A review by surabhib
Put It On Record: A Memoir-archive by Sokunthary Svay

emotional informative reflective

4.5

 

This new work from poet and scholar Sokunthary Svay is a hybrid memoir. There are short essays, poems, and quite a lot of visual material, from personal and archival photos to sheet music. In these fluid forms, Svay writes of herself as an artist and scholar, as a mother and daughter, and in all these roles, as a Cambodian American. 

 

The registers in Svay’s writing move seamlessly. One minute, it feels like a friend is telling you about her family; the next, it’s precise analysis from a professor. Each piece has a distinct focus, but Svay doesn’t compartmentalize parts of herself. Svay uses her academic background extensively in this creative work, with, as the subtitle indicates, a significant emphasis on archiving. At one point, she directly speaks to any writing teachers or students reading her work, which I enjoyed. “I’m interested in everything as a form of inquiry,” she writes of her intellectual and stylistic ethos. 

 

Svay writes frequently of her parents—of what they did and mostly didn’t tell her about the Khmer Rouge, of leaning to appreciate their work lives, of where they find joy and expression. She plays with immigrant parent tropes, but personalizes and complicates all. I loved her writing on food and language, anchored by deep analyses. She also writes about herself as a parent, and one of my favorite pieces focused on postpartum depression. Elsewhere, I laughed hard, as at the essay that recounts Svay’s ride through Seattle with a friendly Southeast Asian stranger who asks to be called “Mama” (Svay happily obliges). 

 

“Record” in the title is multivalent, thinking both about tangible archives and musical records. Sok reflects on her time at music school, and on the varied influences, from Axl Rose to Sinn Sisamouth (the last couple of pieces pay moving tribute to the latter), on her taste. As throughout the memoir, Sok situates her personal taste within historical context and brings a critical eye to everything.