Selecting a Shade by Souvankham Thammavongsa: An Inside Look Into the World of a Nail Bar

Set over a one summer afternoon in a nail salon, Souvankham Thammavongsa's debut novel delves into the dramatic opportunities of these establishments. Similar to cinematic and literary works set in cabs, beauty parlors and podiatry offices, the manicure bar becomes a miniature universe where profound inquiries arise about power dynamics, personal interaction, and the character of transactions where service is purchased and provided.

The Storyteller's Viewpoint

Presented from the perspective of the salon owner, a former fighter who owns and operates the shop, the narrative opens with a strong declaration: "Observing the couple of us, clients positioned on a seat elevated above me and me in a lower position, one might assume I am without authority. But I am. I understand completely about them, irrespective of if they inform me."

This subjective storytelling immediately establishes an potentially biased perspective, inviting readers to question this certainty. During the narrative, Ning's confidence alters and modifies, with greater confidence at the beginning and diminished by the conclusion.

The World of Susan's

The business's policies form a notable near-satire of the service economy. Every employee, the proprietor included, wear name tags that identify them as "Susan". "All staff members feature black shoulder-length hair and sport black T-shirts and ebony pants. We are, approximately, the identical stature too."

This standardization accomplishes several objectives: it's more convenient for the whole team and constitutes a effective business tactic. "Our Susan is constantly accessible and prepared to help! Susan doesn't take a day off and Susan is never completely scheduled if it's you who phoned for her."

Restricted Location

The establishment, named Susan's, serves as Ning's kingdom. The space includes five chairs, four workers, working with patrons in groups of three; "any larger numbers and I lose track of who is doing what and at what time."

Ning lives in a "small flat ... directly over the shop" and "doesn't recall the previous instance I devoted any duration separated from it." These limitations shape the book's framework: one room, twenty-four hour period, one business.

Storytelling Obstacles

A particular difficulty of the single-day story, especially when it's additionally a limited environment story, is to communicate enough backstory through the current time to create the significance of what might be dismissed as overly mundane or insufficiently important for literary attention.

The premise of this kind of writing, giving meticulous consideration to routine daily activities, is that the authentic accounts lie in the accessing and securing of entrances, the making of tea and maintaining spaces. The author must enable the audience to perceive these activities anew, to grasp that personal journeys, influenced by conflict and imperialism and migration, develop in unconscious dealings and small impulses.

Creating Profundity

The novelist effectively achieves this ambitious goal, though there is one threadbare moment where a dead pigeon becomes the subject of disproportionate sorrow and affection than properly suits the individual or scenario.

Ning reveals early on about her past career in pugilism, and her recollections of this career permeate her contemplations and intuitions in the salon. Force, antagonism and self-preservation are constantly present in her mind, the athlete's intense understanding of instability and apprehension intensifying the vigilance of newcomer perspective.

Unanticipated Kindness

However compassion, also, gradually appears in the end. There's no disgust at tired feet or greasy skin. Openly without children, scornful of patrons' inclination to talk about their babies, Ning nonetheless retains drawings made by the children of an worker whom she permitted to take advantage of her.

The story contains progressing occasions of compassion and even affection for her senior staff member, and beautifully understated sadness at the end.

Literary Significance

The constrained setting, deep investment in a gender-specific and underrepresented viewpoint and separation from storyline will estrange particular consumers. These individuals will overlook a highly crafted, multifaceted and intelligent work of fiction.