A review by balkeyeston
Afterparties by Anthony Veasna So

4.0

"I'd lived with misunderstanding for so long, I'd stopped even viewing it as bad. It was just there, embedded in everything I loved."

AFTERPARTIES is a short story collection of Cambodian Americans in California. Many of the main characters are the children or grandchildren of Cambodian survivors of the Khmer Rouge, a collective second generation Cambodian American voice embodying both inheritance and independence. The collection spans several generations and hints at the spiritual traditions of karma and reincarnation, which feature heavily in the form of monks praying for a failing auto shop, or a nurse caring for a dying Ma who thinks the nurse is her long-lost sister. Names that appear in passing as side characters in an earlier story reemerge in full force later on to tell their own tales, much like the layers of an onion exposed to open air if you keep peeling to its center, biting back tears along the way. In a community where everything feels connected, each character holds a story of their own that circumvents the recursive nature of inherited anguish.

Favorite stories: "Three Women of Chuck's Donuts," "Superking Son Scores Again," and "The Shop."