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Fresh Off the Boat: A Memoir
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Fresh Off the Boat: A Memoir
Unavailable
Fresh Off the Boat: A Memoir
Audiobook7 hours

Fresh Off the Boat: A Memoir

Written by Eddie Huang

Narrated by Eddie Huang

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

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Currently unavailable

Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

NOW AN ORIGINAL SERIES ON ABC • "Just may be the best new comedy of [the year] . . . based on restaurateur Eddie Huang's memoir of the same name . . . [a] classic fresh-out-of-water comedy."-People

"Bawdy and frequently hilarious . . . a surprisingly sophisticated memoir about race and assimilation in America . . . as much James Baldwin and Jay-Z as Amy Tan . . . rowdy [and] vital . . . It's a book about fitting in by not fitting in at all."-Dwight Garner, The New York Times

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY KIRKUS REVIEWS

Assimilating ain't easy. Eddie Huang was raised by a wild family of FOB ("fresh off the boat") immigrants-his father a cocksure restaurateur with a dark past back in Taiwan, his mother a fierce protector and constant threat. Young Eddie tried his hand at everything mainstream America threw his way, from white Jesus to macaroni and cheese, but finally found his home as leader of a rainbow coalition of lost boys up to no good: skate punks, dealers, hip-hop junkies, and sneaker freaks. This is the story of a Chinese-American kid in a could-be-anywhere cul-de-sac blazing his way through America's deviant subcultures, trying to find himself, ten thousand miles from his legacy and anchored only by his conflicted love for his family and his passion for food. Funny, moving, and stylistically inventive, Fresh Off the Boat is more than a radical reimagining of the immigrant memoir-it's the exhilarating story of every American outsider who finds his destiny in the margins.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateJan 29, 2013
ISBN9780385363662
Unavailable
Fresh Off the Boat: A Memoir

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Reviews for Fresh Off the Boat

Rating: 3.6099475078534033 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

191 ratings32 reviews

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  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    It was more personal memoir than food memoir. Eddie is young and energetic and impressed with his mastery of the language of the things he loves - rap music, street culture, sports, sneakers... His love for food comes up from time to time, but is not the focus. I was saddened by some of his misogynistic turns of phrase especially after recounting a self-directed education that indicates that he knows better.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Love him or hate him - you can't deny that Eddie Huang has an original voice all his own. Most of the hip hop references went right over my head - but you get the gist of where he's going. His perspective on being Asian American is eye opening and in-your-face.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I got this through Early Reviewers, and I am a horrible person as I completely forgot to post a review! I very much enjoyed this book. He is a really interesting guy. I liked that he talked to you like a person, that you knew what he was referencing and had a shared history of sorts.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is a title for an older teen that enjoys a slightly more thinking read. Huang is a young chef. This book is his an interesting recollection of his childhood in Florida. Funny, kind of sad and irreverent, this would be good for those who enjoy the likes of Tony Boudain and other TV celebri-chefs. I'd have read this as a teen-- probably during math class, actually. Eddie Huang would appreciate that kind of thing.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Heard about it from a friend who is taking an East Asian Literature studies class and I was definitely not disappointed. You can hear genuine emotion in Eddie's voice as he reads through the book and it was exactly how an audio book should sound: spoken with clarity and authenticity. I loved diving right into the story and being immersed into Eddie's world. Thank you for such a great piece of art! Thoroughly enjoyed listening to this.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    excellent book read by the author. if you are a first-generation American, the stories are really relatable.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This is the first time in a long time that I've read a book in which I literally did not understand some of the sentences, a lot of the slang, and a great deal of the culture -- which makes perfect sense, when I think about it, and only adds to the book's raw style. There were a lot of painful, awful things in this book, and while I didn't really enjoy reading them, I did feel like I learned a lot from hearing Huang's perspective.

