Shut Up, You're Welcome: Thoughts on Life, Death, and Other Inconveniences
Choi (Happy Birthday or Whatever, 2007) returns with a second collection of essays that once again mines the mother lode of material provided by her relationship with her Korean immigrant parents. Some of their clashes are generational; some are cultural; all are comic gold. As with her first memoir, Choi’s exasperation with her parents is played for laughs—from her father’s stubborn refusal to part with a decrepit kitchen table to the pressure her mother puts on Annie to marry and have kids: “Even nun marry. To God.” Choi is a born storyteller with a fantastic ear for dialogue reminiscent of David Sedaris, including his penchant for comedic exaggeration. Readers will likely be so busy laughing at tales like “Midas Touch,” in which Choi reveals her chemist father’s obsession with gold plating everything he can get his hands on, they’ll scarcely notice the stories frequently fail to make a larger point. With her family providing a never-ending supply of yarns, one suspects Choi has only just begun to scratch the surface of her talent. --Patty Wetli