A review by jayisreading
How to Pronounce Knife by Souvankham Thammavongsa

emotional reflective fast-paced

4.5

Thammavongsa took “short” in short stories quite seriously, as a handful of them only took a few minutes to read. However, she packed so much into each story while using sparse prose, much of which focused on what it meant to be part of an immigrant family in Canada. One could almost think of these stories as short reels of day-to-day life for different Lao families, since these stories magnified the seemingly more mundane moments. While each story is self-contained, I immediately understood Thammavongsa’s intention to present a deeply complex and vibrant community of Lao immigrants and refugees, and I especially appreciated that many of these characters deeply reflected on their identity. 
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