his experience as a ship's cook, and his existence working as a private chef in Paris. It is a story about living and writing one's own history. Binh shares his story with the reader, a combination of fact and fabrication, delicately weaving the fabric of his life so that he can cover himself and survive in a world that has always been hostile and foreign, no matter where he is. Despite communication barriers, he seeks and makes contact with individuals who teach him lessons about life: Blériot teaches him cooking, French sensibilities and class considerations, and his provides him with his induction into sex; shipmate Bao teaches him how to protect himself in the world, and more sex; Stein admirer Lattimore teaches him about race, judgment, attraction, dishonesty and further sex; GertrudeStein and Alice B. Toklas about coupledom and acceptance, even if the family is utterly unconventional, two unappealing little dogs and two women, one of whom exists to serve the other although each needs the other in her own way. But it is his mother who gave him the most important gift of all, that of storytelling, and the way to create the story of his life. "A story is, after all, best when shared, a gift in the truest sense of the word."

Sentí frío entonces me senté en mi rincón preferido de la casa para calentarme en el sol.

Drink up, baby down
Mmm, are you in or are you out
Leave your things behind
'cause it's all going off without you
Excuse me, too busy you're writing your tragedy
These mishaps
You bubble wrap
When you've no idea what you're like

So let go, jump in
Oh well, whatcha waiting for
It's alright
'cause there's beauty in the breakdown
So let go, just get in
Oh, it's so amazing here
It's alright
'cause there's beauty in the breakdown

It gains the more it gives
And then it rises with the fall
So hand me that remote
Can't you see that all that stuff's a sideshow

Such boundless pleasure
We've no time for later now
You can't await your own arrival
You've 20 seconds to comply

So let go, jump in
Oh well, whatcha waiting for
It's alright
'cause there's beauty in the breakdown
So let go, just get in
Oh, it's so amazing here
It's alright
'cause there's beauty in the breakdown

So let go, jump in
Oh well, whatcha waiting for
It's alright
'cause there's beauty in the breakdown
So let go, just get in
Oh, it's so amazing here
It's alright
'cause there's beauty in the breakdown
'cause there's beauty in the breakdown