Author(s): Michelle Zauner

Biography | Marianne's Book Talkers

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, Crying in H Mart is a book to cherish, share, and reread.

CONSTANT READER STAFF REVIEW: MARIANNE

We’re living in an age of abundance when it comes to memoirs, and while I don’t wish to be overly harsh, I will be honest and say that not all memoirs in this publishing deluge are worth your time. Happily, Crying in H Mart is a standout, and Zauner explores her own history and eulogises her late mother in such a raw and touching way, their stories will stay with you long after turning the last page.

The beating heart of this book is food, and the remembered meals of Zauner’s childhood connect her to her Korean family, and her mother’s life. Learning to cook the food of her youth takes Zauner through grief and loss into a place that looks something like home.