Crying in H Mart
Religious
Name - Crying in H Mart
Reviews - 5.0/5
Pages - 256
By - Michelle Zauner
About Book Crying in H Mart
NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • A Best Book of 2021: Entertainment Weekly, Good Morning America, Wall Street Journal, and more
From the indie rockstar of Japanese Breakfast fame, and {author of|writer of|composer of} the viral 2018 New Yorker essay that shares the title {of this|of the|with this} book, an unflinching, powerful memoir about growing up Korean American, losing her mother, and forging {her own|her very own} identity.
In this exquisite story of family, food, grief, and endurance, Michelle Zauner proves herself far {more than a|greater than a|higher than a} dazzling singer, songwriter, and guitarist. With humor and heart, she tells of growing up {one of the|among the|one of many} few Asian American kids at her school in Eugene, Oregon; of {struggling with|experiencing|fighting} 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|during the night|through the night}, over heaping plates of food.
As she {grew up|spent my youth}, moving to the East Coast for college, finding work in the restaurant industry, and performing gigs with her fledgling band--and meeting {the man|the person} {who would|who'd} become her husband--her Koreanness {began to|started initially to|started to|begun to} feel ever more distant, {even as|even while|whilst} she found {the life|the life span|living} she {wanted to|desired to|wished to} live. {It was|It had been|It absolutely 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|is really as|can be as} radiantly alive on the page {as it|because it|since it} is onstage. Rich with intimate anecdotes {that will|that'll|which will|that may} resonate widely, and {complete with|filled with|detailed with} family photos, Crying in H Mart is {a book|a guide} to cherish, share, and reread.
From the indie rockstar of Japanese Breakfast fame, and {author of|writer of|composer of} the viral 2018 New Yorker essay that shares the title {of this|of the|with this} book, an unflinching, powerful memoir about growing up Korean American, losing her mother, and forging {her own|her very own} identity.
In this exquisite story of family, food, grief, and endurance, Michelle Zauner proves herself far {more than a|greater than a|higher than a} dazzling singer, songwriter, and guitarist. With humor and heart, she tells of growing up {one of the|among the|one of many} few Asian American kids at her school in Eugene, Oregon; of {struggling with|experiencing|fighting} 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|during the night|through the night}, over heaping plates of food.
As she {grew up|spent my youth}, moving to the East Coast for college, finding work in the restaurant industry, and performing gigs with her fledgling band--and meeting {the man|the person} {who would|who'd} become her husband--her Koreanness {began to|started initially to|started to|begun to} feel ever more distant, {even as|even while|whilst} she found {the life|the life span|living} she {wanted to|desired to|wished to} live. {It was|It had been|It absolutely 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|is really as|can be as} radiantly alive on the page {as it|because it|since it} is onstage. Rich with intimate anecdotes {that will|that'll|which will|that may} resonate widely, and {complete with|filled with|detailed with} family photos, Crying in H Mart is {a book|a guide} to cherish, share, and reread.
Editorial Reviews
Musician Zauner debuts with an earnest account of her Korean-American upbringing, musical career, and the aftermath of her mother’s death. She opens with a memory of a visit to an Asian American supermarket, where, among fellow shoppers who were “searching for a piece of home, or a piece of ourselves,” Zauner was able to grieve the death of her mother, Chongmi, with whom she had a difficult relationship. Her white American father met her mother in Seoul in 1983, and Zauner immigrated as an infant to Eugene, Ore. In Zauner’s teenage years in the late 2000s, Chongmi vehemently opposed Zauner’s musical dreams and, in one outburst, admitted to having an abortion after Zauner’s birth “because you were such a terrible child!” The confession caused a rift that lasted almost six years, until Zauner learned of her mother’s cancer diagnosis. After Chongmi’s death in 2014, Zauner’s career took off, and during a sold-out concert in Seoul, Zauner writes, she realized her success “revolved around death, that the songs... memorialized her.” The prose is lyrical if at times overwrought, but Zauner does a good job capturing the grief of losing a parent with pathos. Fans looking to get a glimpse into the inner life of this megawatt pop star will not be disappointed. (Apr.)
Publishers Weekly
Michelle Zauner has written a book you experience with all of your senses: sentences you can taste, paragraphs that sound like music. She seamlessly blends stories of food and memory, sumptuousness and grief, to weave a complex narrative of loyalty and loss.” —Rachel Syme
“I read Crying in H Mart with my heart in my throat. In this beautifully written memoir, Michelle Zauner has created a gripping, sensuous portrait of an indelible mother-daughter bond that hits all the notes: love, friction, loyalty, grief. All mothers and daughters will recognize themselves—and each other—in these pages.” —Dani Shapiro, author of Inheritance
“A warm and wholehearted work of literature, an honest and detailed account of grief over time, studded with moments of hope, humor, beauty, and clear-eyed observation. This story is a nuanced portrayal of a young person grappling with what it means to embody familial and cultural histories, to be fueled by creative pursuits, to examine complex relationships with place, and to endure the acute pain of losing a parent just on the other side of a tumultuous adolescence . . . Crying in H Mart is not to be missed.” —The Seattle Times
“A profound, timely exploration of terminal illness, culture and shared experience . . . Zauner has accomplished the unthinkable: a book that caters to all appetites. She brings dish after dish to life on the page in a rich broth of delectable details [and] offers remarkably prescient observations about otherness from the perspective of the Korean American experience. Crying in H Mart will thrill Japanese Breakfast fans and provide comfort to those in the throes of loss while brilliantly detailing the colorful panorama of Korean culture, traditions and food.” —San Francisco Chronicle
“Crying in H Mart powerfully maps a complicated mother-daughter relationship . . . Zauner writes about her mother’s death [with] clear-eyed frankness . . . The book is a rare acknowledgement of the ravages of cancer in a culture obsessed with seeing it as an enemy that can be battled with hope and strength. Zauner plumbs the connections between food and identity . . . her food descriptions transport us to the table alongside her. What Crying in H Mart reveals is that in losing her mother and cooking to bring her back to life, Zauner became herself.” —NPR
Zauner’s storytelling is impeccable. Memories are rendered with a rich immediacy, as if bathed in a golden light. Zauner is also adept at mapping the contradictions in her relationship with, and perception of, her mother. The healing, connective power of food reverberates in nearly every chapter of this coming-of-age story, [in] sensuous descriptions . . . Heartfelt, searching, wise.” —AV Club
"Crying in H Mart is a wonder: A beautiful, deeply moving coming-of-age story about mothers and daughters, love and grief, food and identity. It blew me away, even as it broke my heart." –Adrienne Brodeur, author of Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me
"The book’s descriptions of jjigae, tteokbokki, and other Korean delicacies stand out as tokens of the deep, all-encompassing love between Zauner and her mother . . . Zauner’s frankness around death feels like an unexpected yet deeply necessary gift."—Vogue
About the Author
MICHELLE ZAUNER is best known as a singer and guitarist who creates dreamy, shoegaze-inspired indie pop under the name Japanese Breakfast. She has won acclaim from major music outlets around the world for releases like Psychopomp (2016) and Soft Sounds from Another Planet (2017).
