“Afterparties” by Anthony Veasna So

Anthony Veasna So (photo: Chris Sackes)

“The Three Women of Chuck’s Donuts” was published in The New Yorker in early 2020, generating great interest for Anthony Veasna So’s forthcoming collection of stories, Afterparties. But months before his book came out, So died suddenly from an overdose. “The Three Women of Chuck’s Donuts” kicks off this collection and tries to answer a question that runs throughout the book, namely “what does it mean to be Khmer, anyway?”

In this first story, teenage sisters Tevy and Hayley assist their mother with the family’s donut shop in Stockton, California, which has nothing to do with a man named Chuck. It simply sounds American. Their father has left them for a new family a town over and the donut shop’s heyday seems a thing of the past because of the 2008 recession. When a mysterious man enters the shop in the middle of the night and orders an apple fritter—never touching it—and returns night after night, neglecting one apple fritter after another, the sisters want to find out more about him. He claims he’s from Cambodia, but is not Cambodian because his family is ethnically Chinese.

 

“But your family has lived in Cambodia for generations?” Kayley interjects.
    “Yes.”
    “And you and your family survived the Khmer Rouge regime?” Tevy asks.
    Again, the man answers, “Yes.”
    “So do you speak Khmer or Chinese?”
    The man answers, “I speak Khmer.”
    “Do you celebrate Cambodian New Year?”
    Again, the man answers, “Yes.”
    “Do you eat rotten fish?” Kayley asks.
    “Prahok?” the man asks. “Yes, I do.”
    “Do you buy food from the Khmer grocery store or the Chinese one?” Tevy asks.
    The man answers, “Khmer.”

 

The girls and the strange man may never agree on Khmer identity, and the weight of their families’ shared past also reappears throughout the collection.

In the story “Human Development”, a twentysomething English teacher named Anthony dates a forty year old man named Ben. The two live in San Francisco and bond over their identity—especially since they both come from California’s Central Valley—and know it’s not easy to find gay partners who are also Khmer. As time passes, their shared background becomes central to Ben’s commitment to Anthony, yet Anthony feels it’s not enough. “I can’t be with a Cambodian guy just to be with a Cambodian guy.”

 

Afterparties: Stories, Anthony Veasna So (Ecco, August 2021)
Afterparties: Stories, Anthony Veasna So (Ecco, August 2021)

The title of the book is taken from the story, “We Would’ve Been Princes!”, in which brothers Marlon and Bond, named after Brando and James, reunite at the afterparty of a large family wedding. Marlon had recently gone through substance abuse rehab and the two brothers had drifted. Marlon convinces Bond to stay at the afterparty.

 

This is an afterparty! When’s the next time everyone’s gonna visit home again? Let’s have fun before the weekend’s dead, before it’s just me, stuck in this fake city, without my Cambos. Me with nothing to do but go on bad Tinder dates to Chipotle.

 

The brothers had a tough upbringing, as their father struggled to earn enough for the family and their mother suffered from depression that kept her in bed for days on end. Although the parents later rebound and become comfortable financially and emotionally, the family cannot escape the trauma that brought the parents to the US.

While each story stands alone, some of the characters and places, like Chuck’s Donuts, reappear in other stories. There is a sense of sadness and loneliness in So’s writing reflective of the trauma that follows Khmer families to the United States, yet at the same time So shows great pride in his Khmer heritage. It’s difficult to read these stories and not wonder how much he could have contributed to contemporary literature beyond this collection. There will be one more book, though. In 2023, another posthumously-published book by So will come out and will include parts of a novel, short stories, essays.


Susan Blumberg-Kason is the author of Bernardine’s Shanghai Salon: The Story of the Doyenne of Old China, Good Chinese Wife: A Love Affair with China Gone Wrong and When Friends Come From Afar: The Remarkable Story of Bernie Wong and Chicago’s Chinese American Service League.