Bitter in the Mouth

by Monique Truong

From Monique Truong, winner of the John Dos Passos Prize for Literature and author of The Sweetest Fruits , 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.

Genres: Fiction, Book Club, Contemporary, Southern, Literary Fiction, Family, Novels

320 pages, Paperback

First published August 31, 2010

About the author

Born in Saigon, South Vietnam, Monique Truong came to the U.S. as a refugee in 1975. She is a writer based now in Brooklyn, New York. Her award-winning novels are The Sweetest Fruits (Viking Books, 2019), Bitter in the Mouth (Random House, 2010), and the national bestseller The Book of Salt (Houghton Mifflin, 2003). She is the co-editor of Watermark: Vietnamese American Poetry & Prose, 25th Anniversary Edition (DVAN Series, Texas Tech University Press, 2023). With fashion designer Thai Nguyen and New York Times bestselling illustrator Dung Ho, Truong is the co-author of Mai's Áo Dài, a children's picture book (Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books, 2025).

A Guggenheim Fellow, U.S.-Japan Creative Artists Fellow in Tokyo, Visiting Writer at the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, Princeton University’s Hodder Fellow, Kirk Writer-in-Residence at Ages Scott College, Sidney Harman Writer-in-Residence at Baruch College (CUNY), and Frank B. Hanes Writer-in-Residence at UNC-Chapel Hill, Truong was most recently awarded a John Gardner Fiction Book Award and a John Dos Passos Prize for Literature. Truong received her BA in Literature from Yale and her JD from Columbia Law School.

Reviews

[jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book is simply fantastic. i consider it nothing short of a masterpiece. as i was reading it i kept thinking, how did she do it?

but she did it.

the story is nothing one can summarize and make the book sound as enticing as it is. what makes this book worth reading in spades is the absolute genius, the delightful brilliance of its composition. which composition reveals itself slowly. after the first few chapters the only thing that kept me reading was the loveliness of the language. about half way through (it took me that long) i realized that truong was writing with magic boxes. in one box you find a little bit of story, and it's nothing really special but that's okay. you notice that it is only a fragment of story but don't really mind. often stories are bits of stories. writers leave a full explanation -- a full narrative -- out. you're used to it.

and then the bits of stories become a bit too many, like say one or two too many, and you think, ugh. but you are reading a beautifully written novel and figure, well, it's that kind of novel, the author is into the slightly frustrating practice of dropping little threads, not seeing them through: maybe it's good this way: maybe it's a technique.

and just at this point, just when you are happy to live with all the question marks in your head, truong hits you straight at the center of your heart with a revelation. but you weren't expecting it! you weren't expecting anything! you barely noticed that there were all these unexplained things! because they weren't REALLY unexplained! it was mostly like life, little things here and there you don't get, like when someone writes on facebook "i'm going to spend the weekend with my brother" and you wonder, "do i know she has a brother? has she ever talked about a brother?" but don't ask, cuz you figure maybe it's you. or none of your business.

or maybe you ask, and a riches of narratives is poured into your lap.

so, in this book, once you are explained the first thing, once the first revelation hits you straight at the center of your heart, you need to go back in your head and revisit the entire narrative in the light of this awesome explanation, then you know to expect more.

in truth, i really didn't. i thought some of the things had just passed me by. even having been SHOWN that eventually all the mysteries (little life mysteries, not big whodunnits) would be explained, i STILL thought, maybe we'll never be told about this one.

well, we are told about all of them. even the ones we didn't really notice we didn't understand until truong explained them to us.

and this is how the book ends, with the explanation you spent the entire book thinking to yourself you were never going to get. not expecting it. at all.

this is how magic this book is. it keeps you wondering, uncertain, off balance, all the way through. like life.

i wish i could write more but i've noticed that i am reluctant to read long reviews and i imagine other people are too, so i'll just add this thing:

truong could have written this story straight, beginning to end, and it would have been another story of growing up in the south. but she chose to tell it like this, with magic boxes that spring open at the least expected moments, and the story is magnificent, amazing. it will stay with me forever. and the talent of this writer, the talent of this writer is etched in my heart.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book that is easy to fall into. The setting, characters have a familiar lilt to it, reminiscent of Southern classics like To Kill A Mockingbird. The main character's synesthesia allows for some interestingly poetic interpretations of classic scenes (boy meets girl scenes, especially). Others have mentioned that the book is a little self-conscious. I think it started out more charming and engaging than self-conscious, but toward the middle some of the "Southern" story characterizations, tropes, plot started to become a little more obvious and tiresome. The sense of imaginative-ness and quirkiness kind of dissolved as the plot moved along. The main character grew into one of those all-black wearing loner intellectual types. I'm still into reading it though. I like what she's attempting to do (the big reveal, which was spoiled for me in some of the reviews/interviews I listened to), and her writing is easy on the ears.

