Features
- Cover Type: Paperback with 256 pages
- Published by: Harper Paperbacks April 3, 2007
- Written in: English
- ISBN 10 Number: 0061132225
- ISBN 13 Number: 978-0061132223
-
Book Dimensions:
7.9 x 5.2 x 0.8 inches
- Weighs: 4 ounces
From Publishers Weekly
Choi's volatile relationship with her domineering, chronically dissatisfied mother is at the heart of this memoir, a funny and often moving account of growing up in a family of Korean immigrants. The parent/child compact in Choi's childhood home was as follows: Mommy and Daddy's job is to take care of the child; the child's job is to study hard, go to
Harvard and become a doctor. But Choi and her mother face each other across a seemingly unbridgeable divide: Annie has little desire to embody traditional Korean feminine virtues (and no desire to be a doctor); her mother—to whom social status is everything—cannot countenance her daughter's "shortcomings." Whether recounting the shame of bringing home a B-plus on a fourth-grade spelling test (a clear indicator that she's destined for an inferior institution) or the greater horror of having to wear Korean clothes to American school ("The fun of soup bring Spring" reads one pair of her tracksuit bottoms), Choi adds acid wit—mixed with compassion—to her descriptions of immigrant life in the San Fernando Valley. This is that rare book that delivers more than it promises; Choi tackles the theme of mother/daughter conflict with grace and humor.
(Apr.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Mining the age-old tensions between mothers and daughters, Choi's strong debut is an uproariously funny memoir of growing up with her Korean American family in Los Angeles. Many stories expose the specific struggles of children of immigrants. When she entered kindergarten, for example, Choi was placed in a remedial learning program because her school didn't have an ESL specialist. Other stories focus on familiar mother-daughter battlegrounds (when her mother asks her to wear an ensemble that Choi describes as "appropriate for Paul Revere's stable boy," she writes, "I felt she had stopped loving me") and on the universal adolescent feelings of a self-described "late bloomer": "Anyone could confuse my back for my chest." From the elementary-school memories of her mother's tough-love academic views--"Don't be baby! You not wear diaper no more. You have to practice so you get A"--to the phone exchanges when college-age Choi learns of her mother's breast cancer, these are indelible, poignant, and often riotously funny scenes of a daughter's frustrations and indestructible love.
Gillian EngbergCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Reader ReviewsThis is a great memoir and really hilarious! Its just as good writing as Augusten Burroughs or David Sedaris, and written in a similar witty and sarcastic tone. But Choi's stories are much more accessible and way easier to relate to, yet the author and her family are still quite crazy in their own way. She has an incredible voice and the dialogue is very funny. My girlfriend read it and she really liked it too. I recently saw her read from the book at Barnes and Noble and it was one of the best readings I've ever been too...very entertaining and she had us all laughing.
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