How to Pronounce Knife
Defne: Welcome to the DeepDive. You gave us your reading list, and we are here to pull out the, uh, truly insightful bits, this stuff that sticks with you.
David: Exactly. So, you can understand what matters without, you know, the feeling like you are drowning in information.
Defne: We are sifting through it all to bring you the core ideas and why they worth your attention.
David: Hihim.
Defne: Today, we are plunging into Souvankham Thammavongsa’s short story collection: How to Pronounce Knife [little pause] that came out in 2020.
David: Right, and it’s her debut in fiction, which is, well, pretty interesting, ‘cause she is already quite established as a poet.
Defne: Yeah, that’s a great point. We’ve got a, um, a really set of sources to explore here.
David: We do. We’re looking at study guides from places like, Book Rack, Super Summery. A thoughtful review from ivereadthis.com. Some insights from CBC Books.
Defne: Hihim.
David: And those GoodReads reviews, you know, along with the author’s background info. Plus, review from losanglesreview.org, and bios from Hachette Bookgroup, and Asian Heritage in Canada. Quite a mix.
Defne: Okay, so, a solid base. Our mission today, really, is to go deeper than just the surface. I mean, yes, these stories cover the struggles of immigrants and refugees in North America that’s clear.
David: Sure. That’s so true.
Defne: But we want to dig into the humour, the resilience, and those, um, complex internal conflicts that Thammavongsa portrays so well. It’s not just one note.
David: Definitely not.
Defne: Okay.
David: Okay. So, uh, so let’s unpack this, this collection: How to Pronounce Knife. It brings together 14 distinct short-stories.
Defne: 14 stories. Got it.
David: Well, it’s, uh, it’s crucial to understand these narratives primarily revolve around the experiences of Lao immigrants and refugees.
Defne: Right. As they navigate life in North America.
David: Exactly.
Defne: And what really struck me looking through the materials was the sheer spectrum of emotions and situations. It’s not just, like, all hardship.
David: No, not at all. You see genuine moments of trying, small celebrations, the everyday challenges... It feels very whole.
Defne: A complete picture, yeah.
David: And Thammavongsa uses this very effective technique with different narrators.
Defne: Okay.
David: Yeah. We hear from men, women, children, adults. So, you get these experiences from multiple angles, which gives much, uhm, richer more nuance of understanding.
Defne: That makes sense. And the writing style itself that gets mentioned a lot.
David: Oh, definitely.
Defne: Terms like, spare, intimate, pros… and sly, that comes up quite a bit.
David: It does. So, very direct personal writing, but with this subtle humour mixed in. Sounds like, she really has a knack for saying a lot, with, well, not very words.
Defne: Like a poet’s precision maybe?
David: Absolutely. I think her background as a poet likely, really informs that precise, impactful style. It’s also worth noting, the recognition the book got.
Defne: Right. The Giller Prize.
David: Yeah. It won the 2020 Scotiabank Giller Prize. That’s a major Canadian literary award.
Defne: Huge. That really says something about the impact this collection has.
David: It really does.
Defne: Yeah.
David: It signals these stories resonated, and deeply.
Defne: Okay. So let’s zoom a little bit. The title story: How to Pronounce Knife. Can you give us the, uh, a quick rundown?
David: Sure. So, in this story, we meet a young girl. She’s the daughter of a Lao immigrants, and she’s learning to read at school.
Defne: Okay.
David: She finds the word knife, K, N, I, F, E, and asks her dad how to say it. But because his English isn’t perfect. He mispronounces it. Her says the k sound.
Defne: Ah, right. The silent K.
David: Exactly. So, the next day at school, the girl repeats his pronunciation, the wrong one, and she actually insists she’s right, even when the teacher corrects her.
Defne: Wow. That’s [pause] that’s a thought spot for a kid. That tiny moment, the mispronounciation and her reaction, it says so much.
David: It really does. She ends up in the principles office.
Defne: Oh, dear.
David: But when she gets home, she doesn’t tell her father he was wrong. So, this, this seemingly simple situation, it touches on several really important themes.
Defne: Like language barriers, obviously.
David: Precisely, that’s front and centre, the communication challenges newcomers face. Yeah.But it also gets into cultural differences, the, you know, subtle ways kids navigate assimilation.
Defne: And protection her dad.
David: Yes, very poignantly, a child’s deep desire to protect their parents.
Defne; That’s really powerful. The Los Angles Review mentioned something about the repetition of how statements in the story.
David: Yeah. That review pointed out how those how questions emphasize this growing distance between the daughter and father as she starts seeing the things he doesn’t know about this new world they’re in.
Defne: And her protectiveness, it kind of backfires slightly, doesn’t it the yo yo thing?
David: Exactly.
Defne: Yeah.
David: It’s well intentioned her silence, but it leads to her being the only kid who doesn’t get a red yo yo for the right pronunciation. It’s a small detail, but it speaks volumes.
