Bitter in the Mouth: A Novel [Paperback]

Monique Truong (Author)

Book Description

Release date: August 9, 2011

Bitter in the Mouth is a brilliant, virtuosic novel about a young woman’s search for identity and the true meaning of family.

“What I know about you, little girl, would break you in two” are the prophetic last words that Linda Hammerick’s grandmother says to her. Growing up in small-town North Carolina in the 1970s and ’80s, Linda already knows that she is profoundly different from everyone else, including the members of her own family. She can “taste” words. In this and in other ways, her body is a mystery to her. Linda’s awkward girlhood is nonetheless enlivened and emboldened by her dancing great-uncle Harper, and Kelly, her letter-writing best friend. Linda makes her way north to college and then to New York City, trying her best to leave her past behind her like “a pair of shoes that no longer fit.” But when a family tragedy compels her to return home, Linda uncovers the startling secrets of her past. Monique Truong’s acclaimed novel questions our assumptions about what it means to be a family and to be a friend, to be foreign and to be familiar, to be connected to and disconnected from our bodies, our histories, ourselves.

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Linda Hammerick has a special yet burdensome gift--she experiences words as tastes. Linda's boyfriends' names, for example, remind her of orange sherbet and parsnips; her own name is mint-flavored. Depending on the speaker, listening, for Linda, can be delicious or distasteful. In the first part of the book, Linda interacts with her family: she dances with her eccentric uncle Baby Harper, whose sing-song voice limits her "tasting his words"; she faced off with her acerbic grandmother, Iris; deals with her adored father, Thomas, and her unsympathetic mother, Deanne, whose infatuation with a neighborhood boy leaves Linda vulnerable to his predatory advances. Woven into Linda's story is the history of her home state, North Carolina--slaveholding days, the first airplane flight, and local Indian lore. But when a sudden tragedy brings Linda back home from New York City, she finds answers to a life that has been made up of half-finished sentences, as the secret of her origins and the clandestine histories of those around her are revealed one by one. Truong's (Book of Salt) mesmerizing prose beautifully captures Linda's taste-saturated world, and her portrait of a broken family's secretive pockets and genuine moments of connection is affecting.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Bookmarks Magazine

Although Bitter in the Mouth may not, ultimately, engage the reader as much as the lyrical Book of Salt, critics agreed that Truong's second novel is original, poetic, and compelling in its own right. Complex and layered, it is a coming-of-age tale about the search for identity, family, and human connection. Yet reviewers expressed reservations about the very parts that make the novel unique. While some thought the premise (synesthesia) clever, a few found Linda's dialogue labored, distracting, and self-conscious. Others felt that the revelation of Linda's past is contrived and comes too late in the narrative. Still, wrote the Miami Herald, "On a second encounter, even if less remarkable than the first, it's still a rare, refreshing palate--one to savor." --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks (August 9, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812981324
• ISBN-13: 978-0812981322
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.7 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (55 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #442,365 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Born in Saigon, South Vietnam, in 1968, Monique Truong is a writer based in Brooklyn, New York. Her second novel, Bitter in the Mouth (Random House, 2010), is the inaugural selection of the Ladies' Home Journal Book Club. The novel received the Rosenthal Family Foundation Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and was named a 25 Best Fiction Books of 2010 by Barnes & Noble, a 10 Best Fiction Books of 2010 by Hudson Booksellers, and the adult fiction Honor Book by the Asian Pacific American Librarians Association.

Her first novel, The Book of Salt (Houghton Mifflin, 2003) was a national bestseller and the recipient of the New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award, the Bard Fiction Prize, the Stonewall Book Award-Barbara Gittings Literature Award, the PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles National Literary Award, an Association for Asian American Studies Poetry/Prose Award, and a Seventh Annual Asian American Literary Award. In 2003, The Book of Salt was honored as a New York Times Notable Fiction Book, a Chicago Tribune Favorite Fiction Book, one of the Village Voice's 25 Favorite Books, and one of the Miami Herald's Top 10 Books, among other citations.

Truong is also a contributing co-editor of Watermark: An Anthology of Vietnamese American Poetry & Prose (Asian American Writers' Workshop, 1998).

Truong writes a monthly online food column entitled "Ravenous" for the New York Times' T Magazine. She has contributed to Real Simple, Town & Country, Condé Nast Traveler, Allure, Saveur, Food & Wine, Gourmet, the Times of London (Saturday Magazine), Time Magazine (Asia edition), and other publications.

Truong was a PEN/Robert Bingham Fellow, a Princeton University's Hodder Fellow, and is now a 2010 Guggenheim Fellow.

Truong is also an intellectual property attorney, but she hopes that you will not hold that against her. When she is not writing, which is most of the time, she cooks and takes naps. She lacks many basic life skills such as knowing how to drive a car, ride a bicycle, or read a map. She has been known to walk long distances, though, especially if there is a very good bakery located at the end of that walk.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 34 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Could be a bit hard to get into this story September 12, 2010

By Pippa Lee VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

There is a moment in "Bitter in the Mouth" when the main character likens the facts of her life to cards. She could spread them out on a table in orderly fashion: "My name is Linda Hammerick. I grew up in Boiling Springs, North Carolina. My parents were Thomas and DeAnn. My best friend was named Kelly." Or the same cards could get thrown down and land on each other creating "distorting overlaps (...): I grew up in (Thomas and Kelly). My parents were (valedictorian and baton twirler). My best friend was named (Harper)."

