Publishers Weekly
★ 10/16/2023
This magnificent posthumous collection by So (Afterparties), who died in 2020, brings together the short story writer’s essays and excerpts from his unfinished novel. In “Journey to a Land Free of White People,” So discusses his ambivalence about the film Crazy Rich Asians, recounting the “tenderness I felt watching” a set of “wildly different” Asian characters represented on screen while criticizing the film’s ending as a facile reconciliation of the “cultural contradictions” between the female protagonist’s Asian American upbringing and her boyfriend’s Singaporean family. “Baby Yeah,” the compendium’s most intimate essay, is a visceral meditation on So’s struggle to cope with the suicide of a close friend from his creative writing program: “What is remembering other than revitalizing a corpse that will return to its grave?” Chapters from Straight Thru Cambotown, the novel So was working on at the time of his death, focus on a Cambodian neighborhood in Los Angeles County shaken by the sudden death of Ming Peou, a pillar of the community and organizer of its unofficial bank. So’s distinctive voice blends mordant cultural criticism with a striking combination of humor, compassion, and insight. This is a bittersweet testament to an astounding talent. (Dec.)
From the Publisher
"This posthumous collection of stories and essays affirms [So's] versatility, secures his legacy, and bittersweetly reminds us of what could have been." — The Millions
"Anthony Veasna So’s talent for evoking the anxieties, longings, and memories of diasporic Cambodian Americans — on voluptuous display in his posthumously published short story collection “Afterparties” — is put to vivid use in this new collection of delicately hinged essays that address everything from “deep reality TV” to So’s stint as an art student." — Boston Globe
“It seems impossible to read these excerpts without wishing for more—from these characters, from this narrative, for this author. . . .Another posthumous publication from a writer who was only just discovering his brilliance.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Before his death in 2020 at 28, Cambodian American writer So was poised for greatness on a number of fronts: He was an irreverent writer about immigrant enclaves, queer life and the Bay Area’s nether reaches. [Songs on Endless Repeat]. . .demonstrate[s] he was also a stellar cultural critic in the making.” — Los Angeles Times
“So’s essays resonate with vulnerable eloquence, but his potency lies in storytelling, effortlessly creating immersive worlds animated by familiar, vital characters, their vibrancy further magnifying the poignant loss of what could have been.” — Booklist
"Magnificent. . . . So’s distinctive voice blends mordant cultural criticism with a striking combination of humor, compassion, and insight. This is a bittersweet testament to an astounding talent." — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“In both his fiction and nonfiction, So’s generous writing spirit shines through, capturing a community of people in flux, all of whom are trying to make space for themselves—and each other—in a sometimes-claustrophobic world.” — Daneet Steffens, The Boston Globe
“Pieces originally published in the New Yorker, n+1 and elsewhere seamlessly integrate his Cambodian American family, California upbringing, queer identity and personal relationships both romantic and platonic. So’s work defines a life of longing — and will leave you longing for more.” — Bethanne Patrick, Los Angeles Times
“Following up his award-nominated collection of stories is this fantastic anthology of essays (with a few stories mixed in) about queer life, race, family, his refugee parents, growing up in California, culture, and more.” — Liberty Hardy, BookRiot
“This posthumous collection of stories and essays includes already published pieces and new fiction, all written with razor-sharp wit. Mining his youth in California and the lives of his refugee parents, Songs on Endless Repeat is full of vivid explorations of family, queer desire, pop culture, race and more.” — Sarah Stievfvater, Purewow
“Shrewd, funny, inviting, and enlightening.” — Arianna Rebolini, Bustle
“Songs on Endless Repeat. . .displays many of the same coruscating traits as Afterparties: a pitch-perfect ear for dialogue, a knack for pungent prose and a large-hearted capacity to commune with people across what So calls the ‘Cambo proh racial complex spectrum.’. . . So was that rarest of species: not just a novelist, but a formidable critic.” — Los Angeles Times
“The late Anthony Veasna So was capable of so much more literary brilliance, a fact made abundantly clear by this posthumously published collection of essays and fiction. It’s impossible to not grieve the loss of So, a San Francisco writer and Stockton native who died at age 28 in 2020, months before the publication of his debut story collection, but this book leaves readers with a lasting impression of the Cambodian American author’s wicked sense of humor and wide-open heart.” — San Francisco Chronicle
“An emotional, incisive collection.” — New York magazine
“Terrific. . . . So's novel recaptures all the elements that made Afterparties a bestseller. He observes his characters with a sharp eye and deep affection. His turns of phrase are brilliant, hilarious, at times profane and always whip-smart. . . . Songs on Endless Repeat is not to be missed.” — Star Tribune
“[T]he essays and short fiction in this second collection have the same crisp humor and edgy vulnerability that made his first an instant best seller…So’s true art lives on inside his books, now an everlasting loop that will never get old." — Elisabeth Egan, New York Times
The Millions
This posthumous collection of stories and essays affirms [So’s] versatility, secures his legacy, and bittersweetly reminds us of what could have been.”
DECEMBER 2023 - AudioFile
It's impossible to hear this posthumously released collection of essays and fiction without heartbreak, knowing it will be So's last. Keong Sim narrates it expertly, infusing it with the electric energy, wry humor, and curiosity that defined So's first story collection, AFTERPARTIES. The fiction pieces, from his unfinished novel STRAIGHT THRU CAMBOTOWN, are full of that same unique energy, and Sim captures it beautifully. Three Cambodian American cousins who are grieving the death of their beloved aunt come to life in So's vivid, fiery prose and Sim's spirited narration. The essays cover a wide range of topics, from pop culture to So's hometown of Stocktown, California. A powerful and moving collection from a writer whose small body of work is an essential contribution to Asian American literature. L.S. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2023-09-09
Fragments from an unfinished life.
In his first book of stories, Afterparties, Veasna So (1992-2020) took readers to California’s Central Valley to explore the lives of second-generation Cambodian Americans and their parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles—people who fled their home during the Khmer Rouge’s campaign of genocide during the 1970s. Sadly, the author did not live to see his debut become a critical and commercial success. This anthology is a collection of writings he left behind, a mix of fiction and nonfiction, some previously published, some appearing for the first time. The essays cover a broad range of topics. In tone, they range from the thoroughly personal to the erudite, and the fact that the most scholarly piece is about reality TV says a lot about this writer’s ability to mix so-called high and low style. There’s a lot happening in this critique, but one anecdote stands out: Veasno So’s description of watching Queer Eye for the Straight Guy’s food-and-wine expert crown the homecoming king and queen at Syracuse University—an event that would have been surreal even if the author hadn’t been high on poppers. An astute, heartfelt review of the film Crazy Rich Asians, written for n+1, begins with a paragraph that is, all by itself, a tiny masterpiece. “Baby Yeah” is about the author’s love of Pavement and a friend who took his own life, and reading it knowing that he lost his own life to an accidental drug overdose is devastating. Most of the fiction here is from Straight Thru Cambotown, the novel Veasna So was working on at the time of his death. It seems impossible to read these excerpts without wishing for more—from these characters, from this narrative, for this author.
Another posthumous publication from a writer who was only just discovering his brilliance.
