Crying in H Mart, by Michelle Zauner, is a memoir detailing her life before and after her mother’s passing. The memoir delves into topics like culture, identity, grief, and complex family relationships. The title of the memoir Crying in H Mart connects to Zauner’s own heritage: she is half-white and half-Korean on her mother’s side. Throughout the memoir, Zauner explores life after the loss of her mother after her difficult battle with cancer and her loss of identity as well. She relates the death of her mother to potentially losing her connection to her Korean heritage. Zauner examines themes of identity through food, specifically Korean food, and how relearning new parts of her culture connects her to her late mother.
The memoir, while mostly focusing on Zauner’s relationship with her mother, also focuses on her personal life, especially her exploration and love of music. Michelle Zauner, the author of the memoir, is the lead vocalist of the band Japanese Breakfast. While the main theme of the novel is grief, Zauner makes sure to delve into her experience in the music industry, both in how she started and how she ended up with her career. This is not the primary focus of the memoir, but it adds an extra element of interest to her life.
This is a very emotional read, especially if you have gone through a similar experience in any capacity. Zauner does a great job of exploring her grief and detailing her journey to finding a connection to her late mother through their shared cultural cuisine. The relationship Zauner and her mother shared is a complex and intricate one, but it is clear to see that she loved her mother, and that she was using this memoir as a way to understand herself and her identity through her relationship with her family and her heritage.
I think this is a good book to read if you want to branch out into reading more memoirs. While it does not summarize the entirety of Zauner’s life, it delves into her relationship with her mother and the devastating loss and feelings of disorientation that she feels afterward. I will say this memoir differs from others that I have read in the sense that this memoir seems to be written more for Zauner herself that she decided to publish rather than a dedicated insight into grief. It reads like Zauner is using her writing as a way to accept this loss and find her way out of the daze of grief, which is not a bad thing. In fact, I think it is a successful approach in this case, as grief itself is not something that can be polished and perfected in every aspect. Loss is something that needs to be come to terms with, and in Zauner’s case, writing a memoir about her experience in the throes of grief and her attempt to reconnect to her mother is her way of coping. If you are a fan of audiobooks, I recommend listening to this as well. Zauner narrates her audiobook, allowing you to feel the genuine emotion she exuded while writing Crying in H Mart.
