Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Publication
Random House
DDC/MDS
| 813.6 |
Description
When a personal tragedy compels a young woman to return to Boiling Springs, North Carolina, she gets to know a mother she never knew and uncovers a startling story of a life, a family.
Media reviews
Booklist
Truong is a gifted storyteller, and in this quietly powerful novel she has created a compelling and unique character.
User reviews
LibraryThing member mckait
Linda is seven years old when the story begins.
She tells of her life in Boiling Springs, North Carolina.
Her life is not extraordinary. She has a mother
who is distant, a father who adores her and a great uncle Harper
who loves her unconditionally. She also has a friend named Kelly
with whom she has
play together and go to school together, but they write daily letters
to each other. An unusual relationship, but an interesting.
All in all not too different from other little girls growing up in
those days. Except that Linda has a secret. She tastes words. It is
something she doesn't understand, and when she tries to share with
her mother, is rebuked. So, she carries on alone, trying to understand
and trying to cope with the extra input that each word spoken or heard
brings to her.
Linda is grown and a lawyer before this secret of hers is explained.
It was happenstance that she is watching the television when someone
else with the same ability is being interviewed, along with others
who experience different forms of synesthesia. Finally, an explanation
and the knowledge that she is not alone.
But wait! Like so many other families.. there are more secrets. There
have been other questions that have troubled her over the years. The
journey to find the answers to questions she isn't even sure she has
makes for quite a story. A very enjoyable one!
She tells of her life in Boiling Springs, North Carolina.
Her life is not extraordinary. She has a mother
who is distant, a father who adores her and a great uncle Harper
who loves her unconditionally. She also has a friend named Kelly
with whom she has
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a very interesting relationship. Not only do they play together and go to school together, but they write daily letters
to each other. An unusual relationship, but an interesting.
All in all not too different from other little girls growing up in
those days. Except that Linda has a secret. She tastes words. It is
something she doesn't understand, and when she tries to share with
her mother, is rebuked. So, she carries on alone, trying to understand
and trying to cope with the extra input that each word spoken or heard
brings to her.
Linda is grown and a lawyer before this secret of hers is explained.
It was happenstance that she is watching the television when someone
else with the same ability is being interviewed, along with others
who experience different forms of synesthesia. Finally, an explanation
and the knowledge that she is not alone.
But wait! Like so many other families.. there are more secrets. There
have been other questions that have troubled her over the years. The
journey to find the answers to questions she isn't even sure she has
makes for quite a story. A very enjoyable one!
Show Less
LibraryThing member karieh
This is a book whose beginning came for me about 2/3 of the way through the book. The actual first section of “Bitter in the Mouth” left me very sad and very removed from the main character. I felt like I was being held at arm’s length – that there was a very substantial wall between the
“The truth about my family was that we disappointed one another. When I heard the word “disappoint,” I tasted toast, slightly burned. But when I saw the word written, I thought of it first and foremost as the combining or the collapsing together of the words disappear and point, as in how something in us ceased to exist the moment someone let us down.”
Mentioned in the quote above is the fact that Linda experiences tastes for certain words. This is actually one of the things that first drew me to the book – this idea that words evoked an unexpected sense…and yet after a while – some sentences became nearly impossible to read. Each word is combined with the flavor that Linda experiences – and I found myself trying to decipher many sentences while squinting. I think if only certain words evoked tastes – it might have had more impact and would have been less distracting. I understand that there is an actual disease that causes this – but it was very irritating after a while as a reader.
And then – midway through – a veil is lifted. Things start to make much more sense in the context of Linda’s family and aspects of her personality and life choices. I became much more engaged as the pieces started to fall into place. Prior to this – the sense of the book is something like this:
“There were no photographs and no history, official or anecdotal. There was only my memory: coffee left too long on the burner, an uncoated aspirin caught in the throat, how a drop of mercury might taste on the tip of the tongue. I have come close to identifying the taste of bitter, but close isn’t good enough for mnemonic device. As for the word that triggered it, the usual trailhead of my memories, it remains lost to me.”
