Afterparties: Stories

Afterparties: Stories

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE’S JOHN LEONARD PRIZE FOR BEST FIRST BOOK  WINNER OF THE FERRO-GRUMLEY AWARD FOR LGBTQ FICTION Named a Best Book of the Year by: New York Times * NPR * Washington Post * LA Times * Kirkus Reviews * New York Public Library * Chicago Public Library * Harper’s Bazaar * TIME * Maureen Corrigan, Fresh Air * Boston Globe* The Atlantic A vibrant story collection about Cambodian-American life—immersive and comic, yet unsparing—that offers profound insight into the intimacy of queer and immigrant communities Seamlessly transitioning between the absurd and the tenderhearted, balancing acerbic humor 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. The stories in Afterparties , “powered by So’s skill with the telling detail, are like beams of wry, affectionate light, falling from different directions on a complicated, struggling, beloved American community” (George Saunders). "A deeply personal, frankly funny, illuminating portrait of furtive, meddling aunties, sweaty, bored adolescents and the plaintive search for survival that connects them. Its nine stories sketch a world of hidden histories, of longings past and present, and of a culture carving its way out of historical trauma. It is a testament to the burgeoning talent of So. . . . Electric, alive and transportive, Afterparties is a glimpse of a world rarely seen in literature, and of a talent gone too soon." - New York Times Book Review, Editors' Choice "So lovingly documents his community of 'off-brand Asians with dark skin,' investing mundane moments of lived life with an extraordinary magic. While reading, you might have to occasionally pause to admire his talent, his supernatural capacity to map a story that hits every note. As you read his stories, you live them, and at their best, you forget who wrote them and why." - Seattle Times “ Afterparties , by the late Anthony Veasna So, was one of the big buzz books this year and it exceeded and upended my expectations. So, who died at the age of 28 before the book came out, was a queer first-generation Cambodian American who wrote smart, flip, rude, funny, sexually explicit and compassionate stories about the Cambodian refugee community in Stockton, Calif.” - Maureen Corrgian, Fresh Air "Electric. . . .  Afterparties  is a world dappled in patterns of light and dark humor. . . . Rather than stage his characters in easily comprehensible postures, gathering them around the mythic American dream at self-serious angles, he shows them to us as they loll about in the dream’s afterparty." - The Atlantic "Dazzling. . . . An astonishing debut, crackling with energy, narrated in slangy vernacular, and written with attitude and style. . .In each of the nine stories, So lays out for inspection all the problems of his beloved community—from gambling and gossip to alcoholism and suicide—then embraces it all with love and compassion. It is a virtuosic performance." - Associated Press " Afterparties  contains multitudes, embodying both the author's Cambodian American heritage and his life-affirming worldview. . . . [So] left us with an indelible posse of 'Cambos' from his hometown of Stockton, California. His people are philosophical, queer, angry, bossy, romantic, unfaithful, filial, and defiant survivors who consider the genocide 'to be the source of all [their] problems and none of them.' . . . In portraying lives subject to multiple perils and displacements, So treats the legacy of genocide with astute nuance—as if such trauma is both integral and incidental to his characters." - NPR.org "A rollicking plunge into sex, drugs, genocide and wicked wit. . . . There’s technical ease in the composition of these stories, many set over some 23 years in a Central Valley city hit hard by the recession. The speakers, queer and straight, are stalled-out, hyped-up, jubilant and remorseful. A complex, interconnected community comes into sharp focus." - San Francisco Chronicle “Anthony Veasna So writes with the assurance of a very experienced writer, though this volume of stories is his first book. . . . The stories exhibit great varie