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Fresh Off the Boat: A Memoir by Eddie Huang
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Fresh Off the Boat: A Memoir (edition 2013)

by Eddie Huang

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
4073961,904 (3.38)5
Biography & Autobiography. Cooking & Food. Sociology. Nonfiction. HTML: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
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??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.
 
Praise for Fresh Off the Boat
 
??Brash and funny . . . outrageous, courageous, moving, ironic and true.???New York Times Book Review
 
??Mercilessly funny and provocative, Fresh Off the Boat is also a serious piece of work. Eddie Huang is hunting nothing less than Big Game here. He does everything with style.???Anthony Bourdain
 
??Uproariously funny . . . emotionally honest.???Chicago Tribune
 
??Huang is a fearless raconteur. [His] writing is at once hilarious and provocative; his incisive wit pulls through like a perfect plate of dan dan noodles.???Interview
 
??Although writing a memoir is an audacious act for a thirty-year-old, it is not nearly as audacious as some of the things Huang did and survived even earlier. . . . Whatever he ends up doing, you can be sure it won??t look or sound like anything that??s come before. A single, kinetic passage from … (more)
Member:brittanygates
Title:Fresh Off the Boat: A Memoir
Authors:Eddie Huang
Info:Spiegel & Grau (2013), Hardcover, 288 pages
Collections:Your library, Read but unowned, Early Reader Copies
Rating:**
Tags:None

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Fresh Off the Boat: A Memoir by Eddie Huang

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Showing 1-5 of 40 (next | show all)
On my parents' trip to see my grandfather last month, my mother wanted something to read for the car ride and saw this in my library book pile. She said she couldn't finish/didn't like it because of the swear words and sex (though tbh I can think of maybe 1 chapter where the second is a thing). Even though they're both 2nd gen, Eddie Huang is a Gen Xer and a rotten banana to boot, so I can kinda get the cultural disconnect.

I wasn't familiar with Huang but I did recognize the name Baohaus and the cover/title were intriguing, which is why I checked it out. It reminds me very much of [b:Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly|33313|Kitchen Confidential Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly|Anthony Bourdain|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1348988611s/33313.jpg|4219] in terms of I-Don't-Give-A-Fuck tone and writing style. Also because they're both autobiographies with the occasional food bits thrown in. I'm inclined to agree with Huang's assessment that celebrity chefs getting famous marketing 'ethnic' cuisine is nothing short of culinary imperialism, and now I'm really hungry for some bao (even if I am one of those ABCs checking off every Model Minority stereotype I've stumbled into). ( )
  Daumari | Dec 28, 2023 |
The ratio of rage to food talk was a surprise - I expected more about "real Taiwanese food" and less about beating people unconscious - yet the change-up was delightful. One hundred percent entertained from first page to last. ( )
  blueskygreentrees | Jul 30, 2023 |
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. ( )
  jennybeast | Apr 14, 2022 |
Taiwanese people are craaaaaaaaaaaazy! ( )
  resoundingjoy | Jan 1, 2021 |
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. ( )
  cindywho | May 27, 2019 |
Showing 1-5 of 40 (next | show all)
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Epigraph
"Can't get paid in a earth this big? You worthless kid." - Cam'ron "Yeah Yeah, I design these things and you know I'm in the hood like chinese wings." - Jadakiss "Don't be afraid, fight for it." - Dad
Dedication
To Emery, who lived it, and Evan, who built it
First words
"The soup dumplings are off today!" Grandpa said.
Quotations
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
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Wikipedia in English (2)

Biography & Autobiography. Cooking & Food. Sociology. Nonfiction. HTML: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.
 
Praise for Fresh Off the Boat
 
??Brash and funny . . . outrageous, courageous, moving, ironic and true.???New York Times Book Review
 
??Mercilessly funny and provocative, Fresh Off the Boat is also a serious piece of work. Eddie Huang is hunting nothing less than Big Game here. He does everything with style.???Anthony Bourdain
 
??Uproariously funny . . . emotionally honest.???Chicago Tribune
 
??Huang is a fearless raconteur. [His] writing is at once hilarious and provocative; his incisive wit pulls through like a perfect plate of dan dan noodles.???Interview
 
??Although writing a memoir is an audacious act for a thirty-year-old, it is not nearly as audacious as some of the things Huang did and survived even earlier. . . . Whatever he ends up doing, you can be sure it won??t look or sound like anything that??s come before. A single, kinetic passage from

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