Just finished. I felt like the story was going through the motions in the second half. Everything seemed too on the nose and pat toward the end. I really wanted to like this book, because there are lots of smart and observant moments in the book. Maybe the smart and observant qualities would have been more fitting in an essay, not necessarily in a family drama. Maybe there was just too much there in the service of making a point.

I think the appeal of this book is similar to that of a genre novel. You sort of have to enjoy inhabiting the world of this book (family drama/dysfunction) and its conventions (how it goes about detailing the South, resolving or coming to terms with family drama/dysfunction) to be able to forgive some of the predictable moves the writer makes.

But it was worth reading. The intentions behind the book were original... I think. Just sometimes not the execution, which seemed a little clinical at times (you can almost see the cliff notes that might go along with the story).

I actually loved the "distractions" in the book. The historical vignettes especially, about Virginia Dare, the Wright Brothers, George Moses Horton. The writer's voice shines in these asides (but kind of irritatingly gets ruined, because you realize it sometimes serves to bring home certain points the author wants to make a little too obviously).

[Leylak Dalı · Rating 3 out of 5]

Linda herkesten farklı bir algılamaya sahip küçük bir kızdır, çünkü sinesteziyle yaşamaktadır. Ondaki yansıması kelimeleri yiyecek tadı olarak ağzında duyumlaması şeklindedir. Kendi adı söylediğinde "nane" tadı alır mesela. Kitapta önce Linda'nın büyüme sancılarını, en yakın arkadaşı Kelly ve büyük dayısı Bebek Harper'la olan ilişkilerini okuyoruz, sonra Linda'nın yetişkinliğini ve hayatındaki sırları. Başlarda biraz ağır tempoda gitse de sonradan açılan keyifli bir kitap, favorim Bebek Harper :)

[Susan (aka Just My Op) · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.” 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.

[Nan · Rating 2 out of 5]

The protagonist of this novel is a young woman who experiences tastes when she hears words. The story is of her adolesence and early adulthood. I found this book to be rather gimmick-y and annoying. Tangents about Viginia Dare, the Wright brothers, and a poet who was a slave kept popping up. A more saavy reader probably could make sense of this, but I kept thinking "Again with Virginia Dare?" And, frankly, as an Ohioan, I'm always annoyed by North Carolinians claiming the Wright brothers. Dayton, Ohio, baby. The revelations about her family (oh, he is gay!) seemed contrived. I raced through it just to know why her grandmother, on her deathbed, said "what I know about you could break you in two." Great line, but the the story didn't live up to it.

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was completely enchanted by Monique Truong's first novel, The Book of Salt. Of course, it was set in Paris, with a fictional Vietnamese immigrant who served as cook to Gertrude Stein and Alice B Toklas. So tasty.

Bitter in the Mouth is set in the American south, but as I know from William Faulkner, the south can be another country to a northerner like me. In that area of the United States they have their own customs, including a finely honed talent for not noticing the most obvious matters when they don't fit the customs. Women who marry but don't have children, anyone who drinks too much, homosexuality, any other race than white, women who break the mold, are just a few of those matters of which one may not speak, except by way of gossip, alluding, or backstabbing remarks.

Linda grows up knowing she was adopted, knowing that her adopted mother does not love her, depending on her father and uncle for love, closeness and any happiness there is to be found. She is a character for a reader to admire: highly intelligent, a reader herself, in a love/hate relationship with words. She and her best friend Kelly have written letters to each other since grade school, even when they lived just a few houses apart. But Linda has auditory-gustatory synethesia, a "secret sense" that causes her to taste words, sometimes a blessing, often a curse.

