Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner

Wednesday, Apr. 19, 2023--San Antonio

Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner is the second memoir I have read in a row, and both have been by Korean-American authors.  I don't usually read memoirs, but the previous one won a National Book Award, and this one was named as a top book of 2022 by Time, NPR, and other national media.  It's a good book, but like with the previous memoir, it took me longer to read it than a novel would; I put it down often (after only a few pages) and was not so quick to pick it up again.  The author emphasizes the tension between her and her mother based on the wishes and expectations each had for the other--tension that drove them apart until the mother developed cancer at a relatively young age and the daughter, putting her attempt at a career in music on hold, moved back home to help nurse her mother though her treatments.  Torn between two cultures her whole life with the American one the dominant one, the author grows in appreciation for the Korean one and the experiences she remembered with her mother after the latter has died.  Her efforts of remembering and writing about her mother during the mourning process eventually leads to the success she had always desired as a musician.  I gave the book 4 stars out of 5.