This was hilarious and depressing. A look into a life that was completely alien to me. Kind of embarrassing to say that I'm 44 and I really only have ever had three or four Asian friends and two or three of those were coworkers. It's not like I was pre-screening or anything but it just seemed to work out that way. So I had no idea of the struggles of Asian Americans growing up surrounded by white people. It's funny that the author talks about trying to distance himself from the Asian stereotypes because I've definitely met a couple of Asians whom I thought acted completely outrageous and I assumed it was so they would appear more "American". Because let's face it, Americans are pretty outrageous.

Anyway, there are many laugh out loud and cringe-worthy moments and even a couple really sad moments. Toward the end it started getting pretty depressing as the author/protagonist got older and older and his life wasn't going anywhere. The ending was fairly uplifting though so that helped. ( )

Don't let the innocent-looking boy on the cover of David Yoo's The Choke Artist: Confessions of a Chronic Underachiever fool you into thinking this hilarious memoir of coming of age Asian in a sea of white faces is for the same audiences as his YA novels, Girls for Breakfast and Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before, or his middle-grade novel, The Detention Club. The cringe-worthy comedy of The Choke Artist gets pretty graphic with its escalating, self-deprecating true confessions, ranging from high school through his post-college years. It is definitely adult reading! Perhaps perfect for the "New Adult" audience, but its themes of identity and belonging will resonate with adults of all ages.
Longer review at Bay State Reader's Advisory blog. ( )