Much happens in such a medium length novel. The writing made me feel respected and intelligent as a reader. I love that approbation from a novelist. The coming-of-age, the long slow process of learning about herself, the stratagems Linda adopts in order to survive, are all presented from Linda's viewpoint and revealed to the reader only as she gains understanding about her life and the people in it.

Monique Truong says she used To Kill A Mockingbird and Truman Capote's Other Voices, Other Rooms as inspiration as she wrote Bitter in the Mouth. I'm glad I didn't know this before I read the book, but knowing it afterwards explains why I felt so much familiarity with her characters.

The end of the book, where Linda makes her peace with life, was a bit too melodramatic for me. a little too spelled out in terms of what she, and therefore the reader, realized. I would have preferred a few more rough edges remaining. But getting to that point surely made a satisfying and moving story.

[Stephanie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was really excited that I won this from Goodreads(Thank You!) But this book was not good at all. The description of the book sounded pretty interesting, so that's why I entered the giveaway. But it just did not hold my interest. I am about halfway done with the book but I have not picked it up since October so I decided to finally just write a review. I do plan on finishing it eventually but I'm really not interested in finishing it at the moment. I hate not finishing a book though, but I just can't get into this one.

I was really interested about the fact that Linda can "taste words". I was curious about why and how this would play out, but the way it was written was so confusing. Every time she would speak, the words would have food/tastes attached to them so it made it a little harder to read and a bit confusing. There also was not much dialog going on in the book. Also, everything I read did not seem important to the story and it was just all over the place. It just jumped from one story about her past to another. I didn't see where it was going and how it fit all together to the story. Her style of writing was just not my cup of tea. I know that maybe it would fit all together in the end, but it just did not hold my interest enough for me to even care to finish it.

I hate to give a book 1 star, but, for me, this book was not interesting or could hold my attention. But that's just me, because I did see some really good reviews about this book, which is great.

[Vy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the middle of this book. I liked almost all the characters, and I was drawn in to the story. I carried this book with me, hoping for a few moments here or there to learn what would happen next. I was actually disappointed when I found no line at all on my errand to the post office because I was sure I'd be able to get a few more pages in while waiting!

The beginning was a bit slow, and it took some time to get used to the author's habit of coming back to the same people and events multiple times. Soon, though, I began to like this rhythm. Every time she revisited an event, there was a drop or two of additional information that created a ripple in my understanding of the characters involved. I think that's what kept me so engaged. The pace at the end, though, felt all wrong. Suddenly, instead of a trickle of information, we were deluged with a flood, and the last few chapters seemed so rushed. That took away from my enjoyment of the book, but I still love it enough to recommend it.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Monique Truong's Bitter in the Mouth is an elegantly written novel that expands the world of Southern literature with its Vietnamese narrator, Linda(mint). In an age of increasingly globalization and migration, Truong challenges the typical definition of Southerner.

I loved the varied relationships in the book, from the very real girlhood friendship between Linda and Kelly to Linda seeking solace with her great uncle Baby Harper. Linda struggles with being an outsider while grappling with a condition called synethsesia, which elicits certain tastes depending on the word she hears. The tastes combined with the dialog create a vivid and curious effect, making the reader take pause to ponder Linda's condition. It could feel forced, but Truong makes it work even as she constructs serious conversations in which Linda's family tries to make sense of the past. I'll definitely recommend this to fans of North Carolina and literary fiction.

[cat · Rating 4 out of 5]

2011 Book 37/2011

Oh, Monique Truong, you are my novelist crush. I couldn't stop raving about, returning to, and thinking of, her first book "The Book of Salt" and I finally read her newest, "Bitter in the Mouth" last night. And I loved it. Not quite in the same swooning and exclamatory way that I loved "The Book of Salt", but similiar. A novel that features a cross-dressing and loving great-uncle called "Baby Harper" by the whole family who completely stole my heart, a main character with lexical-gustatory synesthesia who tastes the words that she and others speak, and a sudden revealing on page 169 of information that suddenly shines a different light on the whole first part of the book, well, friends, that can't be anything but magical. I can't wait for her next novel. Swoon.

