A review by benplatt
Afterparties by Anthony Veasna So

5.0

Solidly written collection that constructs a small universe of Cambodian American community within it, as characters recur and stories are retold across time as you move through the book. That structural approach helps the small scope of the stories feel focused rather than stifling or repetitive. So's writing is funny, his prose effective, and the community of people here is wildly varied while all getting back to similar ideas of generational trauma, alienation, and cultural identification in the shadow of genocide (which is interestingly made to feel like "the source of all our problems and none of them" (255)) across the collection.