{"id":48393,"date":"2021-08-02T11:12:31","date_gmt":"2021-08-02T15:12:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/?p=48393"},"modified":"2021-07-29T18:45:42","modified_gmt":"2021-07-29T22:45:42","slug":"afterparties-by-anthony-veasna-so-in-booklist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/afterparties-by-anthony-veasna-so-in-booklist\/","title":{"rendered":"Afterparties by Anthony Veasna So [in Booklist]"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-48385\" src=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2021\/07\/Afterparties-Anthony-Veasna-So-BookDragon-529x800.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"529\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2021\/07\/Afterparties-Anthony-Veasna-So-BookDragon-529x800.jpg 529w, https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2021\/07\/Afterparties-Anthony-Veasna-So-BookDragon.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 529px) 100vw, 529px\" \/><strong>*STARRED REVIEW<\/strong><br \/>\nNine electrifying stories comprise Anthony Veasna So\u2019s debut, and while many were previously published, when read together their magnificence is enhanced as they create an interconnected Cambodian American community. Most autobiographical is \u201cHuman Development,\u201d in which the narrator is also Anthony, a gay, Stanford-degreed teacher close to his sister; here, his alter ego has an affair with a two-decades-older Cambodian American.<\/p>\n<p>The rest of So\u2019s stories happen in \u201cthe sh*ittier valley\u201d (Central Valley\u2019s Stockton, a Cambodian American hub). \u201cThree Women of Chuck\u2019s Donuts\u201d features a single mother and her two daughters working late into the night; in \u201cSuperking Son Scores Again,\u201d a grocer coaches a badminton team. That coach\u2019s nemesis, Justin, is the privileged son of Angkor Pharmacy\u2019s owner, the establishment mentioned in both \u201cThe Shop,\u201d about a reluctantly returned-from-college son working in his father\u2019s failing auto repair shop, and \u201cWe Could Have Been Princes,\u201d which exposes gossipy intricacies at post-wedding afterparties.<\/p>\n<p>A trio of stories \u2013 \u201cMaly, Maly, Maly,\u201d \u201cThe Monks,\u201d and \u201cSomaly Serey, Serey Somaly\u201d \u2013 follows a motherless teen, her first boyfriend, and her mother\u2019s reincarnation. The presciently chilling finale, \u201cGenerational Differences,\u201d portrays a mother remembering the 1989 anti-Asian Stockton school massacre.<\/p>\n<p>So\u2019s death in December 2020 at just 28 is heartbreakingly tragic; this exuberant publication should ensure his bittersweet, posthumous fame.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Review<\/strong>:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.booklistonline.com\/Afterparties-\/pid=9744523\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">\u201cFiction,\u201d\u00a0<em>Booklist<\/em>, July 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Readers<\/strong>: Adult<\/p>\n<p><strong>Published<\/strong>: 2021<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>*STARRED REVIEW Nine electrifying stories comprise Anthony Veasna So\u2019s debut, and while many were previously published, when read together their magnificence is enhanced as they create an interconnected Cambodian American community. Most autobiographical is \u201cHuman Development,\u201d in which the narrator is also Anthony, a gay,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48385,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,325,6,6535,7,137],"tags":[9814,89,9815,6608,6668,58,10,11,68,51,25,50,13,39],"class_list":["post-48393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adult-readers","category-cambodian-american","category-fiction","category-repost","category-short-stories","category-southeast-asian-american","tag-afterparties","tag-anthology-collection","tag-anthony-veasna-so","tag-bookdragon","tag-booklist","tag-coming-of-age","tag-family","tag-friendship","tag-haves-vs-have-nots","tag-identity","tag-immigration","tag-lgbtqia","tag-love","tag-parent-child-relationship"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.14 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Afterparties by Anthony Veasna So [in Booklist] - BookDragon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/afterparties-by-anthony-veasna-so-in-booklist\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Afterparties by Anthony Veasna So [in Booklist] - BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"*STARRED REVIEW Nine electrifying stories comprise Anthony Veasna So\u2019s debut, and while many were previously published, when read together their magnificence is enhanced as they create an interconnected Cambodian American community. Most autobiographical is \u201cHuman Development,\u201d in which the narrator is also Anthony, a gay,...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/afterparties-by-anthony-veasna-so-in-booklist\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-08-02T15:12:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-07-29T22:45:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2021\/07\/Afterparties-Anthony-Veasna-So-BookDragon.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"967\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@SmithsonianAPA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Afterparties by Anthony Veasna So [in Booklist] - BookDragon","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/afterparties-by-anthony-veasna-so-in-booklist\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Afterparties by Anthony Veasna So [in Booklist] - BookDragon","og_description":"*STARRED REVIEW Nine electrifying stories comprise Anthony Veasna So\u2019s debut, and while many were previously published, when read together their magnificence is enhanced as they create an interconnected Cambodian American community. Most autobiographical is \u201cHuman Development,\u201d in which the narrator is also Anthony, a gay,...","og_url":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/afterparties-by-anthony-veasna-so-in-booklist\/","og_site_name":"BookDragon","article_published_time":"2021-08-02T15:12:31+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-07-29T22:45:42+00:00","og_image":[{"width":640,"height":967,"url":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2021\/07\/Afterparties-Anthony-Veasna-So-BookDragon.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@SmithsonianAPA","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/afterparties-by-anthony-veasna-so-in-booklist\/","url":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/afterparties-by-anthony-veasna-so-in-booklist\/","name":"Afterparties by Anthony Veasna So [in Booklist] - BookDragon","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/#website"},"datePublished":"2021-08-02T15:12:31+00:00","dateModified":"2021-07-29T22:45:42+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/#\/schema\/person\/a00f6dcfcb279c75f3f992ad2919d51d"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/afterparties-by-anthony-veasna-so-in-booklist\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/afterparties-by-anthony-veasna-so-in-booklist\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/afterparties-by-anthony-veasna-so-in-booklist\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Afterparties by Anthony Veasna So [in Booklist]"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/#website","url":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/","name":"BookDragon","description":"Books for the Diverse Reader","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/#\/schema\/person\/a00f6dcfcb279c75f3f992ad2919d51d","name":"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/79b5f08575e8962bd00388cd126d374b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/79b5f08575e8962bd00388cd126d374b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/twitter.com\/@SmithsonianAPA"],"url":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/author\/riemert\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48393"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48393"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48393\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48415,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48393\/revisions\/48415"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}