How to Pronounce Knife

All of these stories were valid and mostly realistic. As a first-generation immigrant, I can definitely relate to most of these. :)))

The kind of short stories you breeze through but then spend days thinking about.

Believe the hype.

Thought provoking and funny. I will be thinking about the last story “Worm Picking” for a long time!

The last entry of this book called “Picking Worms” is about a young daughter who helps her mother raise income at the hog farm through harvesting worms. What follows after is a sharp delineation of white privilege, and how the immigrant voice becomes inarticulate of their frustration with the type of society they have to fit into. There is so much heart to Souvankham Thammavongsa’s short story collection. The fiction seems inspired by an amalgam of Laotian immigrant experience, who now must face the predicaments of living in a foreign country.

For Thammavongsa, being inarticulate goes beyond linguistics, beyond pronouncing knife. For her, it’s also about not being able to articulate emotions, not being able to express rage or frustrations, about boxing one’s heritage in an alien culture.

“Chick-A-Chee” is a child’s phonemic iteration of Trick-or-Treat, which is also a heartwarming story of Laotian children’s first Halloween. “Edge of the World” is about a housewife who’s eager to learn English by watching soap operas. “How to Pronounce Knife” is also another story that depicts assimilation, but to more painful costs. Most of Thammavongsa’s narrative pine around the same theme of identity, culture, and belongingness. All these complex themes are put together by easy, simple prose, which is understandable since a lot of the stories take the perspective of children.

If I have any gripes with the book, it’s that most of the short stories end unresolved, and the loose ends do not necessarily provide a space for further introspection. But even so, I think Thammavongsa has provided nuanced scenarios that detail the immigrant experience, magnifying what they can or cannot do in a territory far away from home.

I can’t explain why short story collections seem to be my go-to lately, but here we are with another incredible one. I highly recommend everyone to read this one. Each story hits you emotionally in someway and leaves you wanting more. I think my favourite was The Gas Station. Most of the quotes I highlighted were from that section, but Mani Pedi was another favourite. It is beautiful, but at times depressing. I think if you like On Earth… by Ocean Vuong you might like this one, the writing style - fierce and unforgiving - is really similar, along with a focus on immigration and identity. “The only love Red knew was that simple, uncomplicated, lonely love one feels for oneself in the quiet moments of the day. It was there, steady and solid in the laughter and talk of the television and with her in the grocery aisles on the weekends. It was there every night, in the dark, spectacular and sprawling in the quiet. And it all belonged to her.” (23) “Old is a thing that happens on the outside. A thing other people see about us.” (39) “A laugh, in any language, was a laugh.” (43) “I know I don’t got a chance in hell, but it’s something to get me through. It’s to get through the next hour, the next day. Don’t you go reminding me what dreams a man like me out to have. That I can dream at all means something to me.” (70) “But how could he tell her that the boy she loved wasn’t kind or good, that he didn’t love her, that sometimes what felt like love only *felt* like love and wasn’t real. He couldn’t do anything about that but say, “Yes, yes, it was my fault. It is all my fault.” (92) “Mary believed there were two kinds of people in the world. There were those who were seen, and those who were not. Mary considered herself as one of the latter.” (137) “…she saw every stage of love. There was the initial giddiness at having found each other, the boredom of having been together for too long, the anguish of separation, the finality of a divorce, the clinging one did in the hopes of reconciliation that was not coming. She liked spending her days listening to people describe who things had fallen apart. It was like watching a play being acted out in front of her, the feelings raw and real - all of it up close. She didn’t have to feel what they felt, but what they told her about themselves stayed with her.” (138) “Beauty was boring. To be ugly was to be particular, memorable, unforgettable even. He was uglier than that.” (139) “What’s the difference between someone who lied about love and someone who didn’t love you? Nothing.” (147)

Really excellent writing, and a very even anthology. Enjoyed this very much. 4.5/5

I can’t explain why short story collections seem to be my go-to lately, but here we are with another incredible one. I highly recommend everyone to read this one. Each story hits you emotionally in someway and leaves you wanting more. I think my favourite was The Gas Station. Most of the quotes I highlighted were from that section, but Mani Pedi was another favourite. It is beautiful, but at times depressing. I think if you like On Earth… by Ocean Vuong you might like this one, the writing style - fierce and unforgiving - is really similar, along with a focus on immigration and identity.

