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A review by sarojaede
Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
4.25
I went into this book with some trepidation because I know people who have loved it and those who hated it. I am so glad that I read it because I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Zauner's Crying in H Mart is a reflection on her relationship with her mother along with her struggle to reconcile her identity as a Korean-American, who did not feel Korean enough but also wanted, especially when she was younger, to not really be identified as Korean because she didn't want to be "different".
Maybe it's because I lost my own mother just less than two years ago, but this book will stick with me a long time. My relationship with my mother was nothing like that of the author's with her own mother; it wasn't contentious as a I was growing up or even through my adulthood, however, I was invested in their relationship from the beginning. Honestly, I cried in the first chapter as she described the deep longing she had for her mother and the sheer depth of missing her.
Another aspect of the book that I really enjoyed were all the descriptions of food and how Zauner found a way to connect with her Korean heritage through cooking and learning the recipes of the foods that not only she grew up on but that her mother grew up on as well. I simply loved the way she began to embrace her own identity as Korean-American and built stronger connections to her mother and other relative through food, even if she only did so more fully after he mother was diagnosed with cancer.
Zauner's Crying in H Mart is a reflection on her relationship with her mother along with her struggle to reconcile her identity as a Korean-American, who did not feel Korean enough but also wanted, especially when she was younger, to not really be identified as Korean because she didn't want to be "different".
Maybe it's because I lost my own mother just less than two years ago, but this book will stick with me a long time. My relationship with my mother was nothing like that of the author's with her own mother; it wasn't contentious as a I was growing up or even through my adulthood, however, I was invested in their relationship from the beginning. Honestly, I cried in the first chapter as she described the deep longing she had for her mother and the sheer depth of missing her.
Another aspect of the book that I really enjoyed were all the descriptions of food and how Zauner found a way to connect with her Korean heritage through cooking and learning the recipes of the foods that not only she grew up on but that her mother grew up on as well. I simply loved the way she began to embrace her own identity as Korean-American and built stronger connections to her mother and other relative through food, even if she only did so more fully after he mother was diagnosed with cancer.