Reviews with content warning for Death - Crying in H Mart

This pulled me in from the very beginning and didn't let me go the whole way through. Beautiful, sad, touching and carefully written memoir of a Korean American musician and writer struggling and learning in her relationship with her mother.

The story is touching and the writing is a masterpiece.

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tezariah's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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marccolgan91's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.75

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jodierose14's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

4.0

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hollyrebecca's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

A beautiful and poignant reflection on how food can bring people together, help us relive memories and give us a sense of belonging. This memoir is so very human in its depiction of complex parent-child relationships through loss and grief.

Michelle grew up in America as the daughter a Korean mother and an American father, struggling with finding and grounding her identity when the features she carries from each parent sets her apart in the others home. This constant struggle to ‘fit’ follows Michelle throughout her tale, her choices to this effect haunting her in many ways, such as her decision in childhood to not learn her mother’s tongue.

As someone who has lost multiple family members to cancer, including one who needed to be air-vacked out of South Korea, this memoir resonated on many levels. From the diagnosis, through treatments, right up until the ending of suffering, I found my own memories reflected in the effects felt by those involved, both physically and mentally.

Despite the melancholy tone, and the knowledge of the inevitable outcome of Michelle’s mother’s sickness, I found myself enraptured by the descriptions of food in this book. I could almost taste the flavour profiles, feel the textures on my tongue, and envision myself making the dishes which Michelle lovingly prepared in memory of her mother. With taste buds tingling, I’ve started to plan a trip to visit my cousin in Seoul, in large part to experience the joys that Michelle and her mother felt from the dishes detailed.

A truly memorable and relatable read.

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arsmithwick19's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

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nuii's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

Grieving is hard and I appreciate this book for it. We all go throught it at one point or another, and we are not alone.

The discussion regarding cultural and individual indentity is also interesting. However, there are certain parts I wish Michelle Zauner had gone much deeper. I want the introspection to be pushed and explored even further, because it feels like something is still being held back, already at the tip of your tongue but isn't said aloud. Nonetheless, this is her story and I respect it as it is.
At the end of the day, we are all still comtemplating, searching and discovering these topics as we go.

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mapleleaf_rag's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring sad medium-paced

5.0

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