"Marked by sharp wit and overwhelming in the scope of emotions they portray, So’s vignettes offer a nuanced and compassionate view of the rich and complex experiences of a group of immigrants who dared to build new lives in an often unforgiving country." - Time magazine " Afterparties insists on a prismatic understanding of Cambodian American diaspora through stories that burst with as much compassion as comedy, making us laugh just when we’re on the verge of crying." - Washington Post
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freshness is derived not only from So's style as a writer, but from the nuanced perspective of his ultra-intersectional identity." - Maureen Corrigan, Fresh Air voice is so alive-smart, flip, rude, sexually explicit, and compassionate. A smart, compassionate take on the push-pull of growing up first-generation Cambodian American. “ Afterparties is a bittersweet triumph for a fresh voice silenced too soon. "The stories are great fun to read-brimming over with life and energy and comic insight and deep feeling." - Deborah Eisenberg, New York Review of Books a literary career of extraordinary achievement and immense promise. It feels transgressive that Afterparties is so funny, so irreverent, concerning the previous generation’s tragedy." - Hua Hsu, The New Yorker stories reimagine and reanimate the Central Valley, in the way that the polyglot stories in Bryan Washington’s collection Lot reimagined Houston and Ocean Vuong’s novel On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous allowed us to see Hartford in a fresh light." - Dwight Garner, New York Times He radiates in much the same way on the page. was gregarious, tattooed, queer: a big personality. "Witty and soulful stories from a writer who was just getting started . The stories in Afterparties, “powered by So’s skill with the telling detail, are like beams of wry, affectionate light, falling from different directions on a complicated, struggling, beloved American community” (George Saunders). And in the sweeping final story, a nine-year-old child learns that his mother survived a racist school shooter.
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A queer love affair sparks between an older tech entrepreneur trying to launch a “safe space” app and a disillusioned young teacher obsessed with Moby-Dick. Two drunken brothers attend a wedding afterparty and hatch a plan to expose their shady uncle’s snubbing of the bride and groom.
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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.Ī high school badminton coach and failing grocery store owner tries to relive his glory days by beating a rising star teenage player. Seamlessly transitioning between the absurd and the tenderhearted, balancing acerbic humor with sharp emotional depth, Afterparties offers an expansive portrait of the lives of Cambodian-Americans. Named a Best Book of the Year by: New York Times * NPR * Washington Post * LA Times * Kirkus Reviews * New York Public Library * Chicago Public Library * Harper’s Bazaar * TIME * Maureen Corrigan, Fresh Air * Boston Globe* The AtlanticĪ vibrant story collection about Cambodian-American life-immersive and comic, yet unsparing-that offers profound insight into the intimacy of queer and immigrant communities WINNER OF THE FERRO-GRUMLEY AWARD FOR LGBTQ FICTION WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE’S JOHN LEONARD PRIZE FOR BEST FIRST BOOK