And then, once the reader finally starts to see what has been hidden, the puzzle starts to hold more interest than despair, becomes compelling instead of depressing. A bit of humor showed up as well. I was drawn in and started turning pages faster.
“My grandmother Iris was an overweight, vengeful diabetic with a taste for fire, and one of those traits would surely make her the next in our family to die.” And after Iris does die – “A small clutch purse lay on its side by her gloved left hand. I remember thinking, What do you need up in Heaven, Iris? A mirror, lipstick and a twenty?”
Linda starts seeing other members of her family through new eyes, eyes that may not be completely forgiving, but at least eyes that are more empathetic than before she left her small Southern hometown.
There were times during the first third of the book that I thought of putting the book down. Now that I have finished it, I’m very glad I stayed with it. Once some of the barriers fell – the beauty, the bittersweet love and fragile delicacy of the lives described in “Bitter in the Mouth” were well worth the time it took to reach them.
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truths of the family of the main character, Linda, and me, the reader.“The truth about my family was that we disappointed one another. When I heard the word “disappoint,” I tasted toast, slightly burned. But when I saw the word written, I thought of it first and foremost as the combining or the collapsing together of the words disappear and point, as in how something in us ceased to exist the moment someone let us down.”
Mentioned in the quote above is the fact that Linda experiences tastes for certain words. This is actually one of the things that first drew me to the book – this idea that words evoked an unexpected sense…and yet after a while – some sentences became nearly impossible to read. Each word is combined with the flavor that Linda experiences – and I found myself trying to decipher many sentences while squinting. I think if only certain words evoked tastes – it might have had more impact and would have been less distracting. I understand that there is an actual disease that causes this – but it was very irritating after a while as a reader.
And then – midway through – a veil is lifted. Things start to make much more sense in the context of Linda’s family and aspects of her personality and life choices. I became much more engaged as the pieces started to fall into place. Prior to this – the sense of the book is something like this:
“There were no photographs and no history, official or anecdotal. There was only my memory: coffee left too long on the burner, an uncoated aspirin caught in the throat, how a drop of mercury might taste on the tip of the tongue. I have come close to identifying the taste of bitter, but close isn’t good enough for mnemonic device. As for the word that triggered it, the usual trailhead of my memories, it remains lost to me.”
And then, once the reader finally starts to see what has been hidden, the puzzle starts to hold more interest than despair, becomes compelling instead of depressing. A bit of humor showed up as well. I was drawn in and started turning pages faster.
“My grandmother Iris was an overweight, vengeful diabetic with a taste for fire, and one of those traits would surely make her the next in our family to die.” And after Iris does die – “A small clutch purse lay on its side by her gloved left hand. I remember thinking, What do you need up in Heaven, Iris? A mirror, lipstick and a twenty?”
Linda starts seeing other members of her family through new eyes, eyes that may not be completely forgiving, but at least eyes that are more empathetic than before she left her small Southern hometown.
There were times during the first third of the book that I thought of putting the book down. Now that I have finished it, I’m very glad I stayed with it. Once some of the barriers fell – the beauty, the bittersweet love and fragile delicacy of the lives described in “Bitter in the Mouth” were well worth the time it took to reach them.
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LibraryThing member sjurban
The main character, Linda, suffers (?) from the rare lexical → gustatory synesthesia, where individual words evoke taste sensations in the mouth. This condition is fascinating and the author describes it well. The dialogues in this book took a bit of getting used to because the author named the
I liked Linda, I thought I knew her as a character. Then about 150 pages in that the author reveals a piece of information about Linda that turns out to be vital to who she is. It was amazing and made me go back in my mind through the first half of the book to make sure that all the pieces fit. They did. I love it when that happens.
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tastes that Linda experienced when she spoke or was spoken to. I liked Linda, I thought I knew her as a character. Then about 150 pages in that the author reveals a piece of information about Linda that turns out to be vital to who she is. It was amazing and made me go back in my mind through the first half of the book to make sure that all the pieces fit. They did. I love it when that happens.