Defne: Yeah. About those quite sacrifices, the unseen costs of bridging those gaps?
David: Hihim.
Defne: Okay, so that’s the title story, a really potent snapshot, but the collection obviously goes much wider. Let’s talk about some other stories. Paris, that sounds interesting.
David: Right, Paris. This one introduces us to Red. She’s a Lao immigrant working in a chicken processing plant.
Defne: Okay…
David: And there’s this recurring talk among the women there about getting nose jobs.
Defne: Nose jobs? Why?
David: To improve their chances of getting promoted basically to work in the front office seem more, well, assimilated maybe.
Defne: Wow, okay.
David: Red feels unattractive. She sees her boss acting exploitatively. [pause] It really digs into workplace dynamics, but from this specific immigrant perspective.
Defne: It sounds like a harsh environment.
David: It is. It touches on beauty standards that pressure to fit a certain ideal power imbalances. But there’s this really unexpected moment of empathy too. Red ends up crying with the boss’s wife after some confrontation. It suggests this shared vulnerability, despite their differences places in life.
Defne: Hmm. And names come up again here, too, right? Like Red’s Lao name is Dan.
David: Exactly. That contrasts between her Lao name and the Americanized names others use.
Defne: Yeah.
David: It really highlights that tension again, holding on to heritage versus adopting the new culture’s identity, similar to the Silence in Nice actually.
Defne: Yeah. That thread continues. Okay. Then the collection seems to take a pretty different turn with slingshot.
David: It does. Totally different vibe.
Defne: 70-year-old women having an affair with her 32-year-old neighbour. That’s not the typical immigrant narrative you expect.
David: It really challenges those expectations, doesn’t it? This story looks at love and connection in, well, unexpected places and stages in life. It touches on aging, unspoken feelings, the realm complexities of relationships.
Defne: So, broadens the scope beyond just the immigrant lens, showing universal human stuff.
David: Absolutely, and moving from that Thammavongsa also looks at how people find comfort, sometimes in odd ways, like in Randy Travis.
Defne: Okay, Randy Travis. What’s that one about?
David: So, in Randy Travis, a woman remembers her mother’s intense obsession with the country singer, Randy Travis, after they immigrated.
Defne: Huh? Randy Travis?
David: Yeah. It basically became her way of coping with loneliness, the difficulty of adjusting.
Defne: Finding comfort in like a random corner of the new culture.
David: Exactly. He became this huge cultural touchstone for her. But then that obsession eventually fade and gets replaced by a gambling addiction.
Defne: Oh…
David: Which sort of highlights how fleeting those coping mechanisms can be and how new struggles can just pop up. There is even a detail about the mother criticizing the father for not being more like Randy Travis.
Defne: Wow. That really gets at that sense of [pause] displacement, the desperate search for belonging, maybe.
David: I think so, [pause] yeah. Now Money, seems to offer a slightly different angle again.
Defne: Okay.
David: Money is about a retired Lao boxer. He find this, uh, surprising satisfaction working at his sister’s nail salon.
Defne: A boxer in a nail salon. Interesting contrast.
David: It is. And he develops a crush on a client. He holds onto this hope, even though his sister is pretty discouraging about the, you know, societal barriers he faces.
Defne: So, it’s exploring masculinity, success, redefining them in a new setting.
David: Absolutely. Finding joy and unexpected work, and that quite strength of just holding on to hope, even when things look though. His sister is more pragmatic, which makes his optimism standing out.
Defne: And then there are some lighter moments, like Chicka Chi. [laughs]
David: Yees, that one definitely has some humour.
Defne: What happens there?
David: It’s about a father who misinterprets tick or treat for his kids during their first Halloween in North America. Lead to a pretty funny cultural misunderstanding.
Defne: Ah… That sounds sweet. A reminder of how adapting to new traditions can be funny, sometimes, those little charming gaps.
David: Exactly. But then there are stories that go into much deeper, maybe darker emotional places, like, The Universe Would Be So Cruel.
Defne: The title alone sounds heavy.
David: It is. This one features a man who truly believes his perfect wedding invitations guarantee happy marriages, like he crafts them meticulously.
Defne: Okay.
David: Then his own daughter left at the alter.
Defne: Ugh.
David: and he has to cope by creating this comforting alternative explanation for her. It really shows that clash between our beliefs, our rituals, and just reality.
Defne: That’s a thought irony. Speaks to parental protection, trying to make sense of disappointment, creating our own narratives.
David: and Edge of the World sounds particularly moving as well.
Defne: What’s the focus there?
David: It’s a daughter reflecting on her mother, her mother’s immense difficulties, assimilating her loneliness, trauma from being a refugee. A nightmare.
Defne: Heavy stuff.
David: Yeah. Her mother eventually leaves the family. But later, the daughter comes to understand her mother’s unique perspective, her different kind of knowledge about the world.
