How to Pronounce Knife

I\’m fed up with reading MFA-influenced privileged fiction. I chose this because the writer has lived a real life. Her touch is somehow both tender and deft. She teaches the reader not just how to use precisely the words that are necessary, but that there are a million different lives – sometimes within one life. She writes an aging woman in Slingshot who is a full creature – not just a collection of stereotypes. More than anything I felt gratitude as I read – for what was the opposite of origami (Yes, I know that origami is Japanese), as she unfolded what might seem familiar and revealed mystery.

i loved this book and tried hard to not read it in one gulp. the thing is, it\’s deceptively \”simple\” and as a writer myself, i know how hard it is to write simply and yet deliver powerful emotions. while the stories center on immigrants from laos, really these experiences transcend and that is why i gave the book five stars. i realized early on that i, too, could relate to what it felt like to read \”knive\” wrong out loud in class (i read \”binoculars wrong in 3rd grade. BINocooler.) and how it is that something seemingly small actually can have a large impact on one\’s life. so in this way, the writing style mirrors the small details the author chooses to reveal in each story. many of the stories contained experiences that are actually universal to us all and so i hope other readers don\’t dismiss these stories as \”that only happens to immigrants\” or that readers don\’t think i am dismissing these experiences because i, too, have had them. what i mean is that we learn from one another and realize that we are all part of a certain fabric that strains and tears when we treat anyone indifferently. i, for one, look forward to more work by this author and plan to keep this book near me.

A rather good collection of working class Lao immigrant/refugee short stories. The new land is not one of milk and honey, but one of hard knocks. Having one foot in the old country and a tentative hold on their adopted country keeps the parents not fully in place. Only the voices of their children strive to fully arrive.

Spare language, simple but thoughtful prose, this story of a Laotian immigrant family is touching and tugs your heartstrings.

Such a great compilation of short stories about Lao people and the trials and tribulations they faced assimilating into American culture. I felt it really depict the struggles many Lao people faced after the Vietnam War and years later.

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