A Nail the Evening Hangs On
Monica Sok
In her debut collection, Monica Sok uses poetry to reshape a family's memory about the Khmer Rouge regime—memory that is both real and imagined—according to a child of refugees. Driven by myth-making and fables, the poems examine the inheritance of the genocide and the profound struggles of searing grief and PTSD. Though the landscape of Cambodia is always present, it is the liminal space, the in-betweenness of diaspora, in which younger generations must reconcile their history and create new rituals. A Nail the Evening Hangs On seeks to reclaim the Cambodian narrative with tenderness and an imagination that moves towards wholeness and possibility.
Publication Year: 2020
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No, I did not bury the bodies nobody had prayed for. There are things in this world we must make one another see. This poetry collection is sad and visceral, which makes it difficult to read. Sok doesn't mince words. A lot of the events and places referenced flew over my head because I was unfamiliar with Cambodia and the atrocities committed there. However, after doing my research, I'm left without words but with a lot of heartache.
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