Happy Birthday or Whatever : Track Suits, Kim Chee, and Other Family Disasters
Author(s): Annie Choi
“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.... [T]hese are indelible, poignant, and often riotously funny scenes of a daughter’s frustrations and indestructible love.” — Booklist
A humorous story about the relationship between a first generation Korean-American and her parents, an alternately funny and poignant narrative showing how it feels to have one foot firmly planted on each side of the Pacific Ocean.
Annie Choi’s very Korean mother never stopped annoying her thoroughly Americanized daughter. Growing up near Los Angeles, Annie was continually exasperated by both her mother’s typical Korean harangues—you must get all As and attend Harvard—and non-so-typical eccentricities: stuffing the house with tacky Pope paraphernalia.
But when Annie’s mother is diagnosed with breast cancer, the uneasy relationship between mother and daughter changes. Choi’s witty and accessible prose will appeal to any daughter of immigrants, and to anyone who’s had a challenging relationship with their mother.
Review(s):
“A fresh, funny memoir that echoes the generation—and culture-clash anecdotes of fellow Korean American Margaret Cho…Choi is a gifted and witty writer.”
“Hilarious and heartfelt—an exasperated valentine to Annie Choi’s unforgettable family.”
“[A] funny and often moving account of growing up in a family of Korean immigrants...Choi adds acid wit—mixed with compassion—to her descriptions of immigrant life in the San Fernando Valley. This is the rare book that delivers more than it promises; Choi tackles the theme of mother/daughter conflict with grace and humor.”
“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.... [T]hese are indelible, poignant, and often riotously funny scenes of a daughter’s frustrations and indestructible love.”
“Choi’s meditation about her mother’s breast cancer is tender, and her discussion of the pressure she feels to get married is laugh-out-loud funny.”
“If you don’t adore Annie Choi’s charming and thoroughly engaging memoir, chock full o’ her lovable, oddball family, then you are, in her mother’s words, just plain ‘stupy’!”
“Annie Choi’s memoir is a fantastically personal piece devoted to her mother’s strength and idiosyncrasies, as well as her own struggle to form an identity apart from her close-knit Korean heritage.”
ISBN: 9780061132223