The Book of Salt

The chapter opens with Lattimore telling Binh that the Mesdames are about to embark on a journey back to America. However, Binh has known for a month or so. He is surprised to learn from Lattimore that Stein lectures as well as writes, and that word of the ladies’ trip is in the newspapers. Binh and Lattimore sit for their photograph together. Binh sees Lattimore, at this point, as his scholar-prince, as evidenced by Lattimore’s deep interest in the literature of Stein.

The ladies bring Binh a letter from Anh Minh on a silver tray; Binh assumes they are formally firing him for his theft of the notebook. They seem surprised to see his actual name written out on the envelope, which again underscores how they don’t see Binh fully as a person, but rather as their servant first.

Anh Minh’s letter urges Binh to come home: “No matter what he may have said to you, he is our father, and he is going to die” (229). Binh acknowledges that he has been saying all along that his father was dead already because that was the only way Binh could sleep at night: by imagining

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