Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
April 2021
Audiobook b Random House Audio
A Memoir
Set in Korea
“It felt like the world had divided into two different types of people, those who had felt pain and those who had yet to.”
Author
Michelle Zauner
Publisher
Penguin Randomhouse
Genre
Non-fiction Memoir - Set in Korea
Audiobook Length
7 hours and 23 minutes/ 257 pages
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Summary
Michelle Zauner is the chief musician/singer in the sensational album Japanese Breakfast. This is her memoir detailing her mother’s journey through cancer, her growing up years as a Korean American, and her journey to creating an identity and her relation to her country and its cuisine in all of this.
My Review
This book read like a Korean recipe book at times and I loved the detailing the author provided through her mother’s tumultuous and painful journey through cancer. She is bold and honest about their relationship and does flinch when she admits that she was a bad kid to her mother and considered her too overbearing in her growing-up years.
But the sudden realization she had of what her mother meant to her when she realized she was losing her to cancer was very touching and had me shedding a few tears. The story is told beginning with how she cried in H Mart where most Korean ingredients can be got for preparing Korean delicacies. And then how collecting these ingredients brought back all her memories with her mom and dad.
I liked the way she introduced all the important characters in her story by first bringing them into the story and then tracing back their origins and points of first meeting them.
Chirpy and straightforward, emotional and authentic, Zauner's voice is as dazzlingly blooming on the page as it is in performance.
Final Verdict
Eloquent writing that is made rich with cherished anecdotes which will echo with all readers and audiobook listeners, Crying in H Mart is a book to treasure, share, and reread for a warm hug.
Who Should Read This
People who love reading Memoirs or autobiographies or want a taste of Korean culture should not miss this.
Michelle Zauner
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). Her memoir, Crying in H Mart, was released in 2021.
- Top Quotes from Crying in H Mart -
- “It felt like the world had divided into two different types of people, those who had felt pain and those who had yet to.”
- “I remember these things clearly because that was how my mother loved you, not through white lies and constant verbal affirmation, but in subtle observations of what brought you joy, pocketed away to make you feel comforted and cared for without even realizing it.”
- “love was an action, an instinct, a response roused by unplanned moments and small gestures, an inconvenience in someone else’s favor.”
- “There was no one in the world that was ever as critical or could make me feel as hideous as my mother, but there was no one, not even Peter, who ever made me feel as beautiful.”
- “For the rest of my life there would be a splinter in my being, stinging from the moment my mother died until it was buried with me.”
- “To be a loving mother was to be known for a service, but to be a lovely mother was to possess a charm all your own.”
- “Maybe I was just terrified that I might be the closest thing she had to leaving a piece of herself behind.”
- “Now that she was gone, I began to study her like a stranger, rooting around her belongings in an attempt to rediscover her, trying to bring her back to life in any way that I could. In my grief I was desperate to construe the slightest thing as a sign.”
- “Every time I remember that my mother is dead, it feels like I’m colliding with a wall that won’t give. There’s no escape, just a hard surface that I keep ramming into over and over, a reminder of the immutable reality that I will never see her again.”
- “My family lauded my bravery, I radiated with pride, and something about that moment set me on a path. I came to realize that while I struggled to be good, I could excel at being courageous. I began to delight in surprising adults with my refined palate and disgusting my inexperienced peers with what I would discover to be some of nature’s greatest gifts.”
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