“The only love Red knew was that simple, uncomplicated, lonely love one feels for oneself in the quiet moments of the day. It was there, steady and solid in the laughter and talk of the television and with her in the grocery aisles on the weekends. It was there every night, in the dark, spectacular and sprawling in the quiet. And it all belonged to her.” (23)

“Old is a thing that happens on the outside. A thing other people see about us.” (39)

“A laugh, in any language, was a laugh.” (43)

“I know I don’t got a chance in hell, but it’s something to get me through. It’s to get through the next hour, the next day. Don’t you go reminding me what dreams a man like me out to have. That I can dream at all means something to me.” (70)

“But how could he tell her that the boy she loved wasn’t kind or good, that he didn’t love her, that sometimes what felt like love only felt like love and wasn’t real. He couldn’t do anything about that but say, “Yes, yes, it was my fault. It is all my fault.” (92)

“Mary believed there were two kinds of people in the world. There were those who were seen, and those who were not. Mary considered herself as one of the latter.” (137)

“…she saw every stage of love. There was the initial giddiness at having found each other, the boredom of having been together for too long, the anguish of separation, the finality of a divorce, the clinging one did in the hopes of reconciliation that was not coming. She liked spending her days listening to people describe who things had fallen apart. It was like watching a play being acted out in front of her, the feelings raw and real - all of it up close. She didn’t have to feel what they felt, but what they told her about themselves stayed with her.” (138)

“Beauty was boring. To be ugly was to be particular, memorable, unforgettable even. He was uglier than that.” (139)

“What’s the difference between someone who lied about love and someone who didn’t love you? Nothing.” (147)

A slim collection of stories from the perspective of US immigrants from Laos. Most are poignantly about the struggle of making do and making ends meet despite the racism and language barrier most adults-as-immigrants experience. Some humor too, including two children experiencing “tickor tee” for the first time.

I think the narratives and the underlying commentary are important but the writing is not worth praising. “slingshot” and “ewwrrrkk” are good.

A touching and insightful collection of stories that throw light on the lives of Lao immigrants in Canada. I particularly enjoyed those, like the title stories, which were about language and its barriers and bridges. After the first few stories the tone felt a little safe and similar and I started to long for something that I could really get my teeth into. It's probably a collection that benefits from being read in small bursts rather than one sitting.

Wow It's honestly one of the most unique books I've read I never thought short stories are for me; i always said i had to get attached to the characters and that needs time and short stories can't do that for me. But man this book just slayed this conviction and surpassed all of my expectations. The biggest word that came to my mind to describe this collection was hypnotic. Every story truly felt like it took me and put me inside those characters' lives as if i was dreaming; as if i was in haze. Which is honestly amazing and very impressive. The amount of feelings each story left with is unbelievable; like each story would end and you would be left with this almost sobering moment and you realize you have so many feelings and thoughts because of the stories you've just encountered. I never felt like the stories were flat or underwhelming, each one was unique and each one made you feel like you've accessed the deepest parts of these characters. The stories leave you with a sad undertone for you to pick up and decipher; because a lot of the time it feels like there is too much to unravel in these short snippets of people's lives, i don't know how to describe how in love i am with this collection.

How to Pronounce Knife is a collection of 14 short stories. The title story, which is also the first story, sets the tone for the rest of the collection. Collectively, these stories paint an image of sorrow, of displacement, of a longing to belong, to feel at home. “How to Pronounce Knife” describes a young girl in school learning how to read. The word “knife” appears in a book she has taken home to read for school, but there is not a picture next to the word to help her identify it, and so she asks her father. It was her last chance before her father went to sleep. He was the only one in their home who knew how to read. She brought the book to him and pointed to the word, asked what it was. He leaned over it and said, “Kah-nnn-eye-ffff. It’s kahneyff.” That’s what it was, what it sounded like to him. HOW TO PRONOUNCE KNIFE, P. 7 Continue reading: https://freeairforfish.com/2021/05/18...

A summary of ratings for each story: How to Pronounce Knife: 4.5 stars Paris: 3.5 stars Slingshot: 3 stars Randy Travis: 2.5 stars Mani Pedi: 3.5 stars Chick-a-Chee!: 4 stars The Universe Would Be So Cruel: 3.5 stars Edge of the World: 3 stars The School Bus Driver: 4 stars You Are So Embarrassing: 4 stars Ewwrrrkk: 2.5 stars The Gas Station: 2.5 stars A Far Distant Thing: 4 stars Picking Worms: 4 stars Oh I liked this one a lot. In fact, even though the ratings above average out to just above 3 stars, I gave it an extra star overall just for the feel of the stories and how much I enjoyed them. It's safe to say I've never read a book about people from Laos. Which is obviously not good. But I love that unifying factor in all of those stories. It's nice when there's an underlying theme (see Deborah Ellis' story collection about chairs, or Tom Hanks' about typewriters, or any of the many others I'm sure exist). My favourite is probably the titular story, although as I write this, a soft spot for Chick-a-chee! is growing. It's not hard to see why this book is a hot commodity. I was lucky to snag it on a seven day loan, and those seven days flew by. I will definitely pick up the next book by this author if she were to write another.