Defne: Like the lasting impact of trauma, the isolation.
David: Exactly. And that idea of different kinds of knowledge. The mother believed the world was flat, which becomes this symbol of her different perspective, shaped by her life.
Defne: Wow. Okay. The School Buss Driver seems to focus more on marital strain.
David: It does. This story shows a Lao man feeling alienated. His wife is close to her boss, and she’s also anglicized his name Chai.
Defne: And Chai has a deep meaning.
David: Yes, it means heart in Lao. So, they’re Asos,o;atoms at different speeds, creating this divide, and the loss of his name feels like losing part of his identity.
Defne: Yeah, those subtle ways identity and communication break down in a new culture. [the story] You are so embarrassing sounds like a deal with generational clashed.
David: It does. It shows a Lao mother waiting outside her estranged daughter’s workplace, and she’s remembering when she found out her daughter was using an anglicized name at school, Celine, instead of her Lao name, Chentikad.
Defne: Ouch, that pain when kids pull away from their heritage to fit in exactly that clash, the desire to belong versus the parents’ connection to the past.
David: That name change is a really potent symbol of that divide.
Defne: And finally, Picking Worms. Back to immigrant labor.
David: Yes. This story follows a mother and a daughter picking worms on hog farm, gritty work.
Defne: Yeah.
David: A boy the daughter likes, started working there too, and he gets promoted over the mother. This leads the daughter to make this quite act of defiance of solidarity with her mother.
Defne: Highlighting that often invisible labor, the social hierarchies, even in those settings,
David: And the dignity in that work, the unspoken sacrifices.
Defne: Okay, so, looking across all these varied stories, what are the big overarching themes that really jumped out?
David: Well, several really connected themes emerge. I think the collection just powerfully shows the complexity and importantly, the diversity of the immigrant experience. It really moves beyond the simple hardship narratives.
Defne: Right? Not just one story.
David: Definitly, there’s that constant tension between assimilation and maintaining cultural identity that’s everywhere, the impact of language barriers on communication, on self worth that’s explored again and again.
Defne: Sure.
David: We also see how crucial family and community support are, that search for belonging, for home, in a new place, and the subtle ways racism and social hierarchies play out.
Defne: Yeah.
David: But maybe most importantly, Thammavongsa weaves in these moments of resilience, real hope, unexpected humour and connection, even amidst the struggles. She apparently said she wanted to capture the fun and ferocious and hilarious parts, too.
Defne: And her writing style seems key to getting all that across.
David: Oh, absolutely. The sources constantly mention her spare, taut, visceral prose. She has this incredible ability to capture intense emotion and these really vivid, zoomed in details wit very few words.
Defne: Oh, the precision, again.
David: Yeah, the LA review pointed out her use of repetition, like the how and the title story, to underline key points, intentions. There’s this balance between unsentimental observation and this underlying tenderness, this wit.
Defne: And what’s not said is important to.
David: Exactly. Many reviewers noted that what’s left unsaid is often just as powerful, maybe even more powerful than what’S explicitly stated.
Defne: Sounds very deliberate, very impactful. So… What was the overall critical reaction when it came out? Besides the Giller win.
David: Overwhelmingly positive. Wining the Giller is huge, of course. It was also a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist, so major recognition. Many readers found the stories deeply affecting, really insightful. Praised her for giving voice and depth to experiences that are often overlooked.
Defne: But maybe not universally loved in every aspect. I saw some notes on that.
David: That’s true. A few readers felt some stories were maybe too short or lacked deeper exploration, leaving them wanting more.
Defne: Hmmm. Wanting more character depth or plot sometimes.
David: Yeah, exactly noted the brevity occasionally made it a bit hard to fully connect or easily recall specific stories later. But the strong consensus was that the collection successfully avoids those overly sentimental or stereotypical portrayals of immigrants. That was a big point of praise.
Defne: Right. Okay, so, as we wrap up here, what are the key takeaways from our deep dive into How to Pronounce Knife?
David: I would say, Thammavongsa collection offers this truly nuanced, multifaceted picture of Lao immigrant life in North America. It tackles huge themes, language, culture, family belonging with this really distinctive, powerful writing style.
Defne: Yeah.
David: The book really challenges those conventional, often narrow narratives about immigration. Instead, it Veela’s the quiet resilience, the complex inner lives of people navigating new worlds.
Defne: That’s a great summary. It definitely makes you pause and think about the individual human stories behind that broad label immigrant experience. So for you, the listener, here’s a maybe a final thought to chew on. Think about the everyday encounters you might have with people who are immigrants or refugees. How might the insight from these stories we’ve talked about reshape how you understand their experiences and the really diverse ways they’re finding their place?
David: yeah, what small moments of connection or even misunderstanding might actually hold a much deeper significance than you maybe considered before?
Defne: Definitely, something to mull over. Thanks for joining us for this DeepDive.
