If you have a service job, then you might be interested in the book “Pick a Color,” by Souvankham Thammavongsa. It is about a woman named Ning who owns a nail salon and has a special relationship with her employees, and they all wear name tags labeled “Susan.” The story lasts through one day of Ning’s working life. 

Thammavongsa was born in a Lao refugee camp in Thailand and moved to Canada. Thammavongsa won the Giller Prize in 2020, and the O. Henry Award in 2019. She also wrote several poetry books and the short story collection “How to Pronounce Knife.” “Pick a Color,” which is a novel, might win the 2025 Giller Prize

David Varno, fiction reviews editor at Publishers Weekly, asked her about the appeal of physical labor. 

“I’m really interested in the way people work…I like to imagine how thinking happens through the body without words,” said Thammavongsa.

The book translates people's (Ning’s) labor into their feelings. For people who do not understand what working a service job is like, this book is a good representation of what it is like. 

One of the themes in this novel is about power dynamics for women immigrants in America. This theme is shown throughout the book in many ways. One way is when Ning talks in her own language with her co-workers, so the customers do not understand what they are saying. This highlights that she is different from the people already living in the country she has moved to. Also, this allows her and her co-workers to keep some of their ways from back home. This allowed them to take their power back and be able to talk freely about whatever they wanted.

One of the biggest things in the book I related with as a reader was how Ning felt about customers. Having worked jobs where I dealt with many customers, I know some of the hardships she mentioned. From customers being annoying, slow and rude, Thammavongsa included it all. 

In my life, I worked at a Grocery Outlet, and I had many flashbacks while reading the book. For example, the customers try to talk to you or make small talk as you're just trying to get the job done, but of course you have to be nice and humor them. 

Another theme included is simply being a woman in the western world. Some of the issues and events that happened during the book were events that exclusively happen to women. For example, a man came in asking for a happy ending. After this the girls joked about it but were disgusted. They made fun of him behind his back and still helped him. This comment was eye opening to a white male in America who didn’t really contemplate this reality before. But because it was dealt with in a dark comedic way, it was easier to read through and restored hope. There are some feminist aspects to this book which I appreciated because it again allowed me to witness other perspectives and see the world in a different light. 

The way Thammavongsa tried to convey these issues was through a dark humor lens which lessened the seriousness but somehow conveyed the meaning in the way it was supposed to.

This book is special because it allows you to witness the world through another person's eyes. The themes are relevant to our society today because people go through what the “Susans” went through. I recommend this book to everyone who wants to get a grasp on the themes presented in the story. The book is $23 for the hard cover on Amazon and $15 for the Kindle version. 

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