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LibraryThing member TooBusyReading
This lovely book is literary Southern Lit with a bit of a twist. Linda is a child who can taste certain spoken words, is sometimes bombarded with tastes. Her mother is distant. Her acerbic grandmother, on her death bed, tells Linda, “What I know about you, little girl, would break you in two.”
Friendship, family, betrayal, love, and too many secrets – they are all here. Action – not so much. Throughout, there are hints of what is to come, but the story unravels slowly. And interspersed are bits and pieces, snippets of stories about people who lived long before Linda.
The book was sometimes hard to read when Linda was experiencing too many flavors because the word she heard and the word she tasted were merged into one bigger word, with the flavor in italics. Linda's own name was Lindamint. Too many strung together were a challenge to read, but the effect was perhaps intentional, showing how hard it was for the character to concentrate on the words when the flavors got in the way. Although this word-tasting had a valid place in the story, it sometimes felt just a little like a gimmick. Still, I very much enjoyed this soft, lyrical story.
Thank you to jcwlib for giving me her copy of this book.
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Her father loves her. But most of all, she has her great-uncle, Baby Harper. I love this character, my favorite in the entire book. He was Linda's soft place to land, the person who knew and accepted her just as she was. And she accepted him, even as she learned his secrets. Friendship, family, betrayal, love, and too many secrets – they are all here. Action – not so much. Throughout, there are hints of what is to come, but the story unravels slowly. And interspersed are bits and pieces, snippets of stories about people who lived long before Linda.
The book was sometimes hard to read when Linda was experiencing too many flavors because the word she heard and the word she tasted were merged into one bigger word, with the flavor in italics. Linda's own name was Lindamint. Too many strung together were a challenge to read, but the effect was perhaps intentional, showing how hard it was for the character to concentrate on the words when the flavors got in the way. Although this word-tasting had a valid place in the story, it sometimes felt just a little like a gimmick. Still, I very much enjoyed this soft, lyrical story.
Thank you to jcwlib for giving me her copy of this book.
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LibraryThing member dale-in-queens
Having read Truong's The Book of Salt, I was looking forward to this book. I certainly wasn't disappointed. It's a very different book, but also one with a distinct and unforgettable voice. I won't forget Linda, the main character. You really need to read the book yourself, as it unfolds in ways
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that shouldn't be described, but should be experienced. Show Less
LibraryThing member lahochstetler
The most important thing I can say about this book is that it gets much better in the second half. A coming of age story about a southern girl with a unique disorder, Linda can taste words. Every word has a flavor. Listening and speaking can create a whole series of unpleasant tastes. Human
To add to these problems Linda's family relations are strained. She has little relationship with her mother, and after her father's death Linda's only real emotional connection is with her uncle Harper. Harper faces his own demons struggling to find acceptance in a town that demonizes homosexuality.
This all sounds like it could make for a good story, but honestly, I found the first half of this book to be rather dull. Tasting words seemed like an unnecessary add-on, and the result was basically that Linda ended up smoking all the time. I nearly abandoned it. Then Truong drops a bomb on the last page of the first section, and the books gets much more interesting. I'm not going to address the nature of what changes; it's much more effective if it's a surprise.
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conversation becomes a minefield. To add to these problems Linda's family relations are strained. She has little relationship with her mother, and after her father's death Linda's only real emotional connection is with her uncle Harper. Harper faces his own demons struggling to find acceptance in a town that demonizes homosexuality.
This all sounds like it could make for a good story, but honestly, I found the first half of this book to be rather dull. Tasting words seemed like an unnecessary add-on, and the result was basically that Linda ended up smoking all the time. I nearly abandoned it. Then Truong drops a bomb on the last page of the first section, and the books gets much more interesting. I'm not going to address the nature of what changes; it's much more effective if it's a surprise.
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LibraryThing member jeanan
This novel is about a girl named,Linda who lives in a small town in North Carolina. She has a great-uncle.Baby Harper and a best girlfriend,Kelly. Linda is trying to find the truth about her past .And she doesn't get very much help from her so called family. This book was very hard to put down.
