The Choke Artist
Confessions of a Chronic Underachiever
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4.2 • 5 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
In this hilarious collection of essays, David Yoo exposes the pain--and the absurdities--of coming of age when you're awkward, insecure, and unable to stop shooting yourself in the foot.
In often cringe-inducing episodes, David Yoo perfectly captures the cycle of failure and fear from childhood through adulthood with brutal honesty Whether he's wearing four layers of clothing to artificially beef up his slim frame, routinely testing highlighters against his forearm to see if he indeed has yellow skin, or preemptively sabotaging promising relationships to avoid being compared to former boyfriends, Yoo celebrates and skewers the insecurities of anxious people everywhere.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Yoo (Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before) is a gifted YA novelist and comic writer who, by his own recollection, has spent his entire life purposefully underachieving in important moments. From struggles with popularity in kindergarten, to the delicate social battles of high school, to the development of his writing career, Yoo has repeatedly self-sabotaged while on the cusp of potential success. But just as readers are ready to dismiss him as a perennial screw-up, he deftly brings his experiences back to the rawness of his family struggles and he articulates that rarest of memoir experiences: a truly poignant, unexpected epiphany. Yoo shares his stories with candor, and the range of topics sexuality, work, sibling rivalry, body image issues, and ethnic identity means readers will never get bored. The essays are well-paced, the delivery is always punchy, and Yoo makes for a sympathetic protagonist. Though at times the themes feel repetitive, it is really more that (like all things in life) his issues overlap. In exorcising these demons, Yoo has crafted a fantastic memoir that will have readers laughing throughout.
Customer Reviews
The Choke Artist
This book takes us all back to those confused times as kids and young adults. Loved reading it. Great job. Would make a hilarious movie!