I think the person who recommended this book to me thought I would really relate to the author, who, like me, was also born in 1976 to a couple who recently immigrated from South Korea to Southern California. But really, I didn't. Some of her stories sounded familiar to Margaret Cho, who I actually adore. But this subject does not appeal to me in a memoir. This is just something my friends and I laugh over a couple of pitchers of Hite and soju cocktails. Actually, I spent most of the book wondering how two similar beginnings could have two such different outcomes. ( )

definitely made me laugh in some parts, but i guess reading a memoir is kind of like meeting someone new, you're not always going to become friends, and that's fine ( )

Humorous essays about growing up Korean-American in LA. Definitely a few laugh-out-loud moments. Concentrates mostly on mother-daughter relationship and differences. ( )

This book was so-so. It wasn't the best memoir I've ever read but it certainly wasn't the worst (COUGH [b:Klonopin Lunch: A Memoir|13153472|Klonopin Lunch A Memoir|Jessica Dorfman Jones|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1333576864s/13153472.jpg|18331644] COUGH).

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. There were some cute essays that really make you adore her parents, but she herself sounds like a very boring person to know.

She wrote about trips to Korea that she didn't appreciate, she wrote about family functions that made herself out to be a really spoiled bratty woman. (She threw fits about not getting to have her coffee, argued with her Mom about dressing conservatively to family functions). She really ended up coming off fairly unlikable.

That being said, I grew up around a fair amount of Korean families and friends. So there were many parts of the book that were funny, endearing or just awkward enough to make you chuckle. I'd say that anyone who has had experience/exposure to cultural flubs will enjoy this book a lot more than those who haven't.
( )

There's nothing wrong with this book, which is a collection of aurobiographical stories about growing up as a first-generation Korean in the U.S. There also isn't much to make the book exceptional. With the emphasis on the family's purportedly hilarious yet incessant sniping and bickering, it is somewhat monotonous. Where Choi manages to bring some emotional complexity to the work, in recounting some of the events related to her mother's health, she is a pale imitation of Amy Tan, who told very much the same story but in a much more compelling manner in 1989's The Joy Luck Club. Choi is not a bad writer, but despite a certain gloss, she comes off as a young writer. Since she is young, perhaps her style will mature. She has the misfortune to have come of age in an era in which prematurely world-weary authors posture about what their 26 years on the planet have taught them. It is ultimately tiresome. ( )