    I hope the statute of limitations has run out for his various criminal activities, and that his brash successes continue.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A deep look at race, coming of age, and hip hop... with some weed thrown in. Eddie did a great job reading this. unforgettable.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I really enjoyed the book, it was intriguing, I enjoyed the hustle mentality he had and from hitting rock bottom to ending up on top
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Freaking funny!! You will learn a bit about Chinese food and a lot about Eddie Huang. A very entertaining read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Good to hear another Chinese voice in the American wild, though there are some differences between the author's and my experiences.But there are similarities, too. The author was teased and bullied in school, like I was, and the school/teachers were no help, same with my case. So that definitely struck a chord in me.I enjoyed all the talk about food and cooking, and although I can't cook, I definitely know how to eat.I don't go crazy for rap and hip-hop, but I do like some of it, and grew up during the same era. I was aware of the feud between Tupac and Biggie, and was pretty shocked when Tupac died.Our luck with parents were the same, and both my parents believe in corporal punishment, though I never went as far as he did (obviously; was not convicted of anything), and my parents never struck it rich (my parents were solidly middle-class).Anyway, I understood his identity crisis because I felt and experienced the same thing. But he must have worked a lot harder than I did during college, despite being wild and crazy, 'cause he got into law school and I don't dare show my transcript to anyone.All in all, good, solid book, and I do recommend it, especially to anyone who wants to understand the Chinese-American experience a little better.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I don't believe Eddie Huang and I would get along in real life. He seems too steeped in drugs, too self-righteous, too violent, way too quick to take offense. And not terribly clear sighted: Orlando, back in the 1990s and now, is not, by any stretch, "the South." Granted maybe some of his uber-Christian private schools had more of a Confederate vibe, but other schools he mentioned, no way, and definitely not neighborhoods like Idylwild either. (As he might phrase it, cot damn, son, sometimes you find what you looking for even when it's not really there.) That said, I found the book to be worth reading, and not just because he named places and people I knew. Huang has interesting observations about racism, about food, about the value of a liberal education. I see where some of his rage comes from, and I now "get" why a rich Asian suburban kid would identify so strongly with Tupac. The writing varies dramatically from street lingo to rhapsodical food descriptions to academic allusions, and the tale leaps from Washington DC to Orlando to Pittsburgh to NYC without much warning. But one thing this memoir isn't is boring.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Not very often am I hooked from the first line, but Eddie Huang did just that. This was definitely the most exciting, enticing, and hilarious memoir I've read this year. Eddie recounts his childhood as an American born Chinese and all the cultural differences between him and "normal" Americans. In this country it can be tough to be different; Eddie recounts the experiences bringing "stinky" Chinese food to school, getting in fights, relating to hip hop, and having to deal with stereotypes. Times were tough in high school and college, but he was an exceptional student so even though he got into a lot of trouble, teachers saw potential in him and helped him as much as they could. Although he finished law school he still wasn't happy; not until he opened up his own restaurant in New York did Eddie feel he made it and felt like a true American, living the dream.Listening to the audiobook was a real treat, as it was narrated by the author himself. Eddie has a hilarious and yet serious narration of his memoir, plus has the ability to start yelling in Chinese when he's describing his mother (hilarious). This is a great book for everyone. There is stuff for foodies, hip hop aficionados, American minorities, sports fans, memoir junkies and more. Truly a great read!
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Eddie has an interesting story to tell but I can't really relate to the culture. By that I mean the Hip Hop culture not the Chinese culture. He does recount some interesting misadventures but I didn't find it as humorous as I had expected.
    I received my copy free in a Goodreads giveaway.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book, which I received as a Goodreads giveaway, was really surprising. The author, Eddie Huang, runs a successful Chinese sandwich shop in New York. But his path to success wasn't easy. He grew up with parents who were first generation Chinese and they had some harsh views of how to raise a child. In addition, Eddie had to deal with people constantly making fun of his chineseness while he was growing up in Orlando. The things that made sense to him and gave him a feeling of belonging was basketball, food and hip-hop music. He followed these passions through a delinquent childhood and teenage years but found a path by following the values his parents instilled in him about working hard and being capable. He tests paths as an attorney and as a street wear designer. But ultimately lands on opening a restaurant as the best path for him.
