• Fresh Off the Boat

  • A Memoir
  • By: Eddie Huang
  • Narrated by: Eddie Huang
  • Length: 7 hrs and 55 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (1,979 ratings)

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Fresh Off the Boat  By  cover art

Fresh Off the Boat

By: Eddie Huang
Narrated by: Eddie Huang
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Publisher's summary

"Long before I met him, I was a fan of his writing, and his merciless wit. He’s bigger than food." (Anthony Bourdain)

Eddie Huang is the 30-year-old proprietor of Baohaus - the hot East Village hangout where foodies, stoners, and students come to stuff their faces with delicious Taiwanese street food late into the night - and one of the food world’s brightest and most controversial young stars. But before he created the perfect home for himself in a small patch of downtown New York, Eddie wandered the American wilderness looking for a place to call his own.

Eddie grew up in theme-park America, on a could-be-anywhere cul-de-sac in suburban Orlando, raised by a wild family of FOB ("fresh off the boat") hustlers and hysterics from Taiwan. While his father improbably launched a series of successful seafood and steak restaurants, Eddie burned his way through American culture, defying every "model minority" stereotype along the way. He obsessed over football, fought the all-American boys who called him a chink, partied like a gremlin, sold drugs with his crew, and idolized Tupac. His anchor through it all was food - from making Southern ribs with the Haitian cooks in his dad’s restaurant to preparing traditional meals in his mother’s kitchen to haunting the midnight markets of Taipei when he was shipped off to the homeland. After misadventures as an unlikely lawyer, street fashion renegade, and stand-up comic, Eddie finally threw everything he loved - past and present, family, and food - into his own restaurant, bringing together a legacy stretching back to China and the shards of global culture he’d melded into his own identity.

Funny, raw, and moving, and told in an irrepressibly alive and original voice, Fresh Off the Boat recasts the immigrant’s story for the 21st century. It’s a story of food, family, and the forging of a new notion of what it means to be American.

©2013 Eddie Huang (P)2013 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"Mercilessly funny and provocative, Fresh Off the Boat is also a serious piece of work - and an important one. Eddie Huang is hunting nothing less than Big Game here - a question, a conversation, an argument: Who are we? If somebody’s going to put a thumb in your eye, it should probably be Eddie Huang. He does everything with style." (Anthony Bourdain)

"Brash, leading-edge, and unapologetically hip, Huang reconfigures the popular foodie memoir into something worthwhile and very memorable." (Publishers Weekly)

"Eddie Huang has a delightfully funny and down-to-earth narration style that captures the cultural nuances, mannerisms, and speech patterns of a diverse range of characters.... [H]is affable persona, expressive reading, occasional chuckles, and intentional digressions from the book to directly address audio listeners make his story and performance compelling and charming." (AudioFile)

What listeners say about Fresh Off the Boat

Average customer ratings
Overall
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

If you like the show this will ruin it.

I really enjoy watching the Fresh off the Boat show on TV. Being of close age to Edi and first generation, there is a lot I could relate to. I then saw a couple of episodes of Huang's World. That show was good to. Reminded me of No Reservation but a bit more real.

I dont like stacking credits so I decided to purchase this book. It's good. Edi reads it and it feels like he is just sitting in the car with you talking, catching up. I will say this, the book completely ruined the TV show for me. The show just seems fake now. Something I heard so many times before but it's true, It really is, the book is way better than the movie. In this case, the book is way better than the show.

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16 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Amazing

What I thought was going to be a simple "how i did it" memoir was so much more. Eddie's insights into race and culture are invaluable, and uniquely broadcast from his one-of-a-kind cadence and tone. Not only is the text itself a pleasure, but Eddie's reading of it is lively, entertaining, honest, and refreshing. He often goes "off-script" during the audiobook, elaborating in ways he doesn't in the printed version. He also genuinely re-experiences the moments he recalls, laughing along at funny stories, clearly affected by more troubling ones. As a result, this audiobook feels so much more like a conversation than any other I have listened to yet. Well done, Mr. Huang!

