The Choke Artist Confessions of a Chronic Underachiever [Paperback]

In this brutally honest collection of often cringe-inducing episodes, David Yoo perfectly captures the 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 to avoid being compared to former boyfriends, Yoo celebrates and skewers the insecurities of anxious people everywhere.David Yoo is the author of two YA novels,Girls for Breakfast(Delacorte, 2005) andStop Me If You've Heard This One Before(Hyperion, 2008). They have received numerous awards including NYPL Best Book Teen Age Selection and Chicago Public Library's Best of the Best . His fiction and non-fiction have been published in various journals, he writes a monthly column called The World According to Dave, for Koream Journal, the largest Asian American magazine in the U.S. 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 ofEmily, AloneandThe OddsI 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 ofBattle Hymn of the Tiger Mother 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 ofMy Boyfriend Wrote a Book About Meand writer forCommunityandHappy Endings Reading THE CHOKE ARTIST is like watching someolÃ"