[Amy Bradley · Rating 2 out of 5]

On the cover is a beatiful magnolia and the book is set in North Carolina which are two positives for me. Boy was I disappointed. The main character's grandmother says some memorable words on her death bed that leads the main character on a search for who she is. She has synaesthesia so she tastes words. I don't really know what this added to the story other than it made it hard to read. "Lindamint, youcannedgreenbeans may have forTriscuitgotten this, but youcannedgreenbeans had gone off to Yaleavocado." She did have a homosexual cross-dressing uncle who was a mortician. She dearly loved him and they spent many hours together. I would pass on reading this book.

[Lorraine · Rating 4 out of 5]

What if words had taste? I bet we'd be kinder to our kin...Linda, the protagonist, suffers from "synethesia" which converts words into flavours. It is a neurological disorders and has no known cure.

Ultimately, though, the novel becomes a moving investigation of invented families and small-town subterfuge, a search for self heightened by the legacy of Vietnam and the flavors of language. Binding everything together is a new Southerner’s deeply American recognition that “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.”

If you liked "To Kill A Mockingbird", you'll enjoy this book as well. Well written and the story really unfolds 3/4 into the book.

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't feel like this novel really went anywhere. It reads like a transcript of a meandering therapy session, and not a terribly interesting one. With the exception of Baby Harper, the characters are dull as rocks. I didn't care about Linda at all. The "revelations" are duds. Linda is adopted, and her biological mother was her adopted father's Vietnamese pen pal. These should have been minor plot points, not the focus of the story. I dreaded reading the dialogue because of the way Truong chose to integrate Linda's synesthesia into the text. The rape story line also seemed in poor taste. It served no purpose whatsoever in the narrative. There were moments where the writing was pretty, and this was an easy read. I just can't say I enjoyed it.

[Anna · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had a like/hate relationship with this book. The book was hard to read; Linda has synesthesia, the kind where most words have a taste. It would be more interesting if it weren't so hard to read through the words and tastes combined, differentiated only by italics. I can't imagine how the audio book dealt with it. The plot itself, of Linda's relationship with her mother, her rape, being an outsider in a small Southern town, just went to slowly for me. All if it was interesting, just...too slow.

[Christie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! I highly recommend this one. It’s a multi-sensory experience and an important look at life in the South.

[Divya · Rating 5 out of 5]

GENIUS!!!! Troung really encapsulates the lessons implanted in us as young girls: Love thy mother, worship your waistline, the boy is mine. So much about the cage of beauty. And about blood pacts that lack shared blood, and are made more true for it. And about your first love, who is really your first best friend. Did North Carolina justice and made me laugh out loud throughout the entire book

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s been a long time since I’ve been introduced to a character as original as Linda – a woman who suffers from auditory-gustatory synesthesia. Or, in simpler terms, she has the rare ability to “taste” words as a result of a “neurological condition that caused the involuntary mixing of the senses.”

Monique Truong represents her condition by marrying tastes with words; for example, “I thought youcannedgreenbeans knewpeanut butter.” Or “Lindamint. Stopcannedcorn it!” While the narrative can become a little cloying with this consistent device, it does serve to show the reader how estranged Linda is from her family…and indeed, just about everyone else in her life.

Except for her colorful great-uncle, Baby Harper. Baby Harper harbors his own secrets – he, too, is not in sync with their rural North Carolina hometown – and he has a particularly strong bond with his grand-niece, whom he accepts wholeheartedly.

There are several twists and turns in this sometimes elegiac book, and I would not want to provide unnecessary spoilers. The book is well worth reading for many reasons; the first is that it provides the only in-depth look of synesthesia I recall in my many years of reading. For example, Linda says, “I sometimes would crave a word. For me, there was, and still is, an appreciable distinction between hearing the word said and saying it for myself, though both would produce the same incomings. It was the difference between being served a good meal and having to cook one for myself.”

Another reason: Bitter In The Mouth is a wonderful examination of loneliness and yearning for love, as in this differentiation between the missing and the void: “The void was the person, place or thing that was never there in the first place. The missing existed but was no longer present. One was theoretical loss. The other was actual. Which was worse?” Both the missing and the void are explored in their various manifestations.

At times, the intrusions of North Carolina history halt the forward progression of the novel. And the ending is a little too wrapped up. Yet it is still a fascinating look at the experience of being an outsider within a dysfunctional family: an acerbic and infantilizing grandmother, a “respectable” father, a distant mother in the honeyed south.

