A finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the PEN Open Book Award, and winner of the 2020 Giller Prize, this revelatory story collection honors characters struggling to find their bearings far from home, even as they do the necessary “grunt work of the world.” A failed boxer painting nails at the local salon. A woman plucking feathers at a chicken processing plant. A housewife … feathers at a chicken processing plant. A housewife learning English from daytime soap operas. A mother teaching her daughter the art of worm harvesting. In her stunning debut story collection, O. Henry Award winner Souvankham Thammavongsa focuses on characters struggling to make a living, illuminating their hopes, disappointments, love affairs, acts of defiance, and above all their pursuit of a place to belong. In spare, intimate prose charged with emotional power and a sly wit, she paints an indelible portrait of watchful children, wounded men, and restless women caught between cultures, languages, and values. As one of Thammavongsa’s characters says, “All we wanted was to live.” And in these stories, they do–brightly, ferociously, unforgettably.
Unsentimental yet tender, taut and visceral, How to Pronounce Knife announces Souvankham Thammavongsa as one of the most striking voices of her generation.
“As the daughter of refugees, I’m able to finally see myself in stories.” –Angela So, Electric Literature
This book of short stories is incredible! I devoured it in one go and am still thinking about it a week later. Get a copy!
I didn’t know what to expect with this one, it came listed in an email full of recommendations, but I was pleasantly surprised. It’s full of short fictional stories that were easy to read and get sucked into. I am super impressed with the author, she painted such vivid characters and stories over just a few pages and almost every single one had me wanting more. Would love to read more from this author in the future.
I stumbled on this little collection of Laoan short stories while browsing on Audible. Each story is full of heart. Some stories are sprinkled with a bit of sadness and others get a hefty dose of “this is just the way life goes.” The main characters of these vignettes are resolute yet unsure, confident yet vulnerable. The title story left me feeling like that brief period in early childhood when my parents were infallible, and I fiercely defended them against any kid who dared speak ill. Oh, how that view of my mom and dad did change with each birthday that passed into my rear-view, but I digress. The story featuring a lonely, frustrated middle-aged woman hit too close to home, although she was ultimately braver than I ever could dream of being once her attention turned towards a youthful neighbor. The cultural differences were present throughout, but they didn’t detract from the enjoyability of these brief glimpses into what it is to simply be human, no matter your country of origin or current locale.
I listened to the audiobook version and the narrators generally performed well. I felt the female narrator expressed more emotion in her performance as opposed to the male narrator who more or less reads words from a page and rarely sounds as if he’s truly invested in making the stories sound unique and separate in their own right. At the same turn, I highly respect all narrators who work hard to record my much-loved audio entertainment, as I would sound like an uncultured Southerner with a frequently incomprehensible backwoods drawl by comparison.
Fourteen vignettes reflecting the lives of some Laotians displaced to a new country with a difficult language, new lifestyles, the things that they expected of themselves and the different ways which others expected of them that were new and different in every way to their pasts. It’s kind of a reminder to any one of us who had family who were in similar circumstances years ago and how the social isolation and longing for the way things were in their particular homeland before whatever war drove them to this new land. Well written and sometimes raw. It comes across as reality, and who’s to say that some of it isn’t. Dr. Siri Paiboun would have been very proud of her.
I requested and received a free ebook copy from Hachette Book Group and Little, Brown and Company via NetGalley. Thank you!
That was in July, now I have the audio and it is even better! James Tang and Kulap Vilaysack alternate in the audio interpretation with very slightly accented speech and an obviously sympathetic understanding of the characters.
I choose my short story collections carefully since my go-to’s are usually full-length fiction. How To Pronounce Knife is a stunning debut filled with tight ‘little’ stories packed with wallop and intensity about a family adjusting to life as immigrants from Laos. Thammavongsa gets the genre just right with her debut – can’t wait to hear more from her.