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4.37 AVERAGE
4.37 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body shaming, Eating disorder
emotional
funny
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
brought me to tears
I don’t do star ratings on memoirs, but I will say I enjoyed listening to this as an audiobook. A lot of it was exceptionally heavy, which I (maybe naively?) didn’t really expect going into it. I did have to skip a couple of parts. But I love her voice, writing, and narration style, and I especially enjoyed the parts when she talked about her son and about her time in and around the restaurant industry.
Basically every trigger warning, so proceed with caution.
Basically every trigger warning, so proceed with caution.
dark
emotional
funny
fast-paced
emotional
funny
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
dark
funny
reflective
sad
fast-paced
I've been a fan of Youngi Mayer for quite a few years, her scathing wit and astutely sarcastic observations on the Asian American diaspora and Western society were so compulsive in all her short form videos, and these qualities have translated so well through her writing.
Her prose is brilliant, detailing the nuances of her ancestors/parents' choices and the parallels between her own life, while also remaining delightfully blunt, easily making jabs at her own self and the people she has encountered throughout her life. I appreciated her candor in describing the multiple paths her life has taken her, as well as the amount of acute reflection contained within her musings. I feel like this is a quality that is so heavily lacking in other Asian American diasporic memoirs, and it is always so refreshing to find a memoir that deviates from a constant vitriol against how the author's parents are at fault for everything wrong in the author's life.
While Mayer does explore the darker facets of her life in startling detail at times, she maintains a degree of levelheadedness about her trauma while also entrusting readers with her deepest and most vulnerable emotions. I really enjoyed the ways in which she tied multiple moments in her life to Korean idioms/sayings, as well as touching upon her Irish heritage, fully embracing both lineages of her identity.
This is a memoir that doesn't shy away from humor as a coping mechanism from pain, while also recognizing the Korean heritage of utilizing laughter to cope with traumatic events such as genocide. I loved Youngi Mayer's voice and her writing style, the moments about her life in San Francisco on both Treasure Island and the Tenderloin in particular felt so close to the place I now call my home. The audiobook definitely adds another layer of immersion into the book as it is narrated by the author herself, so I would definitely recommend the audiobook for those looking to reach for this book!
dark
funny
fast-paced
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
emotional
funny
informative
inspiring
sad