Book Review: First Aid for Choking Victims

Reviewed by John M. Murray

Every breath is a battle against the weight of perfection in this unflinching story collection about the vagaries of youth.

First Aid for Choking Victims examines the turbulent interior lives of young adults in rural New York. Each of the eight stories stands alone, but they are all loosely connected by the common theme of the impact of love, sexuality, or grief on people in the transition period between childhood and adulthood. 

From a daughter navigating the new family dynamics after her mother’s miscarriage to a new girlfriend adrift in the murky waters of a visit to her boyfriend’s family, each story follows complex people striving to understand the world under the weight of intense emotions.

“Mr. Perfect” chronicles a basketball player coming to terms with his best friend’s death. Chris and Matt were so close—his nickname was insulting but from a place of love: Matt-Light. When a train accident kills Matt, Chris retreats into himself and tries to fight off the obvious conclusion that Matt committed suicide despite being the school’s “Mr. Perfect.” The tragic death is haunting and the ambiguity around it is alluring even to the reader. The story captures the intensity of interpersonal conflicts in a few pages—parties where friends bicker and it’s never clear who cares for each other. This is a difficult episode in one person’s life captured with a raw sense of vulnerability, pushing readers to constantly reflect.

The prose is measured but prone to energetic bursts of unpolished emotion, which seems to mirror the chaotic inner worlds of each perspective character. The break between each story is timed to deliver one last emotional punch before offering a respite, time to consider the characters and their actions with compassion. Tone and pacing shifts between stories give each a unique feel, a few boasting a rhythmic cadence to the dialogue that pulls the narrative with surprising depth. Humor is used to interesting effect, too, often a stark contrast to the unsettling moments of death or emotional trauma. The writing itself acts like a character, unpredictable but reflective of the disjointed nature of memory.

Some of the topics aren’t comfortable nor the characters likable, but Müller’s insightful framing of their experiences makes the stories all the more engaging. The writing is lush with a tendency to capture the way a few key sensory details stand out, the branches of a tree or the feel of a ripped cushion between one’s fingers on a terse car ride. Above all, there’s an obvious sense of tenderness. The stories don’t exploit the trauma or glorify the unhealthy responses; they merely expose the private truths of the human experience.

First Aid for Choking Victims is an extraordinary collection of almost novella-length stories exploring loss, identity, and the struggle with perfection for young adults trying to crawl out of chaos to normalcy.

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