{"id":24,"date":"2012-04-17T02:54:36","date_gmt":"2012-04-17T02:54:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.daveyoo.com\/author\/?page_id=24"},"modified":"2014-02-03T23:57:15","modified_gmt":"2014-02-03T23:57:15","slug":"the-choke-artist","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/daveyoo.com\/author\/bookstore\/adults\/the-choke-artist\/","title":{"rendered":"The Choke Artist"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"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.<\/p>\n

Massachusetts “Must Read” List, 2013<\/strong><\/em>
\nFinalist, Massachusetts Book Award<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Advance Praise:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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<\/em> and Emily, Alone<\/em>)<\/strong><\/p>\n

I loved this book and couldn’t put it down! It’s raw, startling, laugh-out-loud funny\u2014and ultimately about the irrepressible human spirit. (Amy Chua, Yale Law Professor and author of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother<\/em>)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Reading The Choke Artist is like watching someone get kicked in the nuts\u2014in 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<\/em>)<\/strong><\/p>\n

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<\/em> and writer for Community<\/em> and Happy Endings<\/em>)<\/strong><\/p>\n

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<\/em>)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Reviews:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

…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\u2014sexuality, work, sibling rivalry, body image issues, and ethnic identity\u2014means 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)<\/strong><\/p>\n

David Yoo’s essays in The Choke Artist<\/em> detail the hilarious agony of being a chronic underachiever. Vanity Fair<\/strong><\/p>\n

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<\/strong><\/p>\n

David Yoo\u2019s memoir, The Choke Artist<\/em>, will make your own childhood blunders seem totally boring. Boston Magazine<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Yoo\u2019s first foray into nonfiction possesses the same cringe-inducing, self-deprecating humor evident in his novels.The book\u2019s 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<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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\u2014and avoids it. One early reader describes The Choke Artist as “brilliantly sneaky,” a compliment that even Yoo might appreciate. Barnes & Noble<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

And while he decidedly and purposefully works to achieve this mediocrity, you can\u2019t help but cheer Yoo on and root for him. Yoo\u2019s constant complaints about his Asian heritage could grow tedious, but his self-deprecating humor and ability to laugh at his own humiliations \u2014 and there are many \u2014 is endearing and telling of the insecurities we\u2019ve all felt, but rarely admit to having. Some of Yoo\u2019s 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\u2019t take ourselves too seriously. Northwest Asian Weekly<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Reading this review, one would assume this is a gloomy read. And at times it is, but Yoo\u2019s writing so good, you won\u2019t mind it; there are grim moments in his life, and he freely indulges in self-pity, but recognizes it. Yoo\u2019s very smart, but his disillusionment often blocks him from success. It\u2019s often frustrating to read his passages of when he acknowledges his laziness, but you\u2019re rooting for him because of his insightful voice. A Crowded Bookshelf<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

David Yoo\u2019s new memoir offers witty and poignant insights about failure, success, standing out and fitting in. The Daily Gazette<\/strong><\/p>\n

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 \u2013 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<\/a><\/p>\n

More:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Check out David’s interview on WSRQ’s “The Mezz<\/a>”<\/p>\n

Check out David’s interview on NPR’s Tell Me More<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Check out David’s setlist for The Choke Artist<\/em> in Largeharted Boy’s Booknotes<\/a><\/p>\n

Check out a mention in The Nervous Breakdown<\/a><\/p>\n

Check out David’s guest blog at Angryasianman<\/a><\/p>\n

Check out David’s guest blog at Omnivoracious<\/a><\/p>\n

Check out David’s interview in Hot on the Street<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":16,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-24","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/daveyoo.com\/author\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/24","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/daveyoo.com\/author\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/daveyoo.com\/author\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daveyoo.com\/author\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daveyoo.com\/author\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24"}],"version-history":[{"count":40,"href":"https:\/\/daveyoo.com\/author\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/24\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":407,"href":"https:\/\/daveyoo.com\/author\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/24\/revisions\/407"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daveyoo.com\/author\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/16"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/daveyoo.com\/author\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}