Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner

 

Title:  Crying in H Mart

Author: Michelle Zauner

Narrated by:  Michelle Zauner

Publisher: Random House Audio

Length: Approximately 7 hours and 23 minutes

Source: Checked out from the Kewaunee Public Library through Overdrive 

What is your favorite book or movie about the relationship between daughters and mothers?   What is your favorite book that describes food as part of the narrative?

Crying in H Mart is a gripping memoir that I could not stop listening to.  It’s a very personal story of the author Michelle Zauner and her relationship with her mother.  A lot of their connections and happy memories are connected with the tasty Korean food that her mother made.  Michelle narrated the audiobook herself and it made it very personal.   

Michelle was in her twenties in a band and working as a waitress out east when she received a call that her mother was seriously ill with cancer.  She puts her life on hold and returns to Eugene Oregon to help her mother through her illness and ultimately through her end of life.    This memoir focused on their mother-daughter relationship as Michelle grew up and at the end of her mother’s life.  She was able to really understand her mother after she was gone.  It also focused on the difficulties of growing up as an Asian American with a Korean mother and a white father.  It also discussed the wonderful Korean food that Michelle’s mother made and how they connected as a family through food.  They would also explore different restaurants in both American and Korea.  It sounded delightful.

I highly recommend this memoir and can’t say enough good things about it.  I laughed, and I cried reading this book.