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kdawn999's review against another edition
4.0
A loving portrait of a mentally ill mother with a traumatic background in the Korean War. I like the way the story is told—through flashbacks and flash forwards, much like the leapfrog associations memory seems to make, how you can learn a life-altering detail about your mother that changes the way you see your whole childhood and context in history. The analysis of how her mother communicated with food preparation before and after her illness was powerful. We even get recipes.
While I like the author’s empathetic attempt to understand both her mother and father and to withhold judgement overall, I didn’t always understand some of her psychic analysis, or maybe I’m just too skeptical of the kind of creative work she was doing in her academic work and mentioning briefly on the page.
While I like the author’s empathetic attempt to understand both her mother and father and to withhold judgement overall, I didn’t always understand some of her psychic analysis, or maybe I’m just too skeptical of the kind of creative work she was doing in her academic work and mentioning briefly on the page.
ckpc's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
5.0
stanro's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
Korea’s history from the 1930s is largely unknown to me. It’s earlier history totally unknown. The author’s mother was born in Korea in 1941, fairly late in the period of Japan’s brutal occupation and colonisation. And then the Americans rescued them from first, the Japanese (did you know, I did not, that some 20,000 Koreans in Japan died from the atomic bombs?) and then, as Cho puts it, the Americans killed more of them “to save them from themselves.”
Cho, her older brother and mother joined her father in his small hometown in Washington State in 1972, when Cho was one. Life as the first Korean family in the town was hard. Cho was bullied for being oriental. Her mother grieved the absence of Korean food. Her father, a merchant seaman, was away about half of each year.
This is a tale of the courage and resourcefulness of Cho’s mother. And of her mental breakdown. And how all this affected Cho and the courage and compassion of Cho in dealing with her mother’s illness.
This is far more than a personal memoir. It is the start of Cho’s search and research, developing new theories about schizophrenia. And a lot about food. And love in action.
A powerful, thoughtful book challenging the reader’s uneducated thinking about schizophrenia — particularly as it presents in mid-aged women. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
#areadersjourney
dralyrose's review against another edition
Read this one as part of the Libby app’s “Big Library Read” series and felt it was a powerful story of the complex relationships between adult children and their parents (particularly those with unresolved trauma and mental illness) and as a fellow sociologist it was comforting to read a memoir with a similar lens, all while getting a glimpse into cultural experiences unlike my own. The controversy of family speaking out about the memoir that I learned of after reading tells me the story should be approached with caution but there’s likely still much to be gained from your own processing of the interactions.
ambsonline's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
4.0
I haven’t read a memoir in a while and this was a great way to break the fast. Really interesting novel — I was confronted with a lot of US/Korean history that I sadly didn’t know about. I loved the descriptions of food throughout and how that shaped the authors journey with her mother. I felt like the memoir was really perceptive and didn’t shy away from any difficult topics. I would recommend to others!
rballenger's review
4.0
Type of read: Weekend/Lunchtime Read.
What made me pick it up: 'Tastes Like War' is the Big Library Read for May. Additionally, it fit the TN R.E.A.D.S challenge of reading a book by an Asian American author.
Overall rating: 'Tasts Like War' is a gut punch to your feelings and everything inside you that ever made you question who you are or why you're in the place you are doing what you do. I read this one so fast partially because my library loan was expiring and partially because it's just that damn good. I've said it before (and I'll probably say it with every memoir or personal book I read/review) but I always feel bad reviewing memoirs. These are books that people have spilled their soul onto the pages and laid it all out there for us to take in, judge, and experience. I would 100% recommend 'Tastes Like War' and I'm so thankful that the Big Library Read brought this onto my TBR.
What made me pick it up: 'Tastes Like War' is the Big Library Read for May. Additionally, it fit the TN R.E.A.D.S challenge of reading a book by an Asian American author.
Overall rating: 'Tasts Like War' is a gut punch to your feelings and everything inside you that ever made you question who you are or why you're in the place you are doing what you do. I read this one so fast partially because my library loan was expiring and partially because it's just that damn good. I've said it before (and I'll probably say it with every memoir or personal book I read/review) but I always feel bad reviewing memoirs. These are books that people have spilled their soul onto the pages and laid it all out there for us to take in, judge, and experience. I would 100% recommend 'Tastes Like War' and I'm so thankful that the Big Library Read brought this onto my TBR.