"Teeming with life, unforgettable characters and formidable ideas, this short story collection is an absolute joy."
Anthony Veasna So’s Afterparties is a box of fireworks that crackles with characterful portraits of California’s Cambodian immigrant community, and with bittersweet, universally resonant observations and truths. Perfectly-formed, with wham-bam impact, each and every short story in this anthology gets to the heart of what makes us strive to live our version of a good life through its sharp exposition of distinct - and distinctly memorable - characters and circumstances.
The stories typically teeter on that heady hi-wire between the absurd and the poignant, as in Superking Son Scores Again in which a grocery store owner and badminton coach experiences a downfall to rival that of any Shakespearean tragicomic hero. Then there are characters grappling with their identities as the children of Cambodian refugees, and with the weighty legacy of the Khmer Rouge genocide. By turns gritty and wildly funny, poignant and thought-provoking (and often all of these at once), Afterparties is an exceptional collection.
| Primary Genre | Modern and Contemporary Fiction |
| Other Genres: | |
| Recommendations: |
Seamlessly transitioning between the absurd and the tender-hearted, balancing acerbic humour with sharp emotional depth, Afterparties offers an expansive portrait of the lives of Cambodian-Americans. As the children of refugees carve out radical new paths for themselves in California, they shoulder the inherited weight of the Khmer Rouge genocide and grapple with the complexities of race, sexuality, friendship and family.
A high school badminton coach and failing grocery store owner tries to relive his glory days by beating a rising star teenage player. Two drunken brothers attend a wedding afterparty and hatch a plan to expose their shady uncle's snubbing of the bride and groom. A queer love affair sparks between an older tech entrepreneur trying to launch a 'safe space' app and a disillusioned young teacher obsessed with Moby-Dick. And in the sweeping final story, a nine-year-old child learns that his mother survived a racist school shooter.
With nuanced emotional precision, gritty humour and compassionate insight into the intimacy of queer and immigrant communities, the stories in Afterparties deliver an explosive introduction to the work of Anthony Veasna So.
Afterparties features in the following genres: Modern and Contemporary Fiction, Shorter Reads, General Fiction, Fiction, Fiction: special features, eBooks of the Month, Recommendations
Afterparties is available in Paperback, Hardback, Ebook (Epub)
Afterparties was written by Anthony Veasna So and published by Grove Press / Atlantic Monthly Press
Afterparties has 260 pages
£8.09