LibraryThing member Jackie.the.Librarian
A great read. This book really communicates the crossed wires of synesthesia; in this case a young woman who associates tastes with individual words. The characters are exceptionally 3-dimensional and the story goes along at a pace that's not too slow nor too fast. Definitely a great read.
LibraryThing member ericnguyen09
Can an Asian immigrant write the American Great Novel? If you ask any major literary establishment, the answer is always no. Great American Novels have always been written by white men, most recently Jonathan Frazen. The immigrant's story is always the immigrant's story and does not speak for the
But of course the answer to the question "Can an Asian immigrant write the great American novel?" is: yes. Monique Truong proves this in her latest novel Bitter in the Mouth. Truong, who was born in Saigon, indeed reinvents perhaps the most "American" genre (besides the road novel): the Southern Gothic, that genre that looks at the charms and hardships that makes life in the American South life in the American South. The literary genre is rich in examinations of race--Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird, for example; or Heartbreak Hotel by Anne River Siddons. The problem with the genre however is that it has always looked at race as either Black or White. The authors are always Whites trying to make-up and/or defend the south in an act of revisionist romanticism. This South is a white, heterosexual, Christian South that is supposed to represent a truer, more real America where apple pies are baked and cups of sugar are shared and everybody is good. Karin Gillespie for example, who writes the Bottom Dollar Girls novels, or Robert Dalby who writes the Piggly Wiggly novels.
Monique Truong's novel, however, is a novel about the hidden south, the other America that was there to begin with but was always an outsider. Bitter in the Mouth is a novel about being an outsider and perhaps the main character is the biggest outsider you can find in Southern literature: Linda Hammerick, a Vietnamese adoptee who has synesthesia, that is, she tastes words. Her names makes her taste mint, God is a walnut, and mom is chocolate milk. She calls her dad "dad" and her mother DeAnne. She dances with her gay uncle. She goes to law school. With Linda, Truong has created a memorable character who is a shuffled deck of cards (long quoted passaged [about 1/2 a page], but I think this is one of the most beautiful passages in the novel]:
"I'll tell you the easy things first. I'll use simple sentences. So factual and flat, these statements will land in between us like playing cards on a table: My name is Linda Hammerick. I grew up in Boiling Springs, North Carolina. My parents were Thomas and DeAnne. My best friend was named Kelly. I was my father's tomboy. I was my mother's baton twirler. I was my high school's valedictorian. I went far away for college and law school. I live now in New York City. I miss my great uncle Harper.
"But once these cards have been thrown down, there are bound to be distorting overlaps, the head of the Queen of Spades on the body of the King of Clubs, the Joker's bowed legs beneath a field of hearts: I grew up in (Thomas and Kelly). My parents were (valedictorian and baton twirler). My best friend was named (Harper). I was my father's (New York City). I was my mother's (college and law school). I was my high school's (tomboy). I went far away for (Thomas and DeAnne). I live now in (Boiling Springs). I miss (Linda Hammerick)."
Truong's novel is about, above all, this type of distortion. For one, it's about the way our bodies are distorted: Linda's taste distortation; the way she's a tomboy while her best friend becomes skinny and sexy; the way she looks Asian yet has a southern accent. It is as if we cannot trust our own bodies because our bodies fail, as many do in this novel, and is the cause of Linda's homecoming from New York back to Boiling Springs (via Greyhound bus). It's about how our own identities are distorted: can one be Asian with white parents? Can one belong to a white Southern community with yellow skin and slanted eyes?
Indeed the distorations in this novel is a type of disappointment--"The truth about my family was that we disappointed one another"--and the way we fail ourselves and our families (as well as how they fail us). Bitter in the Mouth is a book about our shuffled lives, how in the process of shuffling we find ourselves lost: Linda's first 7 years before the adoption is lost, her uncle's identity as a gay man is lost in familial shame, DeAnne's motives are hidden in a long history of disappointment. Bitter in the Mouth is an intricately woven family saga.
