About this title: 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.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Date Published: 2003
ISBN-13:9780618304004ISBN:0618304002
Description: A wonderful copy with some minor edgewear to the cover. Dust Jacket has some edgewear present. -, Hard Cover, Very Good / Very Good. read more
Description: Fair. Purchasing this book supports the King County Library System Foundation. Thriftbooks and KCLSF have partnered to help raise additional funds for the library system. Ex-Library book-will contain library markings. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Mariner Books
Date Published: 2004-06-15
ISBN-13:9780618446889ISBN:0618446885
Description: Very good. Very minimal damage to the cover (no holes or tears, only minimal scuff marks), in some instances dust jackets are not included, no missing pages, minimal to no highlighting/under. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Mariner Books
Date Published: 2004-06-15
ISBN-13:9780618446889ISBN:0618446885
Description: Acceptable. Some damage to the cover but integrity still intact, binding slightly damaged but integrity still intact, possible writing in margins, possible underlining and highlighting of text. read more
Edition: First Printing
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Mariner Books, New York
Date Published: 2003
ISBN-13:9780618446889ISBN:0618446885
Description: Very Good. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. First printing trade paperback, 2003. VG+. Very light wear to covers. A novel sent in 1930's Paris through the eyes of the Vietnamese cook employed by Alice B. Toklas and Gertrude Stein. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Date Published: 4/7/2003
ISBN-13:9780618304004ISBN:0618304002
Description: Very Good. 0618304002 May show signs of shelf wear. Choose EXPEDITED shipping, receive in 2-5 business days. Please email with questions. read more
Description: Good. 2004-Paperback----Used-Good-Hall Street Books proudly ships from Brooklyn, NY. All orders are processed and shipped within 24 hours, M-F. 100% money back No-Worry guarantee with expedited delivery and delivery confirmation available. read more
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston
Date Published: 2003
ISBN-13:9780618446889ISBN:0618446885
Description: Fine. Used; Like New A brilliant FIRST NOVEL by an acclaimed Vietnamese American writer. An attractive book with slight edge wear to dj. "A fascinating, original, and sharply written story with vivid insights into the world of cooking. "----Jessica Hagedorn. read more
Edition: 6th printing
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company; Mariner Books, Boston
Date Published: 2004
ISBN-13:9780618446889ISBN:0618446885
Description: Fine. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. 261 pp.; 21 cm. Tight, clean copy. "In Paris, 1934, Bình has accompanied his employers, Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, to the train station for their departure to America. His own destination is unclear: will he go with 'the Steins, ' stay in France, or return to his native Vietnam? Having fled his homeland in disgrace, Bình has spent the past five years serving as the personal cook at the famous apartment on the rue de Fleurus. Before Bình reveals his decision ... read more
Description: Good. A NICE edition, USEFUL! Some light ink stain mark to the page edge. The cover has some wear. Light scuff to the paperback cover and the page edge, this book is in PRESENTABLE condition. read more
"It's distinctly a debut novel. You can tell it's written in a state of transition, whether that's from poetry or from short stories to novels. The writing comes and goes in spurts, and no single story strand ever appears long enough to pick out a delicate pattern. It's just a mass of tangled threads at the end. But somehow the underlying fabric remains steady, and you're pulled through the narrative without meaning to be.
The narrator, supposedly complex, is more a collection of traits than an individual. It's easy, almost too easy, to slip your conception of yourself in the clothes that hang too loose on Binh (that's what he's called, even if it's not his name). His history becomes yours, his desires become yours, and slowly, your impressions of last Tuesday's dinner creep into the story, and your memories of genius become intertwined with the portrayals in the prose, and your desire for a home becomes more important than anything Truong underscores. Your deficiencies, and your strengths, give Binh a body. He is nameless, transient, easily overpowered by reality. And I'm not certain that this is a bad thing. Unintentionally or intentionally, this sublimation of the individual through the prose echoes the sublimation of the individual through language, which echoes the sublimation of the individual through colonialism. I'm leaning favorably towards this reverberation.
The ease by which all these flashing threads dazzle their way across the narrative, never quite settling down or allowing another to take center stage, makes this a fast read. It's a haphazard stream-of-consciousness, and that's not redundant. It's not stream-of-consciousness in that all thoughts just expel themselves onto the page. Binh's thoughts are still sheltered. But we read them, as if we were reading his face, as he remembers desire. The memories integrate themselves into our own consciousness so subtly that we're never sure if we're recalling his home, or ours. It doesn't matter. Neither of us has one.
I loved reading this. I'm not sure if I loved digesting it, though. It packs a punch, without touching."
"Like so many, I thought it was a book about food. Paris, Gertrude Stein, Vietnamese cook. What's not to like? I find review excerpts on the back cover misleading as it is full of food-related phrases such as: "... cooks up a story of..."; "...writes about food... "; "... to be savoured...", "A rich, poetic feast..."; "... different foodstuffs... so articulately and emotively described."
Instead of food - there are some but not very exciting - it's about the personal and sexual battle of the cook, who is not very interesting either. He strikes me as a whiny man with a touch of Oedipus' complex, endlessly looking for 'protectors' while pretending to be silent and strong.
The book is pretentious, lengthy, yet empty. It took me a page to realize that I was reading about the San Francisco earthquake. There is such a metaphor and adjective overload that the story is buried. While other reviewers deem the novel sensuous, I think it's just flabby."
"Mmmmm delish! Reads like a poem-This book is a portal into a luxurious world of food and senses. Not only is it about Salt!!!! But it's a bout Alice B Toklas and Gertrude too. (And their dog Basket, Kaia you're sucha copycat)
I am luving this book. It's not a good one to pick up and put down often; wait until you have a chunk of time. You'll want to keep reading, letting it wrap around you. It will make you more aware of everything. Everything is romance...
It makes me feel very french, I'm going to go get a baret."
"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.""
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