PositiveThe Chicago TribuneThe Book of Salt travels between past and present, Vietnam and France, and we soon discover that the stories Binh tells are subject to his revisions. Truong is playing with narrative confusion, but she wisely circles back to Binh\'s sharp, beautifully rendered observations of the mesdames and their household at 27 rue de Fleurus ... As Truong\'s narration jumps around in time, so most of the characters float between worlds and identities, shrouded in secrets ... Truong is taking on a lot here, with ideas of exile, storytelling and truth all filtered through metaphors of food ... There are a few moments when she lapses into an overly stylized prose, perhaps inevitable given the amount of self-conscious questioning of truth and unreliable narration. Still, the writing is lyrical and powerful, most notably the sections on Binh\'s mother.
