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nuhafariha 's review for:
Afterparties
by Anthony Veasna So
Thank you to Ecco Books and NetGalley for the Advanced Reader's Copy!
Available Aug 3rd 2021.
After the untimely passing of Anthony Veasna So, I was reading "Three Women's of Chuck's Diner" in honor of this great literary talent. After just one paragraph, I was hooked. The complexity of the mother Sothy and her daughters Kayley and Tevy, their tragic and comedic relationships with their missing father figure, the gorgeous descriptions of the character's psyches completely blew me away.
I loved so much about "Afterparties" - the intervening, interconnected stories of a dysfunctional community, the constant presence of donuts, the way Veasna So is able to evoke a sense of longing and homeland without ever essentializing or tokenizing Cambodian Americans. Instead, it's a delicate musing on life and love, on filial duty and obligations, on surviving and thriving. What a legacy to leave behind.
Memorable quotes
"Tevy wonders if her mother has ever loved someone romantically, if her mother is even capable of reaching beyond the realm of survival, if her mother has ever been granted any freedom from worry, and if her mother's present carries the ability to dilate, for even a brief moment, into its own plane of suspended existence, separate from past or future." - Three Women of Chuck's Donuts.
"Gay, Cambodian, and not even twenty-six, carrying in my body the aftermath of war, genocide, colonialism. And yet, my task was to teach kids a decade younger, existing across an oceanic difference, what it means to be human. How absurd, I admitted. How fucking hilarious. I was actually excited."
"When you think about my history, I don't need you to see everything at once. I don't need you to recall those tragedies that were dropped into my world. Honestly, you don't even have to try. What is nuance in the face of all that we've experienced? But for me, your mother, just remember that, for better or worse, we can be described as survivors. Okay? Know that we've always kept on living. What else could we have done?"
Available Aug 3rd 2021.
After the untimely passing of Anthony Veasna So, I was reading "Three Women's of Chuck's Diner" in honor of this great literary talent. After just one paragraph, I was hooked. The complexity of the mother Sothy and her daughters Kayley and Tevy, their tragic and comedic relationships with their missing father figure, the gorgeous descriptions of the character's psyches completely blew me away.
I loved so much about "Afterparties" - the intervening, interconnected stories of a dysfunctional community, the constant presence of donuts, the way Veasna So is able to evoke a sense of longing and homeland without ever essentializing or tokenizing Cambodian Americans. Instead, it's a delicate musing on life and love, on filial duty and obligations, on surviving and thriving. What a legacy to leave behind.
Memorable quotes
"Tevy wonders if her mother has ever loved someone romantically, if her mother is even capable of reaching beyond the realm of survival, if her mother has ever been granted any freedom from worry, and if her mother's present carries the ability to dilate, for even a brief moment, into its own plane of suspended existence, separate from past or future." - Three Women of Chuck's Donuts.
"Gay, Cambodian, and not even twenty-six, carrying in my body the aftermath of war, genocide, colonialism. And yet, my task was to teach kids a decade younger, existing across an oceanic difference, what it means to be human. How absurd, I admitted. How fucking hilarious. I was actually excited."
"When you think about my history, I don't need you to see everything at once. I don't need you to recall those tragedies that were dropped into my world. Honestly, you don't even have to try. What is nuance in the face of all that we've experienced? But for me, your mother, just remember that, for better or worse, we can be described as survivors. Okay? Know that we've always kept on living. What else could we have done?"