It’s not hyperbole to say that I love this book of short stories. What Thammavongsa captures is what fascinates me about this language, it’s beautiful and often terrible power. It comes at the English language from a magnificent perspective, and explores how it divides, unifies, deceives, and delights. The book begins with the main character, Joy, who brings an unfamiliar word to her father, whose own mastery of English has yet to be perfected since immigrating from Laos. What enfolds is a heartbreaking, magnificent celebration of language and communication. We learn alongside Joy as she works out how culture, people, and self fit into expression and the themes continue throughout the stories that unfold. While engaging with English through stories of immigrant families, Thammavongsa uses the language itself with such effect, eliciting tremendous depth of emotion with poetic efficiency. It continues throughout each story, adding depth to the themes kicked off from page one.
Mostly I love Thammavongsa’s book because it demonstrates what I say to the students I teach: More voices make this language better. How to Pronounce Knife provides a wonderful glimpse into what it might take to begin adding one’s own voice to English, and the agonizing cost that can be attached.
M. W. IRVING 