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Crying in H Mart
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56/99
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About This Book
The New York Times bestseller from the Grammy-nominated indie rockstar Japanese Breakfast, an unflinching, deeply moving memoir about growing up mixed-race, Korean food, losing her Korean mother, and forging her own identity in the wake of her loss. In this exquisite story of family, food, grief, and endurance, Michelle Zauner proves herself far more than a dazzling singer, songwriter, and guitarist. With humour and heart, she tells of growing up the only Asian-American kid 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, 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 pancreatic 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, lyrical and honest, Michelle Zauner's voice is as radiantly alive on the page as it is onstage. Rich with intimate anecdotes that will resonate widely, Crying in H Mart is a book to cherish, share, and reread.
Reviews
"When talking about a gathering, she takes as much care to describe the food shared as conversations that were had over it...A warning to readers: Her beautiful prose will leave you hungry ..."
"beautifully told, deeply felt and never sentimentalized but laced with all the love and frustration and rebellion that an isolated, headstrong young woman feels."
"Zauner's food descriptions transport us to the table alongside her ..."
"Reading certain passages, I am reminded of the times in my career as a professional food writer when editors have pleaded with me to bring the story back to the food, as Zauner does here."
"Her prose is a vivid performance, moving from self-deprecating to attentive, with textured descriptions of the aesthetic and felt qualities of any moment."
"A compelling and authentic story of grief has to have moments of joy to give it meaning, to give purpose to the life of the person who died."
"She isn't looking for readily formulated fixes, and instead remains open to truths that are hard to put into words in any language."
"As difficult as her grief is, Zauner celebrates her mother in the very place they shared their most intimate joys, losses and pleasures: H Mart."
"As Zauner lives through her shocking grief, food binds her to her mother, as it always did, and in meditative paragraphs she shares her therapeutic experiences making jatjuk and kimchi."
"Crying in H Mart is at once a testament to a lost loved one, a charting of the ravages of terminal illness and a celebration of a mixed-race heritage that helps one young woman manage her grief."
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