In this way, an entire fictional world is created. The stories stand alone but also interconnect, so eventually you realize the character taking center stage in one was a minor player in a previous story, and vice versa. A lot of it is related to being Cambodian American, having immigrant parents who had lived under the Khmer Rouge, living in a tight-knit community that's everything to you but trying to figure out how to live in it as young queer person, or how to leave it to pursue other dreams. The thing is, this collection is great! It's laugh-out-loud funny, but every story is aiming for something bigger, every story has some aspect of the human condition it's exploring. It was then I learned that Anthony Veasna So had died suddenly only a few days earlier, at the age of 28. Then I forgot about it until early December 2020, when I suddenly started thinking about the story again and looked online for more information about this book and its author. Much as I wish it weren't the case, I need to start this review this way: I spent part of my 2020 lockdown catching up on about six months' worth of New Yorker short stories, and one of my favorites was "Three Women of Chuck's Donuts." After I finished it, I came onto Goodreads and added Anthony Veasna So's upcoming collection, Afterparties, to my shelf. With nuanced emotional precision, gritty humor, and compassionate insight into the intimacy of queer and immigrant communities, the stories in Afterparties deliver an explosive introduction to the work of Anthony Veasna So. And in the sweeping final story, a nine-year-old child learns that his mother survived a racist school shooter. 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. 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. On June 12, during the afterparty of Ancient Dreams: Live from the Desert, Marina shared a snippet of the song's songwriting demo.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. The cover was designed by Speir Graphics. On May 3, a remix featuring Russian punk-rock group, Pussy Riot, was announced by Marina, and then released on the 5th. After the song's release on the 15th, Marina tweeted the official lyrics. Marina went on to reveal the single cover and release date, likely as a result of the early leak. Later the same day, due to a mistake by her team, the official music video was posted to her YouTube before the intended release date, then promptly removed. On April 12, 2021, Marina tweeted "#PURGETHEPOISON" along with a link to " allmyfriendsarewitches" which would sign you up to her mailing list. This was followed by a video in which she played a short snippet of the song's demo, previewing the second verse. The song was written in April 2020, and first teased about a month later on May 14, with Marina posting a photo of herself to her social media with the caption "Purge the Poison".
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