Above all, Truong does this all beautifully. Her prose is slow like a southern drawl both in a poetic way and an annoying way. The way Truong tries to let us experience Linda's synesthesia bogs down the novel, yet at the same time it slows us down to appreciate these words and their meanings. Truong not only deftly portrays her lost and spiteful characters, she paints the south that is part mythology, part history, part personal tale.
In this way, Truong not only writes an immigrant's story, she writes the Great American Story about the hidden America that has never had its story told. As Linda says at the end, "We all need a story of where we came from and how we got here. Otherwise, how could we ever put down our tender roots and stay."
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rest of America. Or at least this is the discourse.But of course the answer to the question "Can an Asian immigrant write the great American novel?" is: yes. Monique Truong proves this in her latest novel Bitter in the Mouth. Truong, who was born in Saigon, indeed reinvents perhaps the most "American" genre (besides the road novel): the Southern Gothic, that genre that looks at the charms and hardships that makes life in the American South life in the American South. The literary genre is rich in examinations of race--Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird, for example; or Heartbreak Hotel by Anne River Siddons. The problem with the genre however is that it has always looked at race as either Black or White. The authors are always Whites trying to make-up and/or defend the south in an act of revisionist romanticism. This South is a white, heterosexual, Christian South that is supposed to represent a truer, more real America where apple pies are baked and cups of sugar are shared and everybody is good. Karin Gillespie for example, who writes the Bottom Dollar Girls novels, or Robert Dalby who writes the Piggly Wiggly novels.
Monique Truong's novel, however, is a novel about the hidden south, the other America that was there to begin with but was always an outsider. Bitter in the Mouth is a novel about being an outsider and perhaps the main character is the biggest outsider you can find in Southern literature: Linda Hammerick, a Vietnamese adoptee who has synesthesia, that is, she tastes words. Her names makes her taste mint, God is a walnut, and mom is chocolate milk. She calls her dad "dad" and her mother DeAnne. She dances with her gay uncle. She goes to law school. With Linda, Truong has created a memorable character who is a shuffled deck of cards (long quoted passaged [about 1/2 a page], but I think this is one of the most beautiful passages in the novel]:
"I'll tell you the easy things first. I'll use simple sentences. So factual and flat, these statements will land in between us like playing cards on a table: My name is Linda Hammerick. I grew up in Boiling Springs, North Carolina. My parents were Thomas and DeAnne. My best friend was named Kelly. I was my father's tomboy. I was my mother's baton twirler. I was my high school's valedictorian. I went far away for college and law school. I live now in New York City. I miss my great uncle Harper.
"But once these cards have been thrown down, there are bound to be distorting overlaps, the head of the Queen of Spades on the body of the King of Clubs, the Joker's bowed legs beneath a field of hearts: I grew up in (Thomas and Kelly). My parents were (valedictorian and baton twirler). My best friend was named (Harper). I was my father's (New York City). I was my mother's (college and law school). I was my high school's (tomboy). I went far away for (Thomas and DeAnne). I live now in (Boiling Springs). I miss (Linda Hammerick)."
Truong's novel is about, above all, this type of distortion. For one, it's about the way our bodies are distorted: Linda's taste distortation; the way she's a tomboy while her best friend becomes skinny and sexy; the way she looks Asian yet has a southern accent. It is as if we cannot trust our own bodies because our bodies fail, as many do in this novel, and is the cause of Linda's homecoming from New York back to Boiling Springs (via Greyhound bus). It's about how our own identities are distorted: can one be Asian with white parents? Can one belong to a white Southern community with yellow skin and slanted eyes?
Indeed the distorations in this novel is a type of disappointment--"The truth about my family was that we disappointed one another"--and the way we fail ourselves and our families (as well as how they fail us). Bitter in the Mouth is a book about our shuffled lives, how in the process of shuffling we find ourselves lost: Linda's first 7 years before the adoption is lost, her uncle's identity as a gay man is lost in familial shame, DeAnne's motives are hidden in a long history of disappointment. Bitter in the Mouth is an intricately woven family saga.
