Tuesday, August 31, 2021

Book Review: How to Pronounce Knife by Souvankham Thammavongsa

 


Souvankham Thammavongsa was born in a Lao refugee camp in Thailand and further on was raised and educated in Toronto. The multi-awarded debut collection of short stories How to Pronounce Knife is mostly inspired by the everyday life of Laotian immigrants in the West.

´They´d had to begin all over again, as if the life they led before didn´t count´.

A life lost in words. Words translated, mispronounced, betrayed. Life that prefers to be wasted for the sake of the children´s future. A much better future, but of an unclear shape. In any case, a future where the words do make sense. There is beauty and betrayal and people taking over their cities, houses and humble workplaces. 

The stories are not equal and some are more interesting than the others. There is a nostalgic tone which pertains most of them, but there is no nostalgia for the world as it was, but for the world that couldn´t be. Because of the second hand language or the immigration, or just for being trapped in a hopeless situation. 

Most of the characters and main storytellers are women - girls, old ladies, wives, mothers, nail parlor beauticians.lovers and again mothers. I liked the simplicity of the prose, with a refined wording which allows the story to shine, to produce strong memories to the reader, with an impact similar to a real encounter. 

Also equally important is that this collection of short stories open a window within the Laotian society and culture which is almost never present in the English-speaking literature.

Rating: 3 stars

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