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Crying in H Mart: A Memoir

by Michelle Zauner

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
2,8941035,069 (4.05)100
"From the indie rockstar of Japanese Breakfast fame, and author of the viral 2018 New Yorker essay that shares the title of this book, an unflinching, powerful memoir about growing up Korean-American, losing her mother, and forging her own identity. In this exquisite story of family, food, grief, and endurance, Michelle Zauner proves herself far more than a dazzling singer, songwriter, and guitarist. With humor and heart, she tells of growing up the only Asian-American kid at her school in Eugene, Oregon; of struggling with her mother's particular, high expectations of her; of a painful adolescence; of treasured months spent in her grandmother's tiny apartment in Seoul, where she and her mother would bond, late at night, over heaping plates of food. As she grew up, moving to the east coast for college, finding work in the restaurant industry, performing gigs with her fledgling band--and meeting the man who would become her husband--her Koreanness began to feel ever more distant, even as she found the life she wanted to live. It was her mother's diagnosis of terminal pancreatic cancer, when Michelle was twenty-five, that forced a reckoning with her identity and brought her to reclaim the gifts of taste, language, and history her mother had given her. Vivacious and plainspoken, lyrical and honest, Michelle Zauner's voice is as radiantly alive on the page as it is onstage. Rich with intimate anecdotes that will resonate widely, and complete with family photos, Crying in H Mart is a book to cherish, share, and reread."--… (more)
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Showing 1-5 of 101 (next | show all)
This beautiful memoir put me through so many emotions. I loved her honest commentary on grief, half-Asian-ness, and food.

Noteworthy lines:

“Am I even Korean anymore if there’s no one left to call and ask which brand of seaweed we used to buy?”

“None of these people could know what had just happened, but still I wondered if they could see it on my face. When I realized they clearly couldn’t, it somehow also felt wrong. It felt wrong to talk to anyone, to smile or laugh or eat again knowing that she was dead.”

“It was ironic that I, who once longed to resemble my white peers and desperately hoped my Koreanness would go unnoticed, was now absolutely terrified that this stranger in the bathhouse could not see it.” ( )
  tavitas | Aug 10, 2024 |
Truly hated it ( )
  sanchezlt | Aug 2, 2024 |
another book i forgot to log when i started lmao. i liked this. i didn’t quite realize it was a memoir at first and figured it was gonna be some cheesy fiction about falling out of contact with ur mom and realizing you were wrong to once she’s dead. once the author said her name tho, i was like wait isn’t that the writer’s name?? and dumbly noticed that it literally said “a memoir” on the cover.

anyway, i found this quite touching. there were moments where it made me feel like i was about to cry and i think that’s worth something. cuz i don’t exactly cry over media unless it resonates with me or if it’s well written and well thankfully i cannot relate to watching my mom die of cancer and hope i never will have to, so it must have been well written. in addition to that aspect there’s a lot of other things to this book that i will never be able to understand. i’m not half white, half korean. i’ve never had a horrible relationship with my mom. my dad isn’t some questionable bum. but the author was still able to get me to feel something through her words and that’s worth praise. so a thumbs up from me ( )
  puppyboykippo | Jul 25, 2024 |
I had to stop reading this for a month because my dad was hospitalized but he's getting better now, I still cried through this entire book though 10/10 ( )
  enoikosges | Jul 16, 2024 |
I remember reading the titular essay when it came out and being haunted by it. As with the essay, after reading this book a couple of months ago, I would bring it up in pertinent conversations and just constantly recommending it to people. A few people smarter than me recognised that they would not be able to emotionally handle the intense and complicated relationship that Zauner had with her mother, learning even just from my recommendations how unfortunately relatable it can be. It had been a while since I've been made so distraught by a book. I'm glad that I've currently loaned the book out so that I'm not tempted to destroy myself emotionally with tidbits of it. ( )
  kitzyl | Jun 27, 2024 |
Showing 1-5 of 101 (next | show all)
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엄마
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Ever since my mom died, I cry in H Mart.
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"From the indie rockstar of Japanese Breakfast fame, and author of the viral 2018 New Yorker essay that shares the title of this book, an unflinching, powerful memoir about growing up Korean-American, losing her mother, and forging her own identity. In this exquisite story of family, food, grief, and endurance, Michelle Zauner proves herself far more than a dazzling singer, songwriter, and guitarist. With humor and heart, she tells of growing up the only Asian-American kid at her school in Eugene, Oregon; of struggling with her mother's particular, high expectations of her; of a painful adolescence; of treasured months spent in her grandmother's tiny apartment in Seoul, where she and her mother would bond, late at night, over heaping plates of food. As she grew up, moving to the east coast for college, finding work in the restaurant industry, performing gigs with her fledgling band--and meeting the man who would become her husband--her Koreanness began to feel ever more distant, even as she found the life she wanted to live. It was her mother's diagnosis of terminal pancreatic cancer, when Michelle was twenty-five, that forced a reckoning with her identity and brought her to reclaim the gifts of taste, language, and history her mother had given her. Vivacious and plainspoken, lyrical and honest, Michelle Zauner's voice is as radiantly alive on the page as it is onstage. Rich with intimate anecdotes that will resonate widely, and complete with family photos, Crying in H Mart is a book to cherish, share, and reread."--

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