Above all, Truong does this all beautifully. Her prose is slow like a southern drawl both in a poetic way and an annoying way. The way Truong tries to let us experience Linda's synesthesia bogs down the novel, yet at the same time it slows us down to appreciate these words and their meanings. Truong not only deftly portrays her lost and spiteful characters, she paints the south that is part mythology, part history, part personal tale.
In this way, Truong not only writes an immigrant's story, she writes the Great American Story about the hidden America that has never had its story told. As Linda says at the end, "We all need a story of where we came from and how we got here. Otherwise, how could we ever put down our tender roots and stay."
Show Less
LibraryThing member Alphawoman
It took me two weeks to finish this book. I am thinking my stress levels have abated enough that I am not lying awake in the middle of the night reading and that has cut down of my speed reading. Be that as it may, I almost gave up on this book and moved on to something that moved a little faster
The added delight of several fascinating characters, especially Baby Harper, made the annoying, but perhaps necessary, use of the synesthesia in the text bearable.
I am the first to admit that I am a pedestrian reviewer. This book held beauty in one hand and a distraction with three parallel story lines which I am certain with a more intellectual connection could have made sense to me.
All in all anything that takes me two weeks to read does not merit many stars.
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for me. Yet, I was interested in the mystery of Linda's being.The added delight of several fascinating characters, especially Baby Harper, made the annoying, but perhaps necessary, use of the synesthesia in the text bearable.
I am the first to admit that I am a pedestrian reviewer. This book held beauty in one hand and a distraction with three parallel story lines which I am certain with a more intellectual connection could have made sense to me.
All in all anything that takes me two weeks to read does not merit many stars.
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LibraryThing member gypsysmom
A friend recommended this book to me. Otherwise I doubt I would have picked it up and that would have been a shame. It's a fascinating look at synesthesia first of all. But the thing I will probably remember best about this book is how secrets affect relationships with those we are closest to.
Linda
For the first half of the book Linda seems like one person and then there is one sentence that reveals a whole other identity. I was gobsmacked; I truly did not see that coming. I really can't say more because it would give away too much. It will just have to remain a secret until you read this book.
Linda
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grew up in the small southern town of Boiling Springs North Carolina. She paints it as boring and backward but as she reveals her life it seems like a place full of interesting characters. Her best friend Kelly was awkward, shy and fat but she was also smart. Even though Linda and Kelly saw each other every day growing up they wrote letters to each other. Linda's father is a lawyer who married the daughter of the senior partner but his time away at Yale and law school hides a secret which will become important to Linda understanding who she is. Her mother is strict and undemonstrative which she may have picked up from her mother, Iris, a woman who never told a lie. Iris's younger brother, Harper, is a "confirmed bachelor" (code for gay) who is called Baby by everyone. Baby Harper and Linda love each other and he is who she tells the big secrets of her life. One of those secrets is that Linda senses a taste for every word she hears. Her own name is mint tasting. The sensations she feels when people talk to her are overwhelming and interfere with her learning school work. Kelly is also in on this secret (Linda tried to tell her mother once but that just resulted in her mother saying she would not have a crazy person in her family) and between them they work out that caffeine can help dull the sensations enough so she can excel at school. For the first half of the book Linda seems like one person and then there is one sentence that reveals a whole other identity. I was gobsmacked; I truly did not see that coming. I really can't say more because it would give away too much. It will just have to remain a secret until you read this book.
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LibraryThing member Eoin
4.3 Delicate and inevitable, Truong's second effort is a worthy follow-up to a promising debut. Ringing prose and supreme equanimity outweigh the slightly unlikely, though fascinating, characters and plot. Worth it for synesthesia and effective suspension of race.
LibraryThing member elenaj
Subtle and gorgeous, a warm-hearted sleight-of-hand.
Original publication date
2010-08-31
ISBN
9781400069088