    The style of this book is really interesting. It is written in a hip-hop slang voice, sprinkled with chinese. One of my favorite stylistic moments is when Huang is discussing one of the christian schools his parents sent him to and he mentions a book the teacher pushed on him about "Joseph, Mary and Big Baby Jesus", Huang then drops a footnote to Big Baby Jesus that says "RIP ODB".
    The mixture of hip-hop culture with Chinese color is something that I think could only happen in America. Huang struggles with his American identity because of the racism he often faces, but I still think that this is a truly American story.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I think I'm too old for this kind of writing style, yo bro...
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Eddie Huang's early-career memory is a highly engaging and personable telling of his story, and makes it much more easy to empathize with his thinking than, say, his web videos or magazine columns. It's an interesting history of the contemporary immigrant experience, and Huang's discussions of cultural identity and critique of the "model minority" system make a productive addition to the discussions of race in America that have characterized the period after 9/11, the first Obama term, and Django Unchained.However, Huang's assumptions about other identities and macho posturing are highly grating. He is also outright wrong about a few elements of Chinese food history, and refuses entirely to admit that members of other ethnicities might appreciate on the proper terms the cuisines and cultures of others. Nevertheless, it does all end up entertaining; if only Huang could be a little bit more tolerant of the ideas and experiences of others.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    The story of a first generation Asian boy growing up in an atmosphere of racism. Rebelling against a culture that wants to put him in box, he turns to a life of drugs and petty crime. In the end, food is what brings him back to himself. This is the story of his coming of age.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    My friend read the print version of this book and quite liked it, so I thought I'd give the audio book a try. Boy am I glad I did. The author, Eddie Huang, narrates his own audio book and I'm going to be totally honest and say that I can imagine listening to anyone else read it. What I liked about the audio book (ignoring the text itself) was all the little things that Huang's reading added. His laughter/giggling, some of his commentary (that's obviously not in the print version) and the sound of his voice. It's almost as if it was meant to be listened to, instead of read. As for the content of the book -- it's fascinating. His life proves to be endlessly interesting, entertaining and at times rather heartbreaking. I liked the way Huang talks about his family (even when he's upset with/at them) as well as the way he loves food and conveys that love throughout his whole life (doing a great job of showing us how much he loved it without actually realizing it until later). Once I finished the book, I immediately wanted to go to NYC and eat at his restaurant. A great, fun listen. I'm glad I took the chance on this audio book.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A very funny, well written and engrossing book about a loving and dysfunctional Chinese family trying to find their way in America. Anyone who grew up in a third world home, and stepped out into first world America every morning will appreciate this book, be they Chinese, Latino, Irish or Pakistani. His childhood is filled with love, confusion, sadness, irony and a lot of humor. This book clearly and lovingly conveys the struggles and hard earned successes of growing up in the states. It does a wonderful job at staying light and humorous with funny stories about his family. I loved the Chinese dialogue, and non-Chinese readers will appreciate his translations. The scenes with his parents are hilarious. Eddie and his family are both fascinated and appalled by America, especially the food. His descriptions of Asian and American food are delightful and it is obvious that food is a friend and refuge. Chief Huang’s love of the smells, textures and symbolism of food have even influenced his writing. He is also very adept at diving deeply and letting you see feel the pain and loneliness that permeated almost every day of his life, but he does not stay submerged for too long and laughs are frequent. The novel adroitly tells the story of the family’s immigration from China to Orlando Florida in the mid 1980’s. And while it may seem like a family’s story on the surface, it is really about a confused little boy who grows into a pissed off young man trying to survive in multiple worlds – his home, America, Asian friendships, non-Asian-friendships, relationships and more. I grew up in Bronx, New York, and in our black and tan neighborhoods we were safe, everyone was the same, not true for people like Eddie Huang. He was never safe. The book clearly relays the bigotry and prejudice Asians have endured in America, and it made me look at the immigrant experience through different eyes. Huang’s voice is casual and rough but capable of passionate and tight prose reminiscent of Junot Diaz, the Dominican-American writer. From their casual regional English to their mutual understanding of the hilarious irony of real life. Unfortunately, Mr. Huang uses street slang a little too often. Sometimes the vernacular language is unfamiliar and confusing. I would be happily reading when suddenly I’d read a phrase and jerk to a suddenly stop. Luckily it did not happen often. I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend it, and I will certainly be checking out this authors next book.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I received an advance copy of Fresh Off the Boat through a Goodreads giveaway.

