Queer Book Club | Busboys and Poets Book Club
Date and Time
May 28, 2023 6:00 pm
Location
Takoma
235 Carroll St NW, Washington, District of Columbia, 20012
May 28, 2023 6:00 pm
Takoma
For the month of May, in honor of National Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, immerse yourself in Cambodian-American life and gain profound insight into the intimacy of queer and immigrant communities through Afterparties: Stories by Anthony Veasna So.
"One of the most exciting contributions to Asian American literature in recent years...These stories are funny without being satirical, refreshingly realist, and generous in their levity." -- Vulture
You can pick it up at any Busboys bookstore or wherever books are sold, including through our Bookshop.org page. This book is also available from our partners at Libro.fm as an audiobook- please choose whichever form is most convenient for you!
Afterparties - 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. 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.
A high school badminton coach and failing grocery store owner tries to relive his glory days by beating a rising star teenage player. Two drunken brothers attend a wedding afterparty and hatch a plan to expose their shady uncle's snubbing of the bride and groom. 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. And in the sweeping final story, a nine-year-old child learns that his mother survived a racist school shooter.
The stories in Afterparties, "powered by So's skill with the telling detail, are like beams of wry, affectionate light, falling from different directions on a complicated, struggling, beloved American community" (George Saunders).
Nathan (they/them) is the Bookstore Supervisor at Busboys Takoma, and is thrilled to be moving and expanding their long-running Ace and Aro Book Club over to Busboys. They are an event organizer with Aces and Aros of the Mid-atlantic, which is cosponsoring this club. They are a life-long resident of Washington, DC and are most passionate about reading science fiction, horror, fantasy, queer theory, and queer romance - but this book club will not be limited by their tastes!
