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balkeyeston's review
informative
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
This was the first collection of Asian American immigrant stories that didn't focus on exoticizing the traumatic narratives of refugees in America. Rather, it shares character studies of the men and women who fled Laos and their children who never had to endure it, yet who face cruel and unkind setbacks as a result of systemic racial barriers that were set in place before they were born.
How to Pronounce Knife reminded me to consider how I have painted exoticism in my own stories, and how the more deeply cutting stories are the ones that sit close to bone of everything we want to say when we no longer have to correct ourselves in double-speak to a white audience. Souvankham reminds us all that it's not our job to make ourselves readable to a white audience--it is our job to disprove that within ourselves.
How to Pronounce Knife reminded me to consider how I have painted exoticism in my own stories, and how the more deeply cutting stories are the ones that sit close to bone of everything we want to say when we no longer have to correct ourselves in double-speak to a white audience. Souvankham reminds us all that it's not our job to make ourselves readable to a white audience--it is our job to disprove that within ourselves.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racism and Sexual content
Minor: Animal death and Animal cruelty
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