The Choke Artist

In this brutally honest collection of often cringe-inducing episodes, David Yoo perfectly captures the choke artist’s cycle of failure and fear from childhood through adulthood. 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 in order to avoid comparison to former boyfriends, Yoo celebrates and skewers the insecurities of anxious people everywhere.

Massachusetts “Must Read” List, 2013
Finalist, Massachusetts Book Award

Advance Praise:

The Choke Artist is brilliantly sneaky. David Yoo is so funny that sometimes you forget he’s writing about his (and America’s) deepest, most basic fears. In a country that worships success, failure is taboo. Yoo embraces it head-on, his humor leavening yet never concealing the pain of not having enough faith in oneself. (Stewart O’Nan, author of The Odds and Emily, Alone)

I loved this book and couldn’t put it down! It’s raw, startling, laugh-out-loud funny—and ultimately about the irrepressible human spirit. (Amy Chua, Yale Law Professor and author of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother)

Reading The Choke Artist is like watching someone get kicked in the nuts—in a good way. Yoo makes us laugh and wince and relive the horrific, hilarious agony of being young. (Annie Choi, author of Happy Birthday or Whatever)

An admitted rug-humping, shrimpy, underachieving choke artist, David Yoo confesses his deepest darkest, hilariously unattractive and sadly relatable truths. And in turn, sets us all free. (Hilary Winston, author of My Boyfriend Wrote a Book About Me and writer for Community and Happy Endings)

The Choke Artist is daring, alarming, and wickedly funny. Each new episode explores darker territory–shot through with surprising moments of insight, laughter, and light. (Dave Cullen, author of Columbine)

Reviews:

…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. Publishers Weekly (starred review)

David Yoo’s essays in The Choke Artist detail the hilarious agony of being a chronic underachiever. Vanity Fair

Yoo, author of two successful young-adult novels, now proves himself adept, as well, at the autobiographical essay, as this collection of 10 such pieces amply demonstrates. Set mainly during his college years at Skidmore and the 20 years that follow, the essays offer a self-image as a diffident, self-deprecating, well, choke artist, who is positively gifted at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Yoo is what he wryly calls “that rarity, the underachieving Asian-American” (he’s Korean). This manifests itself in various ways: getting bad grades in school, choosing to lose at tennis while appearing to be trying to win, being the last to learn the truth about his preternaturally cheerful college roommate, etc. The book takes on a poignant air when he writes about his failed relationship with his father and concludes with the most interesting essay in the book, about the frustrations of trying to become a writer while working-almost permanently-as a temp! Sometimes a bit slow, this crossover title nevertheless succeeds in its portrait of the author as a young (choke) artist. Booklist

David Yoo’s memoir, The Choke Artist, will make your own childhood blunders seem totally boring. Boston Magazine

Yoo’s first foray into nonfiction possesses the same cringe-inducing, self-deprecating humor evident in his novels.The book’s humor belies a deeper story: that of an insecure child, conscious of his status as the only minority growing up in an all-white, upper middle-class suburb, torn between his desire to cultivate his own identity and his fear of being different. The Daily Beast

For reasons not easily stated, young David Yoo set out to be that rarest of all things, a chronically underachieving Asian-American. As this hilarious memoir demonstrates, he pursued that goal with self-deprecating consistency. Whether sabotaging his dating career, losing on the tennis court, or maintaining invisibility in the classroom, Yoo keeps his eyes on the prize—and avoids it. One early reader describes The Choke Artist as “brilliantly sneaky,” a compliment that even Yoo might appreciate. Barnes & Noble

And while he decidedly and purposefully works to achieve this mediocrity, you can’t help but cheer Yoo on and root for him. Yoo’s constant complaints about his Asian heritage could grow tedious, but his self-deprecating humor and ability to laugh at his own humiliations — and there are many — is endearing and telling of the insecurities we’ve all felt, but rarely admit to having. Some of Yoo’s stories are truly cringe worthy, but, at the same time, they can be laugh-out-loud funny and serve as a reminder that we shouldn’t take ourselves too seriously. Northwest Asian Weekly

Reading this review, one would assume this is a gloomy read. And at times it is, but Yoo’s writing so good, you won’t mind it; there are grim moments in his life, and he freely indulges in self-pity, but recognizes it. Yoo’s very smart, but his disillusionment often blocks him from success. It’s often frustrating to read his passages of when he acknowledges his laziness, but you’re rooting for him because of his insightful voice. A Crowded Bookshelf

David Yoo’s new memoir offers witty and poignant insights about failure, success, standing out and fitting in. The Daily Gazette

With self-deprecating humour, he makes you laugh out loud quite a lot. This is an extremely funny book. The only thing is, halfway through the book, you start to ask yourself: how is this guy ever going to gain any kind of self-esteem with the blows that are dealt him? Is he never going to get a break?…Yoo speaks to the vast majority – people just like him who are coasting along the mid-line, neither outstanding nor really bad. They will read this memoir and sigh in relief that someone out there is even worse off than they are. The Star

More:

Check out David’s interview on WSRQ’s “The Mezz”

Check out David’s interview on NPR’s Tell Me More

Check out David’s setlist for The Choke Artist in Largeharted Boy’s Booknotes

Check out a mention in The Nervous Breakdown

Check out David’s guest blog at Angryasianman

Check out David’s guest blog at Omnivoracious

Check out David’s interview in Hot on the Street