Book

Afterparties

Afterparties is a collection of short stories by Anthony Veasna So about Cambodian Americans in California, first published in 2021.[1][2] Its nine linked stories follow refugees who survived the Khmer Rouge and their American-born children, many of them in So's hometown of Stockton.[3][4][2]

About the book

The stories are set in California's Central Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area, and characters appear or are mentioned across more than one story.[1] Many of the older characters survived the Khmer Rouge genocide, which killed an estimated 1.7 million people between 1975 and 1979, and its aftermath shapes the daily lives of their children.[3][1] The stories deal with generational differences, the effects of trauma, immigrant community life and queerness.[1] The title points both to the one literal after-party in the book and to the bond between Cambodian refugees and the children who came after them.[4]

Much of the book unfolds in family businesses and community gatherings.[2] "Three Women of Chuck's Donuts" is set in an all-night donut shop, the business run by 16-year-old Tevy's mother.[2][3] "The Shop" takes place in a failing car repair garage, where Toby, a gay college graduate, helps his father.[4] "Superking Son Scores Again" follows a badminton coach who runs a struggling Khmer grocery store.[2][5] In "Maly, Maly, Maly," family and friends gather because a newborn is believed to be the reborn soul of a relative who survived a Khmer Rouge death camp.[3] In "The Monks," a young man spends a ceremonial week at a Buddhist temple to help his late father's soul move on.[3] "Human Development" follows Anthony, a young gay Cambodian American teacher, and Ben, an older software developer.[3] The final story, "Generational Differences," follows a survivor of the racially motivated 1989 shooting at Cleveland Elementary School in Stockton, who worked there as a teacher's aide.[1][2]

Publication and editions

Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins, acquired the book in a two-book deal and published it in 2021.[1][6] So died unexpectedly in December 2020, eight months before publication.[2][6] Every story except "Human Development" had already appeared in a magazine or literary journal.[1]

  • "Three Women of Chuck's Donuts": The New Yorker
  • "Superking Son Scores Again": n+1
  • "Maly, Maly, Maly": The Paris Review
  • "The Shop": Granta
  • "The Monks": n+1
  • "We Would've Been Princes": American Short Fiction
  • "Somaly Serey, Serey Somaly": BOMB
  • "Generational Differences": ZYZZYVA[1]

Reception

The collection won the National Book Critics Circle's John Leonard Prize for Best First Book and the Ferro-Grumley Award for LGBTQ fiction.[1] "Superking Son Scores Again" won Syracuse University's Joyce Carol Oates Award in Fiction.[1] Many reviewers noted the humor that runs through the stories alongside their serious subjects.[1] George Saunders called them affectionate and funny portraits of a complicated American community.[5]

References

  1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 Wikipedia
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 NPR, review of Afterparties (August 3, 2021)
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 Public Books, B-Sides: Anthony Veasna So's Afterparties
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 The New York Review of Books, Poised and Precarious
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 n+1, Afterparties
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 The Seattle Times, review of Afterparties
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This page was last edited on 26 September 2026, at 23:42.