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I love food. I love eating it, cooking it, watching it be made, tasting, smelling, getting my hands in it... and I think this is part of the reason why I loved Book of Salt. The descriptions were fantastic. It made me hungry every time I read it.

Whether or not we can classify it as a feminist novel, though, is something I am still debating. I think we can say that it definitely had feminist undertones: the ability for two women to live the life of their choice...especially in contrast with Binh's mother whose life was the exact opposite. There were certainly feminist perspectives, but whether the novel as a whole can be catagorized as a feminist one is hard, I think, to argue.

Still, I loved it.

I also agree with flora that Troung's writing was almost the exact opposite of Stein's. Where Stein thinks of salt, and then extrapolates to the end of the universe in her references to get to salt. Or not. I don't think stein really cares if you get her references. I'm pretty sure that she just wants to fuck with her readers.

Troung on the other hand is alllllll about pleasing the reader. Using every single one of their senses, engaging them in a pleasurable experience, Making them feel, smell, taste, see who, what, where Binh is. We are binh when we read Book of Salt. In contrast with reading Stein when we realize how not Stein we are.