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Happy Birthday or Whatever: Track Suits, Kim Chee, and Other Family Disasters [Paperback]

Annie Choi
4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (45 customer reviews)

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Book Description

April 3, 2007

Meet Annie Choi. She fears cable cars and refuses to eat anything that casts a shadow. Her brother thinks chicken is a vegetable. Her father occasionally starts fires at work. Her mother collects Jesus trading cards and wears plaid like it's a job. No matter how hard Annie and her family try to understand one another, they often come up hilariously short.

But in the midst of a family crisis, Annie comes to realize that the only way to survive one another is to stick together . . . as difficult as that might be. Annie Choi's Happy Birthday or Whatever is a sidesplitting, eye-opening, and transcendent tale of coping with an infuriating, demanding, but ultimately loving Korean family.


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Happy Birthday or Whatever: Track Suits, Kim Chee, and Other Family Disasters + I Love Yous Are for White People: A Memoir (P.S.)
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Editorial Reviews

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 Engberg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

  • Paperback: 256 pages
  • Publisher: Harper Perennial (April 3, 2007)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0061132225
  • ISBN-13: 978-0061132223
  • Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.8 x 0.6 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #859,040 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

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Customer Reviews

How wonderful is it when you read a book that makes you literally laugh out loud. Cashew  |  13 reviewers made a similar statement
This is one of the funniest books I've read in a long time. ShellyCA  |  11 reviewers made a similar statement
Very quick read... Funny yet powerful. BooksRgood  |  10 reviewers made a similar statement
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
24 of 24 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Best First Book I've Ever Written April 1, 2013
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I noticed that on Amazon, authors don't review their own books. I can see why. They don't want to gloat and talk about how amazing their books are or come off as arrogant. No one likes arrogant people. Even arrogant people don't like arrogant people. Truth. But honestly, you guys, this is the best first book I've ever written. I mean that. Even though I have not written any other first books, this one is much, much better than those because 1) it's written and 2) it's the best. This is an iron clad argument.

When my mother read this book, she read half of it (the first half) and got angry (which means it is a good book) and then got angry at my brother for allowing me to write this thing (again, to be clear, this is a good book). My brother wondered how any of this book was his fault. The dirty dishes in the sink are definitely his fault, but this book is not. The book is actually my fault, though I hate to point any fingers. When my mother read the rest of the book (the second half), she was all, ohhhh, I get it. She figured it all out. She realized that I, in fact, love her dearly even though she can be the biggest pain in the ass. My father LOVED this book (because it is the best) and told my mother "Maybe if you were nicer to Annie, she wouldn't have written a book about you." My father is a wise man. He is also a pain in the ass. So in that sense, my mother and father have a lot in common. When my brother read the book he said, "It's OK." Note that this is the highest praise my brother gives across the board. There's "sucks," "I hate it," "This is a mistake," "This should be taken to the streets and tortured in a public forum," and "It's OK." Mike says this book "is OK." For that reason alone, I consider this book a grand achievement. It really is the best first book I've ever written.

The best second book I've ever written is due out July 2013. My mother asked me what the title was, and I said "It's called Shut Up, You're Welcome and she said, "Oh Annie, that's just so rude." Her voice was heavy with disappointment. I said it took me about three years to write it, and she thought that in three years I probably could've found a better title that wasn't so impolite and I said "Did you miss the part where I said 'You're Welcome'?" My brother read the manuscript and said "Yeah, I went through it. It's OK." As you can see, my family is very proud of me and supportive and highly recommends my books.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars great memior...very entertaining April 17, 2007
Format:Paperback
This 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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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Terrific--Poignant and Funny All in One April 30, 2007
Format:Paperback
What a delightful read! Annie Choi writes with warmth and wit as she shares her experience growing up as a Korean-American in Los Angeles. It is a personal story told with self-deprecating humor focusing on her relationship with her mother. Though her Korean-American experience is central to her memoir, it is also the story of many immigrant families attempting to blend traditional customs with the new in a land where so many describe themselves as hyphenated Americans. Annie shows herself to be a rebellious child endlessly arguing with her mother over wearing hand-me-down clothes and being pressured to be the perfect straight "A" student, but as she matures, she develops a deep affection for her mother, her family, and her cultural heritage. I anxiously await her next book!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Love this book!
My daughter bought this book for me a couple of years ago and I laughed til I cried reading it. It was so good I passed it to several friends and it fell apart from overuse. Read more
Published 17 hours ago by Deborah K. Willett
1.0 out of 5 stars yawn
This book was written for those people who are obsessed with Korean Americans. If you your self ARE Korean American you can spend a few hours reminiscing about Saturday school,... Read more
Published 5 days ago by 3beans
4.0 out of 5 stars If you're the child of any FOB - Asian or not - you'll relate to...
Let me preface this by saying that unlike the author, I am not Korean-American, and none of my relatives immigrated to the USA from Asia. Read more
Published 3 months ago by MissAVK
3.0 out of 5 stars Meh
Annie is just about as stereotypical as you could get, in a lot of ways. A vegetarian Berkeley graduate who disappoints her Korean parents, frequently. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Tiffani
5.0 out of 5 stars Great memoir - funny, honest
This is a great memoir. It's light hearted and gripping at the same time. The writing is pure and without pretense. Read more
Published 3 months ago by User4567
5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful tribute to author's mother; very loving and very funny
This is an extremely charming book, and each chapter represents an amusing incident in the author's life. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Ada Ardor
4.0 out of 5 stars It was ok
It was okay but I find didn't like how she went scattered in the subjects... =) I love to read!!!
Published 4 months ago by Maddy Brooke rushing
5.0 out of 5 stars Really funny book
A friend kept trying to relay to me the stories in this book, and though she was cracking up, she was not telling them right! Read more
Published 7 months ago by ShellyCA
5.0 out of 5 stars A book to read a thousand times over
Annie is on par with David Sedaris and Augusten Burroughs. How wonderful is it when you read a book that makes you literally laugh out loud. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Cashew
5.0 out of 5 stars brilliant little book
I came across the genius that is Annie Choi because I am an architect. Annie Choi's life is plagued by architects apparently. So is mine (i hate myself). Read more
Published 11 months ago by michael j
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