AFTERPARTIES BY ANTHONY VEASNA SO
Anthony Veasna So’s Afterparties is a collection of short stories set within Cambodian-American communities in California’s Central Valley, particularly among the children of refugees who survived the Khmer Rouge genocide. The stories move through familiar spaces—family businesses, weddings, gyms, classrooms, and late-night gatherings—while exploring how younger generations navigate questions of family, friendship, race, sexuality, and belonging. One story follows a former badminton champion, now coaching at a high school, who becomes fixated on proving himself against a talented teenage player. Another centers on two brothers at a chaotic wedding afterparty who drunkenly decide it’s time to confront a relative whose behavior has quietly shaped family tensions for years. Elsewhere, the collection traces complicated queer relationships, intergenerational misunderstandings, and the shifting expectations placed on children of immigrant families.
As the Los Angeles Review of Books notes, the collection often unfolds through “loops and returns,” with recurring characters, overlapping communities, and narrative moments that circle back rather than progressing neatly forward. The stories show how memories of war, migration, and family history continue to shape the present for Cambodian-American communities in Stockton. In that sense, Afterparties reflects a diasporic experience of time: the past doesn’t simply fade away but repeatedly surfaces in everyday life as new generations try to build lives of their own.
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