“It was very apparent that he was really, really, really smart … and that he was going to do big things.” “Anthony was always destined to be greater,” said Lamb. “It was cheap to live in Stockton, so they were able to achieve their American Dream there.”īut the diverse city of more than 300,000 along the San Joaquin River, home to one of the largest Cambodian communities in the country, was too small for her brother’s talents. “What Stockton gave was the ability to learn and grow,” Lamb said. Their parents had fled the Cambodian genocide as teenagers before arriving in the U.S.
Most days, though, they worked at their father’s auto repair store, the inspiration for So’s story “ The Shop.” The So kids spent scorching summer days hanging out in air-conditioned malls, babysitting little cousins and cruising around Stockton eating yogurt and burritos, as Samantha Lamb, So’s older sister, recalled. Like many of the characters in his debut short-story collection “ Afterparties,” Anthony Veasna So had a love-hate relationship with California’s Central Valley. If you buy books linked on our site, The Times may earn a commission from, whose fees support independent bookstores.