Author Monique Truong structures the story in such a way that it evokes the sense of misplacement and misconstruction that pervades Linda's view of her life as distorting overlaps. Truong divides her novel in two parts. In the first part, Linda covers mostly her childhood--her relationships with her parents, her great-uncle Harper and with Kelly, her best friend. She also describes her first crush, her loss of innocence and the disappointment every child comes to feel when she discovers that the adults in her life are full of flaws and warts. To the reader, Linda Hamerick is an all American girl. Nothing in the minutiae of Linda's narrative foreshadows the surprise Truong drops on the readers at the closing of the first part of her novel. It is then that readers must dismiss any assumptions they might have made about the main character and read on the second part of the book through a different lens.

I enjoy reading both commercial and literary works. "Bitter in the Mouth" is definitely a literary effort. Truong experiments with structure and voice. Linda's revelations of her life and family are made in bits and pieces and in a nonlinear manner. As I encountered them, I felt like I was shuffling pieces of a puzzle. Linda's special condition and her thoughts on childhood legends, however, were more of a distraction to me than contributions to her story. The more I read about them, the more I felt like I wanted to strip the storyline to its bare bones: This book is about (1) Linda's relationship (or lack of it) with her mother, (2) Harper's secret life, (3) Linda's friendship with Kelly and (4) DeAnn and Thomas's marriage

In the end, it was hard to care for Linda. I found her voice too detached. By the time the resolution of the story approaches, her narration becomes clinical and monotonous. There are some gems in "Bitter in the Mouth," however--such as the morning of Thomas's funeral when DeAnn walks into the room with her dress unzipped--, where Truong proves she has an eye for capturing beauty and meaning in what could have been banal details. Reading "Bitter in the Mouth" requires patience and a bit of an open mind toward Truong's choices in story structure and narrative style. Those who like literary experimentation will appreciate this novel.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars This Is A Reader's Dream! I Loved Reading This Book, And I Am So Grateful To Monique Truong. Brilliant! September 12, 2010

By Marilyn Raisen VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

Some writers have very special gifts, and when they write, their words not only pierce the heart but also melt it. I found this incredibly beautiful novel enchanting from its very first sentences.

I will not spoil this book for future readers. However, if you have ever felt or been different, worked with people who were different, then this rare novel is a `must read.' It is written with unusual sensitivity and insight. It is filled with music and color, as well as the importance of love, understanding and acceptance.

The prose is exquisite. Truong's writing demonstrates that special union that only a few writers possess [in my opinion]. This is Linda and her great-uncle Harper's story, as well as how people may find their soul mates within a family. Actually, it is much more than this. Before I knew it, I was enmeshed in their lives. I felt every hurt, as well as any triumph.

If one reads carefully, and I am a most deliberate reader, one will find that most delicate thread that laces people, family and friends together. There is a special thread for it holds mysteries, as well as firms those essential bonds we all form.

`We both liked music because it was a river where we stripped down, jumped in, and flailed our arms around each other. It was 1975 then, and the water everywhere around us was glittery with disco lights. My great-uncle Harper and I though, danced to Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Fats Domino. We twisted, mashed- potatoed, and winked at each other when we opened our eyes. My great-uncle Harper was my first love. I was seven years old. In his company, I laughed out loud.' This passage is on the very first page. It said to me, `Come on in. Do join us. You're in for a treat!' I joined Linda and her truly great-uncle Harper and found myself delightfully lost in this book.

Linda has a condition known as synesthesia. Some words produce certain tastes in Linda's mouth. I had no idea that this condition existed, but allow me to share that Linda is in extremely good company
.
As I've stated earlier, I really don't want to give anything away. I think that readers should come to a book like this as `fresh' as possible. I will share that Linda and her father, Thomas, have an extremely close relationship. One senses their love and understanding of one another. Read carefully about when `Mom' becomes DeAnne.

Linda and Kelly share a wonderfully enriching friendship. This friendship is an enduring one. I loved their letter writing, their support of one another.

This is a most compassionate look at family. One might even look at this as a different `take' on what family is, should be and/or capable of being. It is a memorable, meditative book - one that stirred my memories.

`Bitter in the Mouth' may not be for everyone, but it certainly is a book for me. I loved every minute of it.

It may [perhaps not] be helpful to know that I taught my mother how to do `the twist.' My father and I sang many duets - one was `You Belong To Me.' Also, I like Kandinsky, as well as absolutely love Scriabin.

Did I mention that I loved this book?

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars I'm really not sure what I think of this book... November 17, 2010

By bert1761 VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

which may be perfectly appropriate for a book whose main character has synesthesia. Reading this book was like tasting something with complex flavors, some of which you like and others you don't. CLEARLY, Monique Truong can write some gorgeous prose, create some powerful metaphors, and make one stop and think. But the whole of this book is significantly less than the sum of its parts.

The use of synesthesia as an element of the protagonist's nature creates the ability for some interesting analogies and symbolism. But the way in which it's incorporated into the writing is extremely distracting. Moreover, it seems unnecessary. The issues with which the protagonist struggles have nothing to do with her synesthesia, and her synesthesia adds nothing to her or our understanding of her situation or her reaction to it. Ultimately, while this trope provided the opportunity for a fascinating set-piece about various artists with unusual perceptual challenges, it seemed like more of a gimmick than anything.

The characters in this book are potentially very interesting, but none of them is really fleshed out into a person about whom one really cares. Similarly, many of the characters have endured difficult, and sometimes, traumatic experiences, yet none of them really moved me as I would have expected or wanted to be moved.

Ultimately, I was not particularly engaged in this novel, and I find that result to be particularly disappointing in light of the obvious talent possessed by the author. I think with more time and better editing, she will learn to thin down her plotlines and casts of characters, so as to create a story and people that truly move a reader. "Bitter in the Mouth" contains enough brilliant and startling passages to demonstrate that Monique Truong has the capacity to write a great novel; she just needs to learn how to sustain the magic of many of her individual sentences throughout an entire book