Afterparties
By: Anthony Veasna So
Seamlessly transitioning between the absurd and the tenderhearted, balancing acerbic humor with sharp emotional depth,Ā AfterpartiesĀ 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 uncleās snubbing of the bride and groom. A queer love affair sparks between an older tech entrepreneur trying to launch a āsafe spaceā app and a disillusioned young teacher obsessed withĀ Moby-Dick. And in the sweeping final story, a nine-year-old child learns that his mother survived a racist school shooter.
The stories inĀ Afterparties, āpowered by Soās skill with the telling detail, are like beams of wry, affectionate light, falling from different directions on a complicated, struggling, beloved American communityā (George Saunders).