Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner

What a beautiful book about a mother dying of cancer. Michelle Zauner is a Korean-American girl who is a typical teenager. She rebels against her mother. She struggles with her identity. She especially struggles with what it means to be Korean? to her classmates she’s Korean but to Koreans she’s look on as a foreigner. She doesn’t speak much Korean. The strongest connection to being Korean she has is her mom’s food. She loves food.

I felt a deep connection to these feelings. I’m a Greek-Canadian. My father died of a heart attack when I was 12. He was my major connection with being Greek. I’m lucky I was forced to go to Greek school and speak a decent amount of Greek. My mom, being adopted by a Greek family, was basically Greek in all but blood. I have fond memories of all the Greek dishes my mom would cook: avgolemeno - lemon chicken soup, spanakopita - spinach pie, tzatziki - spicy yogurt dip, fakies - lentil soup, and many, many more things. Food was about all our family had in common too. We lived to eat. We also owned a restaurant. Now I’m way off topic…so let’s get back to this book.

She had an interesting journey from childhood to adulthood that many children of immigrants will relate to. As I sit her writing this review, I’m listening to the authors album, Soft Sounds from Another Planet. She went on to become an artist/musician. Her band is Japanese Breakfast.

I don’t think my description of this memoir really does it justice, but it did give me the ‘feels’.

Rating: ★★★★

Book #41 in my ReadingChallenge2021