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15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Talks TOO Quickly

What disappointed you about Fresh Off the Boat?

Great Story, if you can feel his stylish hip, cool language, i.e., my f((ing crib, i guess it's mad good this...or sick that...or ailing this. Run DMC.

We can live with the hip hop cool language because it fits his story in a very genuine, honest Asian American experience.

My only real issue is the delivery. In Eddie's passion, he speeds his delivery so much so that delivery is mumbled phraseology. Young adults will love this book. I didn't because I don't want to struggle listening to the story.

Will not buy another book unless this is fixed

Who was your favorite character and why?

Eddie

How could the performance have been better?

Slower Delivery

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Not like TV Show

Foul and vulgar. You hate Eddie after 2nd chapter. He is not a rootable character.

Sarcastic about everyone.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

You're ignorant and a racist.

Any additional comments?

Good narration, interesting story. He's a Hypocrite. He likes all of things from his Chinese culture, but not America's culture but he thinks the world should be without borders. Where do you think the differences come from, maintaining separate countries. Who's culture would you like to take precedent when the borders are gone? He is an racist. He wrote that he doesn't like being called "chink" but it's ok for him to refer to white people as "cracker" and "red necks". And you don't earn respect by becoming a lawyer, you're a joke. You want respect you earn it. You don't know how to earn it, look it up on the web. Stop crying how bad you had it, you're a complainer. Less drug use and removing the chip on your shoulder may have helped, possibly that's "The Face" that cost you the sportscaster job. Maybe your indignant, chip on your shoulder, the world owes me something face. Not that you're Chinese.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Interesting, Authentic, but hard to understand

First of all, I greatly enjoyed the book. Eddie does an amazing job reading his own book (which isn't always a given) which really shows his passion and spirit. Overall, the book has a positive message while also providing an interesting story about how someone growing up in a Chinese home in America and trying to figure himself out.

However, I recommend potential buyers listen to the preview so you know what you're getting into. There is abundant use of profanity, occasional use of racial slurs (often aimed at him) and some sexual terms some might find offensive. My biggest issue the the book is that it is written in Street Thug instead of plain English. While that makes for a great performance by Eddie and adds to the authentic nature of the book, it can make some parts hard to understand for those not familiar with that type of slang (like folks that grew up in the suburbs).

The popular TV series got me interested in the book. Of course, the TV series is just inspired by the book and basically shares very little with it beyond the name.

I also found it funny he referred to the Orlando Sentinel as a conservative newspaper -- wow -- things have really changed!

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Whining baby

What a crybaby. I love when a man enjoys the freedom that America offers then proclaims he never considered himself an American. He enjoyed all the success that the U.S offers but does not identify as an American. He is a crybaby rich boy. He Portrays Orlando Florida as a backward hillbilly state. Give me a break.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
  • SM
  • 02-14-13

ill.

Audible requires fifteen words to post this. These are they. Read this book. For real.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

MAJOR Letdown

Eddie is nowhere near the lovable kid he is portrayed to be on the show. He's a racist, a drug dealer, a bully and an overall horrible person. Not to mention his parents were abusive. Oh, and listening to him talk is absolute torture. Glad I didn't pay for this book!!!

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Definitely a Journey

I read Eddie Huang's books out of order- I read Double Cup Love before reading Fresh Off the Boat. I was a little confused by the differences in narration, but at the beginning of this book Eddie Huang indicates the time for recording this book is after the hurricane from a few years ago, so I think that attributes to the beginning pacing of the book. Overall, I am grateful for voices like Eddie Huang who are not only unique and passionate about his journey, but really his message is about being who you want to be no matter what people tell you you need to do or who you should be. Be warned though, there are quite a few stories depicting violence that might not be for everyone.

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4 people found this helpful