Fresh Off the Boat - Book Review

I’ve finally gotten around to reading Fresh Off The Boat by Eddie Huang. I’m sad to say that this book didn’t have me as engaged as Double Cup Love. The timeline was unclear and I felt like it was more of a recount of his juvenile delinquency and not really a coming of age story into manhood - and not really much of anything that showed he experienced any hard earned lessons that shapes how he lives his life.

My main issue with the book is not the crude semantics but the unshakable and ever present voice of privilege. Eddie Huang, has purely mastered the art of B.S. While his parents weren’t the most affectionate people, it wasn’t enough to cover the fact that this man doesn’t really know struggle. Yes, his parents worked hard, and made a life for themselves, but part of me can’t help but feel that Eddie Huang believes that his parents struggle for the American dream somehow trickled down to him and their struggle somehow counts towards his “struggle” for success.

I’m saying this, because Huang is very clear about the life / lifestyle he lived and to pull the covers completely off, Huang spends much of the book complaining about how hard it was for him growing up in a wealthy neighborhood, attending private schools and being Chinese. It’s hard to feel sorry for someone who instead of getting a used BMW got a brand new Mercedes Benz instead. And I found especially hard to sympathize with someone, that after initiating a violent police chase, did not get jail time but instead got sent to Taiwan to learn more about your culture.

I wanted to relate to Huang’s story, but I couldn’t. Like I get being made fun of for being Chinese but to be fair he made fun of Chinese kids too- for being bookworms and acting well-behaved. Maybe his struggle for identity and individuality is what lead him down a destructive path? Or maybe I can’t fully relate because yet while I too went to public school, I was fortunate enough live in an area where the majority of the people / kids were Black like me and being the majority minority had something to do with how I felt about my culture and identity. Whatever, it is, Fresh Off the Boat left me feeling empty.