[Cat · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was so gorgeous, well-wrought, and surprising that I really can't do it justice. Go read it! The narrator experiences synesthesia, so when we read the words she hears, they are interrupted with snippetsgreen beans of flavorsoverripe bananas that make it difficulttoothpaste to discern the initial importcayenne of the messagemayonnaise. Not only is this beautiful--in the way that Nabokov's elaborate gamesmanship and seductive style in Lolita is beautiful (and Nabokov happened to be a synaesthete himself), but it also turns out to be a governing metaphor in the book, one that reminds us of how many "in-comings" (Linda's work for these unavoidable sense impressions that assault her and make it difficult to attend to interrupted content) intrude on how we all experience one another, whether we like it or not. Truong's work is beautiful and painful, circling around a deep set of shaping secrets. Over the course of this novel, she recasts the Southern literary tradition, unsettles our narrative expectations (like Toni Morrison's brilliant "Recitatif"), and maintains a memorable, sardonic, raw, and real narrative voice throughout. I felt even as I was reading it that I wanted to savor it over again. As in The Book of Salt, Truong really captures the surprising, intimate, and devoted relationships between people--Linda's decades-long correspondence with her best friend Kelly who lives only a few blocks away and her tradition of dancing with her great-uncle who smells of witch-hazel. One of the subjects of the book is the origin of affiliation--what makes us belong to a place or to other people--and one answer seems to be the unmistakable sense impressions of the people that we love and the people who come to love us.

Go read it!

[Laurel-Rain · Rating 4 out of 5]

While Linda is growing up in the small town of Boiling Springs, North Carolina, back in the 70s and 80s, she knows that she is different from everyone else, even the members of her own family. She "tastes" words. When she hears or speaks them, an association with a flavor bombards her, which she calls "incomings."

Her best friend Kelly writes letters to her, first to launch their friendship, and then to connect with her afterwards, even though they live in the same neighborhood. The letter connection is one small bit of normalcy for Linda.

In this story, we follow the "confessions" of Linda, including her descriptions of daily life in this small town, her first crush on a boy named Wade, and a horrendous experience that will overshadow these years. When she finally "escapes" the town and goes to Yale, we continue in this vein, moving between the past and the present, until this section is complete.

Another very important and positive presence in Linda's life is her great-uncle "Baby Harper." Gradually she comes to rely on his presence and his adoration.

In the second section, revelations begin. We finally learn some of the reasons for Linda's unique experiences, as well as why she has no memory of her first seven years.

While "Bitter in the Mouth: A Novel" was a very compelling story, there were parts of this novel that were slow; the first section even seemed confusing at times, with the tendency to leap around between past and present. The flow was not as smooth as I would have liked.

In the second section, however, the novel "redeemed itself" for me and finished with a blaze of triumphant renderings, which is why I gave this tale four stars.

[Marcie · Rating 4 out of 5]

There’s only one word for this book: compelling. Truong is a huge talent.

Once you become accustomed to the “foreign language” the narrator-protagonist speaks – that certain words create tastes in her mouth – the journey of a woman into her past childhood memories takes you on a journey into your own past. Do you remember the first time you tasted soda pop, and the fizz alarmed you?

I am intrigued by this author’s use of a synesthetic character to help readers as adults examine how the child-version of themselves experienced the world through their mouths. Different tastes bring forth different moods and emotions in the story. As adults we tend to ignore our senses in the present and discount past sensory experiences, preferring to just stick to the facts. Thus, Truong creates an enlightening and intense new angle for an otherwise typical coming-of-age tale.

When I think of certain girlhood friends, I can taste Shasta strawberry pop, Cheetoz, banana taffy, and menthol cigarettes. I had forgotten these things. I really enjoyed this journey, gobbling up every gustatory crumb she scattered along the trail as clues to the mystery of her past and future.

[April · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the way Troung strings words together, but this book is still not an easy one to follow. As a reader, there are places you want to go, strands you want to follow, but Troung doesn't let you. She is in control and you are dragged along her path at her speed. Its as though she opens doors and gives you a fleeting glimpse inside, but then closes it and suddenly tugs you down a completely different hallway, all the while you're digging in your heels screaming, "Wait! I want to see more of what's in there!" As a result, you have to have an excellent memory so that when you do finally return to that room, you can remember the small details from before so it still makes sense.

