Description
NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • From the indie rock sensation known as Japanese Breakfast, an unforgettable memoir about family, food, grief, love, and growing up Korean American—“in losing her mother and cooking to bring her back to life, Zauner became herself” (NPR) • CELEBRATING OVER ONE YEAR ON THE NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER LIST In this exquisite story of family, food, grief, and endurance, Michelle Zauner proves herself far more than a dazzling singer, songwriter, and guitarist. With humor and heart, she tells of growing up one of the few Asian American kids at her school in Eugene, Oregon, of struggling with her mother’s particular, high expectations of her, of a painful adolescence, of treasured months spent in her grandmother’s tiny apartment in Seoul, where she and her mother would bond, late at night, over heaping plates of food. As she grew up, moving to the East Coast for college, finding work in the restaurant industry, and performing gigs with her fledgling band–and meeting the man who would become her husband–her Koreanness began to feel ever more distant, even as she found the life she wanted to live. It was her mother’s diagnosis of terminal cancer, when Michelle was twenty-five, that forced a reckoning with her identity and brought her to reclaim the gifts of taste, language, and history her mother had given her. Vivacious and plainspoken, lyrical and honest, Zauner’s voice is as radiantly alive on the page as it is onstage. Rich with intimate anecdotes that will resonate widely, and complete with family photos, Crying in H Mart is a book to cherish, share, and reread.
Nenia Campbell –
For a while, I was seeing this book literally everywhere. I thought it was going to be a typical food memoir, kind of like Nigel Slater’s TOAST, and while parts of it were that, about halfway through it undergoes a total tonal shift, where the focus is entirely on her mother’s end of life, the stress it put on her relationships, the mental breakdowns it caused, and the agony of seeing someone you love go slowly and painfully as they shed their sense of self. It’s incredibly painful and I don’t think the summary fully conveys how traumatic this book could be to someone who is losing or has recently lost a loved one. The summary describes this book as having “humor and heart,” and while it certainly possessed plenty of the later, I had difficulty finding any of the former., CRYING IN H MART is about Michelle Zauner’s identity as a half-Korean/American. Her mother was her anchor to Korean culture, and her entre into the culture was primarily through food. The book opens with her walking through H Mart and talking about how food is a bonding experience in so many different kinds of relationships, and she talks about some of the memories certain dishes gave her. This is a constant theme throughout the book, although it is not as food-focused as the first chapter would have you believe., I liked the raw honesty with which she talked about her family. The alienation she felt from Korean culture because she couldn’t speak the language and the existential crisis she had when losing her mother (and therefore, by proxy, part of herself) was powerful and tragic. I also liked how she talked about the ugly side of grief and mourning. All too often, when grief is portrayed, it’s as a unifying experience; but sometimes, as it does in this book, it ends up driving people apart and making them selfish. There are different ways to express grief or to mourn, and it was nice to see that here., Apart from the slightly misleading presentation, I really liked this book. I don’t think I’d want to read it again but the way that the author described food and relationships was great., 3.5 out of 5 stars
Karen –
I did not want this book to come to an end. I am also a daughter of a Korean mother and American father. My father passed 2 years ago, and we recently found out my mother has bladder cancer, and she has just had surgery for it 4 days ago. I am also an only child, so all of the responsibility is on my shoulders. As I was reading this book, I felt like I was reading about my own life in some of its pages. I laughed, I cried, I was joyous, I had heartfelt pain. I am purchasing the book in Korean for my mother to read, as well. After all theae years of struggling to understand my mother, “Crying in H Mart” has helped me to do just that. What a wonderful book!
AM –
I feel like this book really drives home the human emotions. It mixes that with trauma, food, family, and sickness. You don’t need to be Asian or anything. It’s really just about the relationship with yourself and parent. Having lost a parent. Yeah, I internalize this book a little bit. But you don’t need to. It’s almost part coming of age story (which I am a sucker for), and part dealing with parent and death. In between, it’s just really beautifully written and an easy read. Would recommend.
Christina Osborne –
I loved reading this book.. this book was such a beautiful story of family, loss, love, and just great story telling. There is such a lyrical quality to the writing, vivid imagery, and delicious descriptions of food!
Amazon Customer –
By easy I mean the overall writing style, sentence structure, etc is quite easy to follow along with. The book, while very moving and really enjoyable, isn’t a novel and it reads like such. Nothing life-changing, but a book you’ll not want to put down until finished. The author has done a wonderful job sharing a tragically difficult story with us all and I loved the book for what it was: a quick, albeit engrossing and highly emotional read. Do recommend