All posts tagged: Soudary Kittivong-Greenbaum

Review: How to Pronounce Knife by Souvankham Thammavongsa

Review by Soudary Kittivong-Greenbaum This isn’t for you This is for the lady in the back The kid that’s late to class The dad that’s invisible, dreams cast aside The lost-ambition Grandma, no-purpose Aunty And it’s all for you too. Soudary Kittivong-Greenbaum Written through the eyes of a child (more than once), a grown woman longing for her grown child, a 20-something single factory worker, a woman in her 70s, a husband completely in denial of his wife’s escapades, a teen daughter of a farmworker, each character in Souvankham Thammavongsa’s new title, How to Pronounce Knife is a glimpse into the lives of a Lao refugee or immigrant, literally and figuratively trying to make it in the world. They are in the midst, often of an identity juncture, trying fit in. They are living the mundane, the everyday. But inside their minds, and their hearts, they are trying to find meaning, to figure a place in their world. What it does differently than other works of art centered on the refugee and Lao refugee character …

“For Mae Tow” by Soudary Kittivong-Greenbaum

when i picture you, you are 52. lips deep, bright plum skin patted smooth by powder jet black hair shaped by pink cushion curlers the night before. you are decorated in your finest gold. necklace. rings. earrings. sinh,  matching hand sewn top, after your shifts at the dealership the cleaning lady, now, ready for the party. you dress me, cure a high bun on my head, the same that you lift once set, and exclaim with joy: “good ga-lirl” i wonder if you’d still consider me good? i’m not always polite don’t bow as you did to others. service, that’s what they call it. i don’t go to temple. don’t offer alms, or truck kow to the sick, or for boun at Wat Lao, Wat Thai, Wat Khmer. you used to visit them all, every week. only you. everyone loved your smile. a diplomat’s for sure. laughing from the gut. you were a saint. didn’t discriminate for souls, only for those that took, and even then, you might have bent. — i wonder how would you like hearing your …