That seems to be her theme: she constantly requires you to think back and remember the hints she dropped or fleeting references she made. Especially for the first half of the book. The second half is a bit easier, she plays her cards a little less tightly and requires a little less work on behalf of the reader.

All the same, the book is beautiful, she has a knack for phrasing, and the characters are real. Harper Lee would be proud.

[Ciji W · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not sure I will trust a recommendation from Good Housekeeping ever again. Though the idea of the novel had potential, I found the entire storyline lacking any real substance. First I am assuming that the main character is talking to a therapist or someone along that matter since the entire storyline spans across 2 days. Then, I read the whole first half of the book to find out that the main character was adopted; I wasn't impressed and it felt that so far the book was a waste of paper and ink. But I forged onward, hoping that maybe it would get better. But sadly I just felt let down in the end. There was maybe half a chapter devoted to talking a little bit about her condition but I would think if I knew my condition wasn't normal, I wouldn't have waited on a PBS special to find out more about it. Then like 4-5 chapters is spent on building that you were raped in what could have been summed up in 1. You didn't marry a one-dimensional jerk because you couldn't give him children. So what?

[Karen Woo · Rating 3 out of 5]

What's good: beautiful, lyrical writing; a strong sense of place and time; and a cast of intriguing characters. For example, Linda, the protagonist, is defined by her synesthesia, a condition in which she experiences words as tastes.

What's not so good: Linda is unlikeable and judgmental from the start. She radiates bitterness, with no redeeming qualities to go toward our generating empathy for her. Primarily, she isn't well served by the poor timing of key truths in the narrative. Indeed, we learn crucial information puzzlingly late.

In addition, Linda relates how she accommodates her synesthesia throughout the story. However, she isn't provided the opportunity to take the next step, that is, to leverage that knowledge in ways that would enrich her life and the lives of those around her.

[T · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don't know why, but I like M. Truong's style of writing, having read both her books (Book of Salt first).

Bitter in the Mouth follows the life of Linda, who is adopted into a Southern family with a cast of definitely different personalities. Grandmother Iris is rather cold. Great uncle Harper's family nickname is Baby, and is the family homosexual; he has a special rapport with Linda. Mother DeAnne is rather aloof. Father was an attorney and passes away from a massive heart attack.

Linda has a rare ability to taste words: different words conjure different taste sensations to Linda, to the point of distraction. How Linda comes to be adopted into this family is a journey not made clear until the very end.

[Brennan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book! It was way more than a coming-of-age story. The rich interplay of words, tastes, and visual images made it linger in my mind long after I had put it down. I was sad when it ended and I actually went back and reread a few parts to make sure I understood how they fit in with the larger story. I hope to be able to use it in a book discussion group in the library where I work.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books I have read in a while. Gorgeous writing, and I love how it played with my assumptions.

[The Sassy Bookworm · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really Really enjoyed this one!

[lashaunio · Rating 4 out of 5]

I feel like this is one of my most recent experiences reading a coming-of-age sorta book. No real plot, just a series of lessons and discoveries. I’ll say that it was honestly hard to keep reading through because I found it slow and frankly boring at times, but towards the end I began to appreciate the sort of pace required for such a nuanced and kinda complicated life story. The series of revelations with not only the protagonist but all of the characters closest to her in her life were paced beautifully, and I really enjoy how the author took her time with creating depth with each character, each being flawed but never inauthentic. And upon reflection it’s pretty deep. Idk. Pretty impressed. I’d recommend for a slow read.

[Kelly]

Read about 40 pages of this book and could not stand it. This is all "tell" and no "show". When a writer tries to overwrite something like a bus trip and turn it into something poetic, I throw in the towel. Truong is obviously a talented writer, but I'm not willing to invest in this one.

[Emma Lou · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really phenomenal story, especially if you grew up in North Carolina. Loved the synesthesia element and the characters, the delivery was solid. I do hate it when books decide to spend the last ~20 pages revealing/explaining some twist or book long secret though! Feels really clunky and awkward in comparison to the clever pacing of the rest of the book!