    The readers who will most enjoy this book will be those who already know of Eddie Huang, the young, brash, and outspoken owner of a Taiwanese bao shop in New York, called Baohaus. But even if you’re not familiar with Eddie, the book is still a pretty interesting coming of age tale told in an engaging manner.

    I first became aware of Eddie when I stumbled onto his blog and tweets a year or two ago, and have caught some of his articles/interviews in a few other outlets ever since. What you’ll get in Fresh Off the Boat is really a more in-depth development of the themes that he’s been training his eye on aboard those other platforms: food (of course), but also sports, music, culture, and Asian-American identity, plus ways in which these issues intersect or collide. The examination of these issues is all the more interesting because it’s filtered through Eddie’s unique voice, one that’s smart-alecky, slangy, hip hop-inflected, and thoughtful all rolled into one.

    The book focuses on Eddie’s childhood in the suburbs of Virginia and Florida, the experience of growing up in an immigrant family, struggles to break out of “model minority” stereotypes, being an obnoxious kid dealing drugs and getting into fights, discovering his voice in an English lit course, becoming a lawyer for minute, all the way to the opening of the first Baohaus, with some anecdotes of defining “food moments” thrown in as well.

    The book reads as if your wise-ass friend is just hanging out and shooting the shit with you, telling you about what shaped him as a person. It’s not especially deep (even though you see glimpses of depth) and, at times, it could’ve been more coherent as he jumps from one issue and incident to another, but since the book was a brisk read, the positives mostly outweigh the negatives. He mixes it up so the book doesn’t feel one-note. Sometimes the tone is light and playful—his asterisked footnotes calling back to lyrics from hip songs or just making a random, foolish comment are hilarious; other times the tone is earnest, especially in his struggles with his identity and wondering whether there was room for a kid like him to fit in.

    My favorite parts of the book are when he talks about food, including an explanation of the nuances of a simple bowl of noodles in Taipei, a joke about how you just needed to add bread to any ethnic food and white people would feel comfortable with it, and the rationale behind his disdain for chefs who take another culture’s cuisine and say that they’re going to “elevate” it. You can really feel his respect for cooking and for food.

