The Book of Salt was an interesting new way of reading into identity. I found it particularly interesting that the cook, Binh, was exiled from his home country of Vietnam for being gay, but then ends up finding somewhere to live and work where gay was the norm. Binh was told that being gay was a disease and that it wasn’t excepted. His father was abusive and basically threw Binh out for being gay. The only true identity Binh knew for himself, he was taught was wrong. Then, he replies to this gay couples ad in the paper to be a live in cook.
The couple, Gertrude Stein and Alice Toklas, are happily gay and married. They are also successful and famous. This idea of being show that a previously unaccepted identity is in fact okay is a really interesting turn that we haven’t really looked at yet this year. Being exiled from one’s country should be a punishment, you are being exiled for something you have done very wrong. But then to be accepted by another country for the reason you were exiled from the original country shows how the views of identity can really change.
I think this idea is very important because it shows that no matter what your identity is, or whoever thinks it’s a “bad” or “negative” aspect, there’s always going to be someone else in a similar situation. I think this helps show that one person is never fully alone, with an identity unlike another else’s. I think this is important to see that different cultures expect and accept different things in identity. Not only is Binh being shown a world were being gay is okay, he is put in a situation where the gay couple is actually famous. The Stein’s also often have guests over for tea parties and such, which shows that others are not bothered by the fact they are gay. It is simply a part of who they are. Being gay is not a disease, rather something that a person can’t really help, it’s a part of who they are.
What I really liked about this novel was the different streams of consciousness we see from Binh. We get a look into his past and his memories so we can understand how he has come to be, what helped to form his true identity. Yet we are also seeing a clear picture of what is going on in the present and how he feels about the current situation that he’s in. It becomes incredibly interesting when Binh has come to a point where he has to choose where to go next with his life: whether to go with the Stein’s to American, stay in Paris, or go back to his homeland of Vietnam. Binh’s decision here really helps to show the changes he has undergone throughout the book and how his identity has formed and changed throughout everything he has gone through. His disease of whether to take his life next really shows readers how ideas and identities can be changed throughout a person’s life.