52 pages • 1 hour read
Monique TruongThe Book of Salt
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2003A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 12-15Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 12 Summary
The novel shifts back in time to the love affair between Chef Bleriot and Binh. Their relationship is apparent even to the young boys at the market. Eventually, the household servants take note, though Binh doesn’t know which servant tells on them. The affair comes to the attention of the Madame’s secretary, who has a crush on the chef. Out of jealousy, she wants Binh removed from the household. She tells the chef to let her handle the situation and tells the Madame that Binh is spreading lies that he and Bleriot are lovers. For that, Binh is dismissed; as her final vengeful act, the Madame’s secretary writes to the Old Man about the scandal.
The chauffeur admits he told the Madame’s secretary, also out of jealousy about the chef. When the secretary told the Madame, the Madame had to act, not because of their sexuality, but due to the difference in race and social standing between the two men. The chauffeur informs Binh that in medical school he had learned about Binh’s “condition,” and could help him get over it. Binh has heard about these silly would-be cures before and is not remotely interested.
Chapter 13 Summary
Stein has just turned 60, Toklas is 57, and the year is 1934. Binh learns that the women have a summer home in the country. Binh is anxious because he will miss his Sunday meetings with Lattimore. While at the country home, Binh gets Mondays off as well, although his pay is lower.
Toklas has a garden in the country that she loves. The people in the village consider Stein and Toklas freakish, calling Stein “Caesar” and Toklas “Cleopatra.” They ask Binh prying questions when he is drunk. Binh drinks quite a lot during the summers there.
Toklas inspects Binh’s hands daily, ostensibly for clean nails, but really to check for signs of cutting. Binh finds her level of caring comforting, if a little invasive.
Chapter 14 Summary
Lattimore says he can see fame in the Mesdames’ eyes and shows Binh his collection of books, including some of Stein’s works. Most notably, he shows Binh The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, which despite its title, was famously written by Stein. Lattimore brags about a limited edition book of Stein’s; he is waiting for the French version of the Autobiography. He then whispers to Binh, “I’ve also stayed here waiting for you” (146).
Binh thinks that maybe Lattimore believes Binh does not understand who Stein and Toklas are. Binh thinks about all the big and little things he knows about the Mesdames: their diet, their collection of dirty postcards of naked ladies, the cigars they smoke in their bedroom.
Lattimore’s books pique Binh’s interest in all the typing Toklas does. Binh discovers a collection of notebooks stored in the cabinet. He knows how excited Lattimore would be to see this treasure trove of Stein’s work, and fantasizes about how it could propel him to be more than a one-day-a-week lover for Lattimore. Binh considers his Saturdays with Stein and Toklas’s guests, including Lattimore. He feels sheltered with his Mesdames.
Binh knows that he has access to what Lattimore wants most: the manuscripts and inner knowledge of these women. Binh feels pressure after mentioning the notebooks to Lattimore: Binh was hoping the information would ensure Lattimore’s continued interest, but instead, Lattimore wants to use it for his own purposes.
Binh compares his and Lattimore’s racial status. By passing for white, Lattimore views his skin as a blank slate, leaving the details of his life open to interpretation. By contrast, Binh’s skin tells the Parisians all they think they need to know about him.
Chapter 15 Summary
Stein and Toklas want to know the secret of Binh’s omelets. Even if there were such a secret, he’d never share it. The Mesdames don’t seem to consider that whatever they eat has passed through his hands. Binh ruminates on the women’s relationship with their dogs. He doesn’t understand their affection for the animals and resents having to metaphorically crawl on hands and knees to serve them.
One day, Stein asks, “Thin Bin, is Lattimore a Negro?” (157). Lattimore had previously warned Binh the question would eventually come.
Binh describes Toklas coming to the Stein household and discovering her lesbianism. Toklas’s sexual orientation is understood but not freely acknowledged.
Chapters 12-15 Analysis
This section of the novel continues the theme of the intersections of social standing, Race and Sexuality, exploring the ways the cultural hierarchy of these elements of identity in Parisian life. While Binh’s affair with Bleriot crosses several lines, causing sexual jealousy in Madame’s chauffeur and secretary, she fires Binh because the relationship is cross-race and cross-class, and she is less worried about its same-sex nature. Conversely, when Stein and Toklas summer in the French countryside, the locals harbor a high level of anti-gay bias, deeming Stein and Toklas freakish. Finally, his relationship with Lattimore has a complicated racial dynamic—Binh resents Lattimore passing for white while he can never not look Vietnamese, but at the same time, Lattimore’s ambiguous racial identity aligns with Binh’s self-perception of being racially other in Paris. On the other hand, Lattimore can never really escape his Blackness, as even the ostensibly tolerant Stein demands Binh give her a full accounting of Lattimore’s racial identity—a question Lattimore expected.
These chapters also explore the idea of hidden knowledge. Toklas is convinced that Binh has a secret recipe for omelets—and rather than simply enjoying his quality cooking, she is eager to gain this knowledge. Similarly, Lattimore values Stein’s literary artistry, but her published work is not enough for him, and he is eager to get access to first editions and translations, in a quest to uncover some kind of deeper truth. But Binh’s secret knowledge has nothing to do with omelets—instead, it has to do with a cache of manuscripts Binh has accidentally found. Resentful of Toklas’s desire for cooking secrets, Binh still decides to share his actual hidden knowledge with Lattimore in a bid to curry that man’s affection. This highlights the theme of The Power of Stories though the implications of finding these manuscripts are not yet known.
Binh remains a keen observer of his Mesdames, noting their strengths and kindnesses, as well as their weaknesses and prejudices. He values Toklas’s concern for his self-mutilation though he disparages the way she and Stein obsess over their dogs, seeing it as a marker of their privilege and unrelatability.
Binh’s self-mutilation, and specifically the cutting of his hands, shows how he puts his lifeblood into his cooking. These dishes, then, are representative of his family and homeland. That he makes them for white people in the country that has colonized Vietnam shows the far-reaching, damaging effects of colonialism.
