Tasting Differences

Bitter in the Mouth
by Monique Truong
Buy this Book
at Amazon.com

When Linda Hammerick hears her first name, she tastes mint. Her childhood boyfriend, Wade, is orange sherbet.

This neurological condition of auditory-gustatory synesthesia – the sound of words producing flavors – is Linda’s secret in Monique Truong second novel, Bitter in the Mouth. Truong became fascinated with this condition when she heard a man who had it speak.

TRUONG: I knew immediately that synesthesia could be a rich metaphor for the subjectivity of our life experiences, especially on the level of language. It is a difference unlike gender or race. I knew that writing about synesthesia would allow me to explore the differences-detectable and undetectable, seen and unseen-that set us apart from one another.”

AUTHORLINK: How did this idea develop into a novel?

TRUONG: With Bitter in the Mouth, the condition preceded the main character. I built Linda around her form of synesthesia. I also had long wanted to write about the American south, especially about the little town of Boiling Springs, North Carolina, where my family first lived when we came to the U.S. as refugees in '75.

AUTHORLINK: Is the Boiling Springs in your novel like the town you knew?

TRUONG: The Boiling Springs of Linda Hammerick is mine as well. I grew up in this small town in the mid 70s and was the only Asian child in my school. I, like Linda, was in my own world. There were so many things that were happening around me that I, as a seven year old, could not begin to understand. How did I "transform" overnight from being a little girl to a space alien? Why were the children around me so fascinated by my body (my long black hair, my nose, my eyes, which apparently had become "slits")? Why did they call me a "Chink" or a "Jap" when I was clearly Vietnamese? And, what for goodness sake was a "gook"? That kind of alienation--total and all-consuming--was certainly one that I drew upon for Linda and for her own experiences with the American south.

AUTHORLINK: How do you think your book affects others who feel different from their peers?

TRUONG: We all have experienced that feeling of not belonging at one time or another in our lives. Some of us more acutely and permanently than others. Without revealing too much of the story, I think that on the pages of Bitter in the Mouth Linda Hammerick has the privilege and we have one as well of getting to know her and identifying with her from the inside out. She gets to introduce herself to us in the ways that matter most to her and then gradually reveal to us what and how the world around her actually views or "sees" her. This is a privilege that we, in life, rarely have. People "see" us first and make their assumptions and determinations, which are too often wrong, about who we are and then only with time, if ever, can we show them our true selves.

AUTHORLINK: Is there significance to the flavors you give each word?

TRUONG: The beguiling thing about auditory-gustatory synesthesia is that the flavors that are experienced rarely have anything to do with the meanings of the words that triggered them. The word "apple," for example, could taste like black pepper. So, the word-flavor combos that Linda experiences had to appear random. The appearance of randomness is harder to create than you would imagine!

There are instances where I wanted to insert meaning into the combinations. Wade’s orange sherbet is reminiscent of the sweet, simple, artificial flavor palate of frozen treats of the mid 70s, a kind of flavored nostalgia.

AUTHORLINK: Your first novel, The Book of Salt, also uses food and a shifting time line. How do you compare the two books?

TRUONG: The Book of Salt was an exploration of the unreliable narrator. In Bitter in the Mouth, I am playing instead with the unreliable reader. Linda never tells us an untruth. She just leaves out some important facts about her life. Often we keep the heart of our life stories--our secrets, our shames, our most tender moments--for a time when we think or believe it will be safe to share.

Bestselling author Monique Truong’s first novel, The Book of Salt, was a New York Times Notable Book and won multiple awards including the New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award and the Bard Fiction Prize. She loves to cook and has a good memory for flavors – a trait that gave her insight into her characters.

Diane Slocum has been a newspaper reporter and editor and authored an historical book. As a freelance writer, she contributes regularly to magazines and newspapers. She writes features on authors and a column for writers and readers in Lifestyle magazine. She is assigned to write interviews of first-time novelists and bestselling authors for Authorlink.