The Book of Salt

This chapter opens with a classified ad for a cook for two American ladies. Binh reflects on how difficult it is for him to express himself adequately since he knows little French. He discusses how at the Governor-General’s house, Madame and Monsieur would berate servants in French, knowing they understood little of the language. What the servants knew was how to bend and bow, which is what the employers wanted.

Binh remembers his father’s chastisement of how ungracious and disrespectful Binh was to waste his opportunity in the Governor-General’s kitchen, a position that Anh Minh, Binh’s eldest brother, had set up for him. Binh can never get away from the internalized voice of his father: “While his body lies deep in the ground of Saigon, his anger sojourns with ‘a no-good lout’ on a Paris park bench. Even here, he finds me” (12). Even though Binh’s father, whom Binh calls the Old Man, is presumably dead, these imaginary conversations continue because of Binh’s unending guilt and his memories of the man’s cruel brutality.

Anh Minh believed that when the previous chef died, he’d naturally assume that position as next in line. However, Madame and Monsieur instead brought in a Frenchman, Chef Bleriot. With this development, Binh realizes that his brother will never move up in the Governor-General’s kitchen. Binh understands that being Vietnamese in French-controlled Vietnam means never rising above a certain station, but The Old Man and Anh Minh persist in hoping for the impossible.

In three years of living in Paris, Binh has come to know the streets of the city better than the average lifelong resident would, a skill that helps him find jobs. Binh’s potential employers fall into three categories. The first will often slam the door on him the moment they see he’s Vietnamese. The next group seems intent on interrogating him as if he were an agent of the French government. The third are collectors who will hire him to pry his sad story from him because they want to play the role of savior to an outcast.

At the chapter’s end, Binh meets with a concierge, who instructs Binh not to “blink an eye” (20). The concierge explains that the two women—his prospective employers—are unusual and hints at the pair’s unconventional lifestyle, though he is quick to add that they are nice.

For Binh, the Stein and Toklas household, “[t]his is a temple not a home” (22). He describes Toklas as the temple guardian, who types and proofreads Stein’s manuscripts and looks after Stein in every way—the implication is that Stein is the temple’s sacred center.

Binh has a recurring dream of his father lying in a casket and Binh making a speech at the funeral, exposing his father’s cowardice to everyone. In the dream, Binh speaks fluent French.

A flashback to when Binh first left Saigon and went to sea introduces Bao, Binh’s shipmate on the ship the Niobe. Bao tells all kinds of stories, and one of his favorites is of Serena the Soloist, an adult entertainer who fascinates Bao. Binh asks Bao why he’s a sailor when his name means “storm,” but Bao only laughs in response.

Bao and Binh have a bond—a shared homeland and language that excludes everyone else aboard the ship.

Binh returns to the Stein house to apply for the cook position and meets Toklas.

Binh explains how the household operates and what the Mesdames look like. He describes Toklas’s moustache and lively eyes. Stein, Binh says, has a sturdier build and overly large ears and nose, but “carries herself as if she is her own object of desire. Her self-induced lust is addictive in its effect” (28).

Binh describes the relationship between the women: Stein is the star, while Toklas is the willing helper. Toklas has taken over the typing duties to preclude Stein from forming intimate relationships with others: “Miss Toklas has long since made herself indispensable” to Stein (30).

Stein and Toklas nickname Binh “Thin Bin.” He yearns to hear his name said properly, but every employer pronounces it wrong.

Binh discusses the pair’s two dogs, a poodle named Basket and a Chihuahua named Pepe, and how the women’s affectionate relationship with the dogs is more foreign to Binh than their language. Binh remembers his brother Anh Minh quipping, “Only the rich can afford not to eat their animals” (33).

Stein’s French is not much better than Binh’s and he finds that while they converse, they try to convey their meaning with simple, terse sentences complemented by body language. This similarity bridges their differences in race, gender, and nationality.

Nightly, Stein works on French lessons with Binh, using an English-French dictionary and illustrations. While they play this game, Toklas needlepoints. Stein seems amused by how Binh navigates the language maze.

Stein transforms from a friendly and unique employer to a regular “collector” employer as she asks Binh how he defines love. He sees the query as an attempt to pry loose from him his own sad tale. He points to a bowl of quinces and shakes his head, walking out of the room.

Binh writes an enigmatic description of Dr. Marcus Lattimore, a character who has not yet been introduced: “I will forget that you entered 27 rue de Fleurus as a ‘writer’ among a sea of others who opened the studio door with a letter of introduction and a face handsome with talent and promise” (37). Binh is attracted to Lattimore, and his language is romantic and full of yearning: “Waves are coursing through my veins. I am at sea again” (37).

Lattimore beguiles the Mesdames, and he asks if he may employ Binh as a cook for a dinner party. Binh agrees to the job. He finds Lattimore very handsome but doesn’t expect much except earning enough money to replace his old, fraying clothing and footwear. Lattimore meets Binh on the street, looking dapper and quite Binh’s type. When Lattimore asks Binh to conduct the interview, the word “interview” reminds Binh of his lower station and place as a servant.