In her sophomore collection of essays, Shut up, You’re Welcome: Thoughts on Life, Death and Other Inconveniences, some of Annie Choi’s funniest moments come in her warm, richly detailed tribute to the San Fernando Valley, written in the form of an open letter to the place.
For Choi, the Valley is “a charmless bland area of a flavorful city” featuring “convenience stores that are only convenient if you want to buy bottom-shelf vodka, chewing tobacco and a single lime.” She catalogs and revels in the diversity and uncanny juxtapositions of strip malls: personal-injury lawyers, laser tag and Chinese buffets, oh my!
