(4 / 5) – Worth It!
Of the memoirs I consumed this month for AAPI Heritage Month, Michelle Zauner’s “Crying In H Mart” was the only one I didn’t listen to with the author’s voice reading. I read this book old school and in many ways I am glad though I wonder how my own reaction would have differed if I had listened to Zauner’s voice in telling her story.
“Crying in H Mart” is a raw and vulnerable look at a critically painful and evolutionary season in Zauner’s life. Ash she has come of age and set out into the world to “find herself” and live into her passions she is confronted with some hard realities of life, identity and our very mortality.
There is nothing easy or light about this story, but there is a great deal of humor, irreverence and unfiltered honesty. Zauner shares so much of her wrestling and reflection through the Korean food that keeps her grounded. Food is its own character in this memoir and one that parallels the coming of age, self discovery that Michelle undergoes.
Zauner allows the reader into some deep and revealing places not just for herself, but for those close to her and the heartache, struggles, tears and laughter that exists within a myriad of relationships. I am so glad to have read this memoir and been able to savor the beauty being formed out of a time of great struggle and uncertainty.
Happy Reading!
Hannah