    Meanwhile, the chronicle of Eddie’s troubles in school with the fights and attitude problems was a bit too drawn out for my tastes, but that’s probably because I couldn’t relate. It’s a memoir though, so who am I to say which parts of his life are more or less important to focus on? I did kind of wish we got more insight into his time building up Baohaus and then his other short-lived restaurant, but instead the books ends when Baohaus first becomes a success. Maybe that’ll be Fresh Off the Boat, part 2? The guy is still pretty young after all.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I requested this book from the Early Reviewer program, because I like a good food memoir, but this was so much more than that. Huang writes about growing up in the South as the child of Chinese immigrants (not that easy, as you may imagine). He was a kind of wild kid, and the book definitely has a Bildungsroman quality, which I loved. I really appreciated how direct Huang was in his discussion of race, especially about racism again Asian Americans, which I feel like you virtually never hear discussed. Our life experiences are very different - I'm sure I missed a lot of the Hip Hop references and I only know who a few of the basketball players that Huang discussed are, but his desire to learn and to figure things out definitely resonated with me. I really like the book.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I received Fresh Off The Boat, by Eddie Huang as an advance Readers Addition from Librarything. It is a raw memoir, foodie review, immigrant, abusive family story, and I'm not sure what else. A very different book for me, the hip hop language was really difficult for this 50 something year old to understand, and he came across as crude and angry with us much of the time, I see where the book description comes off calling him controversial. Not that we shouldn't be brought to task for our racism and good old boy networks, but it was about a life within this country that I'm mostly insulated from in the midwest. But his food descriptions and his basic survival intellegence kept me coming back. I'd never heard of him but now I'd like to taste that food he so wonderfully describes, and I'm certainly impressed that he had the ambition & smarts to put himself through law school, but not impressed that the $$$ came from questionably legal activities.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    When I was in grad school, I chose to concentrate on a fairly little-known and growing area of literature: immigrant literature with a focus on Asian American writing by the first and second generations. There was actually a decent amount of beautifully written, amazing works that detailed the difficult position of being Asian American in a Caucasian majority society. The books tackled the sometimes self-perpetuating myth of the model minority as versus reality, the overt and hidden racism faced by those fresh off the boat as well as those Americans born and raised in the US, and the challenges of a hyphenated existence amongst a society that frequently still isn't fully accepting. The books also raised the issue of difference between the desires, goals, and asperations of first and second generations Asian Americans. So Eddie Huang's memoir Fresh Off the Boat, about growing up as the child of Taiwanese Chinese immigrants to the US should have been right up my alley. Unfortunately it was anything but.Huang seems to think that he's the only one to ever rebel against the model minority stereotype or at least the only one to do so successfully on his own terms. The tone of the book is condescending with Huang coming off as always certain of his superiority. Frankly this attitude was wearying and unearned. His self-conscious over-reliance on gansgta slang and his 'hood credentials made the reading tiresome. And while he clearly wants to set himself up as a bad-ass, in the end, he comes off more as a dilettante poseur than anything else. He celebrates being kicked out of multiple private schools, fighting people at the drop of a hat, holding stupid grudges for years, and glorifies doing and selling drugs. All of his bad behaviour, explained as his protest against model minority status, is related with a wink and a nudge and a smugness that grates. This is a real shame as he has some very valid social insights and criticisms to present but they are obscured by his own unpleasantness and disdain for almost everyone he comes into contact with who might possibly treat him well and derail his overarching theme of his own triumph over those who would keep him down. The memoir is definitely not a chef memoir in the traditional sense, focused almost exclusively on his growing up years from his family's downward mobility to their financial resurgence, his education all the way through law school, and only in the final pages, his family's opposition to him starting his own restaurant and eventual pride in his success. As he narrates his story, he spends an inordinate amount of ink denigrating and mocking white people as a whole, perhaps in retaliation for the very real racism he encountered (and perhaps still encounters). Even if it is deserved, it unfortunately doesn't make for interesting or gripping reading, at least not here. The pacing of his narrative is uneven and the book's writing is pedestrian, sliding in and out of his assumed hip hop dialect. Short shift is given to his adult years and because of the lack of detail about them, they come off as an annual Christmas card letter's collection of brag and gag highlights. As interested in this memoir as I was initially, it was, in the end, a terrible disappointment.