There are writers whose sarcasm and snarkiness are natural turn-offs. Then there are writers like Annie Choi, whose neurotic rants make us laugh in spite of ourselves. Shut Up, You're Welcome presents the Asian-American experience through the eyes of a sweet but keenly observant, potty-mouthed Valley Girl with a curmudgeonly air.
Each essay begins with a letter addressed to some large entity, such as the Department of Motor Vehicles or campers, before she turns her tirade to a specific event. Choi has an ax to grind with, among other things, musical theater, gardens, family road trips and backseat driving-mothers who pressure daughters into marriage and children. She dishes on the childhood horrors of Korean-made underwear ("like underwear made by David Lynch and Pee Wees Playhouse") and requisite holiday family get-togethers, despite the fact that her family celebrates neither Christmas or Thanksgiving, going so far as to "forget" her birth on Christmas Day.
Choi's dialogue recalls a youthful Sandra Tsing Loh, albeit with the conversational wit and wisdom of a Rory Gilmore. Her parents, speakers of broken English who confuse macaroons for the macarena, provide much of the inspiration behind her snarky discourse. These vivid recollections of a second-generation Southern California Asian adolescence heeding the perfectionist call of helicoptering parents are written with an exasperated and loving piquancy that entertains. --Nancy Powell, freelance writer and technical consultant