At mid-twenties, Michelle was a waitress and trying to launch a musical career in Philly. She stopped everything and flew to Oregon to be with her mother who was battling final stages of cancer. Whew!
Her book reveals how she grew apart from and then back to her Korean identity. cover blurb With humor and heart, she tells of growing up Asian American, straining to meet her mother's expectations, moving across the country, and returning home to reckon with grief. As an adult she learns to cook Korean dishes that revive her memories. She savors the unexpected solace of weekly trips to her favorite Asian grocery store.
This book definitely digs into a mother/daughter relationship. I had to keep reminding myself as I read this about her youth.
p.53 Music rushed in to fill the void. It cracked a fissure, splintered a vein, through the already precarious and widening rift between my mother and me; it would become a chasm that threatened to swallow us whole.
p.225 The lessons she imparted, the proof of her life lived on in me, in my every mood and deed
As someone who has no knowledge of Korean food, this book offered interesting descriptions to me. Food was a connection to Michelle and her mother and heritage. I want to wander the aisles of H Mart, but not cry.
I did however cry for Michelle and her mother, for a too young death, and a young motherless adult.
Crying in H Mart is an interesting memoir, well-written, and it gives insight into Michelle Zauner's (Japanese Breakfast) music.
