The Book of Salt
Monique Truong
This was a complicated (plot-wise, with the time jumps and flashbacks) and really dense (very lyrical language-wise) book, so much so that I worried at the end I'd find myself looking at reading group Questions for Discussion! and I hate those goddamn things.
I think I liked this. On an emotional level, it was a strong story, and moving, fascinating frequently. It seemed, however, really backloaded as far as Amazing Surprises and Unexpected Twists, all in the final fourth of the book, you are suddenly blindsided - well, not blindsided, but presented with twists you had no idea were coming and which place the preceding pages in something of a new light, but in a lot of ways it seems oddly tacked on.
On a technical level, Truong was really amazing at handling all the time jumps and the subtle humor, but she was frequently "poetic" and by "poetic" I mean really weirdly obscure and unable to just say something already. Her subtlety was sometimes way too goddamn subtle, and I wanted to hit her. I don't enjoy having to reread something eight times to make sure I know what the hell she's trying to get at. Which makes me sound like an eighth grader reading Shakespeare for the first time, I know. But honestly, she was twisty for no good reason! Stop being twisty, Monique Truong. Thank you.
I am sorry I lost count of all the times she used the word "salt," though.
This was a complicated (plot-wise, with the time jumps and flashbacks) and really dense (very lyrical language-wise) book, so much so that I worried at the end I'd find myself looking at reading group Questions for Discussion! and I hate those goddamn things.
I think I liked this. On an emotional level, it was a strong story, and moving, fascinating frequently. It seemed, however, really backloaded as far as Amazing Surprises and Unexpected Twists, all in the final fourth of the book, you are suddenly blindsided - well, not blindsided, but presented with twists you had no idea were coming and which place the preceding pages in something of a new light, but in a lot of ways it seems oddly tacked on.
On a technical level, Truong was really amazing at handling all the time jumps and the subtle humor, but she was frequently "poetic" and by "poetic" I mean really weirdly obscure and unable to just say something already. Her subtlety was sometimes way too goddamn subtle, and I wanted to hit her. I don't enjoy having to reread something eight times to make sure I know what the hell she's trying to get at. Which makes me sound like an eighth grader reading Shakespeare for the first time, I know. But honestly, she was twisty for no good reason! Stop being twisty, Monique Truong. Thank you.
I am sorry I lost count of all the times she used the word "salt," though.
5 Comments:
Did you pick up on the Ho Chi Minh thing? My book group had to explain it to me.
No! I just noticed that in an Amazon review, and was taken aback. The fuck?
Explain the Ho Chi Min thing, please.
I was just coming back to post that you might enjoy our book group review of this book: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Academy/3050/geobook2.htm
The man on the bridge was Ho Chi Minh. I don't know how you're supposed to know that, though. Something about the picture in the photographer's shop at the end, and how the name given for the man on the bridge, Nguyen Ai Quoc, was one of Ho Chi Minh's pseudonyms.
If the reader knows anything about Ho Chi Minh, they will figure it out. Like I did!
And now we know why I, personally, did not figure it out.
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