Crying in H Mart

In my defense, I read this book long before Jungkook recommended it, and it single-handedly became my gateway drug into memoir. I had never heard of Japanese Breakfast beforehand, but no matter—hers was the kind of story around food and loss that I found incredibly relatable in feeling, even if not in the actual details. 

I craved a book that would distract me from the daily sadness I felt more than a year after my cousin’s death, I knew she wouldn’t want that. I needed something that wasn’t a “how-to” but a “how I got here and what I’ve learned about myself.” This memoir gave me that.

I was gripped by the frank introspection and the way Zauner confirms and affirms her memories now that her mother is gone. That resonated because I have almost no childhood memories that don’t include my cousin, who was more like a fraternal twin because we were raised in… show more.

I snapped up this best-seller to see what the fuss was about. Sure enough, indie musician Michelle Zauner (aka “Japanese Breakfast”) won me over with memories of her childhood meals, fraught relationship with her Korean mother, and the devastation of losing her.

Their love language, food, is so tantalizingly described that I found myself looking up recipes for the succulent dishes Zauner and her mother shared. After one mouth-watering passage, I marinated Korean short ribs for three days and wrapped them in lettuce leaves to feed to my son.

Poignant and heartfelt, Crying in H Mart offers many layers to… show more.

Michelle Zauner's intimate memoir about her mother's battle with cancer is moving, complex, and entirely honest.

Zauner, born in Seoul but raised in Oregon, struggles with her Korean identity, especially as her Korean mother succumbs to her terrible disease. Zauner opens up about how a part of her Korean identity will pass with her mother. She begins learning Korean recipes and revisiting Korean relatives in the hope of finding ways to hold on to her heritage.

Zauner talks a lot about Korean food and how much her identity is wrapped up in her cultural food. This hit home for me… show more.

This book has been on The New York Times Bestseller’s list for seemingly countless weeks now—and for good reason!

It is a memoir of grief and loss but is particularly powerful because the author was in her mid-twenties when she was caring for her mother as she died from cancer. The writing is captivating, and the book is thickly woven with scenes of Korean food, shopping, cooking, and eating, as well as scenes of the author’s coming of age and interior life.

As her mother passes away, she learns about herself as an adult and has to face her fear… show more.

I’m not a fan of memoirs – especially grief journeys, but the infusion of the life preserver of childhood Korean food poked the core of me – the memories of the joy of food in my own home. The journey through the horrors of dignity-robbing cancer and the universal search for a new identity forged from loss was a mirror for me.

I recognized the trials of caretaking – the longing to prepare tempting food for her mother, who couldn’t eat it. Zaumer shares that H Mart is where “parachute” kids went to find the type of noodle that reminded… show more.

This book absolutely devastated me - in the best way.

A stunning mediation on grief and mother-daughter relationships, expressed by someone who is perhaps better known as a musician (Zauner’s alias in the music world is Japanese Breakfast.) What I love about this book are the simple descriptions of specific food items that bond families, and how reflecting on them as an adult can change their meaning.

Ultimately, it’s a love story; although a tragic one, it also has moments of hope, light, and connection.

This memoir is a public and usually unspoken attribution to the complicated battles of cancer within culture as an Asian woman.

Michelle’s mom is diagnosed with cancer and eventually passes away due to her illness, and throughout her battle she continues a less-than-simple mother-daughter relationship. This leads to less than complicated feelings after her death.

This book has a true frankness to it that makes you feel like you’re sitting across from the author at coffee, hearing the stories of her mom secondhand. Some are positive, some are negative, and some are just in between, but they all play into… show more.

I loved Michelle Zauner’s essay by the same name when it came out in The New Yorker in 2018. I teach this essay in my Intro to Food Writing Class, and my students find it as moving and transporting as I do. Zauner’s new memoir—it came out in April—chronicles the decline of her mother's health and her own journey in finding her sense of self, often through the Korean dishes, ingredients, and flavors that connect her to her mom. The mother-daughter relationship is complex, full of love and pain, and the writing is gorgeous and sparkling.