Book Review: The Choke Artist by David Yoo

In The Choke Artist, David Yoo (who also writes young adult novels), tells the story of his life as a “choke artist”, or, as he puts it in the subtitle “a chronic underachiever”. Yoo, whose parents are Korean, grew up in a town in Connecticut where his family was one of very few that weren’t White. Yoo has a complex relationship with this ethnicity and culture. His older sister is a “model Asian child” – overachieving in everything – and Yoo also reacts against her.

Yoo, at the time where the book is set, is in his late 20s. He is still working temp jobs while trying to be a writer. For much of the book, he’s trying to find a girlfriend and trying to find himself. The Choke Artist is quite funny in parts and moving in other parts. I quite liked it.

Note: Although Yoo writes young adult novels, this book seems intended for adults. There’s a lot of description of sexual matters and so on.