I have to confess: I may not have read this novel if I hadn’t been invited to meet the author, despite all the great things I heard about Truong’s previous novel, The Book of Salt. Why not? It's a family saga, and I don't usually think I like family sagas. (Although I really do like them if they're edgy, like The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen and A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz). It's also set in the South. It sounds awful, but for some reason, I also don't think I usually like novels set in the South. (Again, I can think of many exceptions: To Kill a Mockingbird and Special Topics in Calamity Physics, for example.) I should just tell myself to stop thinking and just start reading because oh, am I glad I am read this!

The narrator, Linda, has synesthesia that makes her taste words as she hears and speaks them. In the book’s dialog, we read the words and the tastes they evoke to Linda. Example: "Did youcannedgreenbeans readpotatochips it?" You can probably understand how Linda avoids conversation because the words and tastes sometimes are just too much. This leads to one of my favorite elements of the book: Linda’s deep friendship with her neighbor Kelly (whose name tastes like canned peaches). They start as next door pen-pals with their fathers serving as postmen, and their letters and relationship over the years give the reader much to savor.

I also adore Linda's great uncle Baby Harper. He and Linda are different from other people in their small town, but they understand one another completely. Baby Harper will be dancing in my mind long after this book is over!

I didn’t want to finish Bitter in the Mouth because I wanted it to linger; it's that kind of delicious, satisfying novel. ~Tegan