Afterparties
Anthony Veasna So
Ecco: 2021
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In Anthony Veasna So’s ‘Superking Son Scores Again’, an adult narrator reflects on his high school years, when he and his Cambodian-Californian friends live for badminton. As the narrator remembers—and he seems reliable enough—they idolise their coach, Superking Son, even though he spends his time consumed by his responsibilities at the grocery store and smells ‘of raw chicken, raw chicken feet, raw cow, raw cow tongue, raw fish, raw squid, raw crab, raw pig, raw pig intestine, and raw—like really raw—pig blood’. In time, a new team member, Justin, calls everybody’s bluff by challenging Superking Son’s coaching and playing ways—and therefore his sense of self. Although the story plays out predictably enough, So hyper-animates it. For all the cutting humour, the effect is empathetic.

• Tags: Anthony Veasna So, Cambodia, Issue 24, Patrick Allington