Published in 2007
256 pages
Annie Choi is the author of Shut Up, You’re Welcome and Happy Birthday or Whatever. She received her BA from the University of California, Berkeley, and her MFA in writing from Columbia University. She is a contributing writer and editor of Bleeding Skull, and has been a featured storyteller on The Moth. She lives in New York City.
What is this book about?
Meet Annie Choi. She fears cable cars and refuses to eat anything that casts a shadow. Her brother thinks chicken is a vegetable. Her father occasionally starts fires at work. Her mother collects Jesus trading cards and wears plaid like it’s a job. No matter how hard Annie and her family try to understand one another, they often come up hilariously short.
But in the midst of a family crisis, Annie comes to realize that the only way to survive one another is to stick together . . . as difficult as that might be. Annie Choi’s Happy Birthday or Whatever is a sidesplitting, eye-opening, and transcendent tale of coping with an infuriating, demanding, but ultimately loving Korean family.
