How to Pronounce Knife: Stories

Wow.... I LOVED these stories. They were poignant, hard hitting, and such an interesting snapshot of the immigrant experience. I haven't read any Laotian authors before, but Thammavongsa has convinced me that I need to read more!! Such straight-forward writing and portrayals of (often complicated) relationships.

3.5

Book won the 2020 Scotiabank Giller Prize (Canada Authors Awards. 15 Short fiction stories (180 pages) about immigrant refugees from Laos adjusting to new countries, cultures and ways of life. Gets you thinking about how hard it is to be an immigrant refugee! I enjoyed this, My 1st read of 2021! David N.

The stories were uneven and the vast majority weren't memorable. Randy Travis (which was sad) and Chick-a-Chee were the only ones that were memorable. I couldn't remember the rest not even five minutes after reading.

It's a short story collection that brings together the worm pickers, nail technicians, bus drivers and farm workers at the edges of society. New immigrants creating space for themselves while struggling to retain their strength and dignity. And the following generation who are watching the world with sharp eyes, more conscious of the unsaid rules, attuned to how “other” they really are and their growing awareness of the gap that separates them.

I spent a lot of my time growing up paying attention. Coming from immigrants and surrounded by people who didn't look like me, I was obsessive about observing the world, paying attention to the social cues, the unsaid rules, the hurdles I had to face by being other. The characters here are doing the same thing, and yet still find themselves always a step behind. Without the benefit of a family network born and raised here for generations, or an easy familiarity with the language and WASPy customs they constantly stumble. Without the easy grace of seeing yourself reflected everywhere you look, they struggle to define themselves. And it's coming up hard against oblivious white mediocrity that wins the red yo-yo, gets the front office job, the manager position. Never done with malicious intent, just a willful blindness to the privilege they possess, certain in the fairness of this new world meritocracy.

These stories just hit me where I live.