Book Details
Title: Crying in H Mart
Author: Michelle Zauner
Genre: Memoir
Pages: 256
Year Published: 2021
Synopsis: A memoir about growing up Korean American, losing her mother, and forging her own identity.
Michelle Zauner 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.
My Review
I may be a little biased as this was my pick for our book club for July, but this has been my favorite book of 2023 so far. Crying in H Mart made its way onto mine & Hunter's bookshelf when it was first published in 2021 because Hunter was already a fan of Michelle Zauner's band Japanese Breakfast. I saw it quickly circulating on booktok & added it just as quickly to my TBR. I was very excited that our book club decided to read this a last month. I was so excited in fact that I put off reading it until two days before our book club meeting. Luckily, Crying in H Mart was a super easy read, so I finished it with time to spare.
Now, when I say it was an easy read, I definitely do not mean the content. Zauner's description of watching her mother's battle with cancer is so detailed & personal that I found myself mourning the loss of a parent that wasn't even mine. Certain scenes are so emotionally written that even someone who has not watched someone pass due to a terminal illness is likely to have difficulty with the content. While reading, I felt as if I was reading Zauner's personal diary. Her attention to detail had me at times wondering if this book was ever meant to be read by anyone except Zauner herself. I felt like I was simultaneously peering at details of someone's private life that were never meant for me & also reading about a close friend's experience as if I had been standing beside Zauner the whole time.
When I say Crying in H Mart is an easy read, I mean Zauner's ability to write is so poetic & lyrical that the reader must go on. Between the descriptions of various Korean dishes to Zauner's feelings of guilt, I was hanging on every word. Speaking of the food, I don't think there's a single dish mentioned in the book that I don't want to try now. With descriptions of single dishes lasting almost an entire page at times, would you blame me? While discussing Crying in H Mart during our book club meeting, we couldn't help but mention how disappointed we were that there are no Korean restaurants close to us. I've never been so sad and so hungry while reading a book before.
I would recommend Crying in H Mart to anyone who has been needing a good cry.
My Rating: 5/5
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