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This book isn't for everyone. I thought it wasn't for me when I first started reading it.Eddie Huang is the owner of Baohaus, a NYC eatery that is one of the hottest places in town. This is his autobiography, the story of his evolution from a confused kids who was fresh off the boat to an entrepreneur and a food celebrity. I really like thisi book because his life experience runs parallel to mine in many ways.There are difference though, and even though Eddie speaks from a place that is near and dear to my heart, I am from an era that is far removed from Eddie Huang's generation. Hip-hop isn't my thing and I just don't get it. BUT, there are enough commonalities so that I do get where he is coming from. We both were born in Taiwan, we both came to America as young children. We both found our way through the maze that is America. Eddie did it about twenty years after I did, and he did it with far more courage. I went through the Caucasian society by keeping my head down and working at getting better and smarter their way. Eddie did it by figuring out his way and then having the courage and discipline to stay with it. I seethed inwardly at the racial stereotyping and the inequalities inherent in America, Eddie fought those things and more. Literally.First of all, being the only Chinese kid in the neighborhood is not a good deal. The stereotypes run rampant and people get really ticked if you don't behave the way they want you to behave. Both of us have been through all that and Eddie's stories, while outrageous sounding, smack of the truth. He is as real as it gets, even more real than anyone wants.The other part of the growing up Chinese/Taiwanese in America is the relationships we have with our families, particularly our parents. There is some hidden genetic code in Chinese parents, they all must have learned from the same book, just like the Tiger mom's book. You never praise your kid, you never let them know just how proud you are of them. Whatever they do is never enough and they are the dumbest, ugliest, the most worthless human beings on earth. While I love my parents, nothing I ever did was right, anything that I did which did not conform to their definitions of success: good grades, assimilation, wealth, and grudging acceptance by the Caucasians. was considered not good enough. So reading that part of the book was intense and had me riveted.As a matter of fact, this book had me riveted for a good number of instance. Eddie Huang can write, his intelligence overflows the pages. But there are numerous times when he writes in his true street vernacular, those are the times that I really could not understand just what he is saying. But his rhythm, his tone, and his style really does help me transcend the lost in the translation feeling and drives home the points that he wanted to drive home.I think the most enjoyable parts of the autobiography for me is when he starts talking about the foods of Taiwan and his own study of those foods. His expert descriptions of the street foods had my mouth watering at the memories and his description of his own culinary adventures had me marveling at his talent. In the end, I think this is a book for the open minded. I don't think the average Food Network groupie would get into the cultural analysis inherent in the book. Many Chinese people would be horrified at some of young Eddie's adventures. It certainly won't make Chinese parents happy. In the end, Eddite Huang's honesty and straight as an arrow attitude is very attractive and makes for great reading.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Loved the story - I appreciated how the story felt like he was right there talking to me about his life, family and of course my favorite food!! I enjoyed it a lot thought it was an amazing book.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    It took me a while to get into this book, but after a few information’s from my teenage daughter about some words I started to enjoy it. I like Anthony Bourdain and this is a lot alike, a little bit more rough, but I really like his aspect of race, his insights of his and his immigrant family’s way of thinking, feeling and living. How he writes about food in America and in Taiwan, his strange parents and how he’s not afraid to open a restaurant. A nice refreshing read.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Eddie Huang - Dude! You're a real person with a real American story. Readers, if you want to know what the spirit of success looks like just read this book. I can guarantee you will be entranced by this fast paced, roller coaster ride as you are drawn quickly into Eddie's world - a world swirling with contradictions, uncertainties, and roots as deep as as an old walnut tree. Journey through Eddie's life as a Taiwanese immigrant son growing up in America, in a world filled with basketball, hip hop, fights, and drugs - to name a few hurdles. Then understand how family anchors him and feel the triumph as he emerges as successful businessman with a top NY eatery and rave reviews from World Journal. This book is a rough as it gets, it's real, there is soul dripping from the pages onto our psyche and how can the world not love Eddie Huang. Somehow when I finished this book I wanted to open EVERY bottle of wine and champagne in my house. So will you!
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    I am not sure who the target audience is for this book. It certainly was not me...It took me a few chapters to figure out the vernacular and frankly get a clue as to where the book was going. The writer has a chip on his shoulder - that he best remove if he expects to get anywhere in life.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Bitingly funny, definitely 'gangsta' in areas, and much less food oriented that I thought it would be, Huang's memoir is laugh out loud funny in places, and wince-inducing in places. All in all a fresh and interesting read.