Michelle Zauner’s Crying in H Mart is a poignant memoir, jam-packed with Korean culture and foods while detailing a strained relationship between a mother and daughter. 

Throughout the novel, she describes her experiences of grappling with the unspoken expectations of being Asian American, family fights, love, and grief. She focuses on the theme that food can tie a person to their sense of self and heritage. 

Although Zauner may be most well known for being the lead vocalist of her rock band Japanese Breakfast, she has a talent for creative writing. 

The book begins with Zauner experiencing an identity crisis within an H Mart. Losing her mother to cancer, she no longer feels tied to her Korean culture. As she recalls her childhood through flashbacks, she recounts how music was the only comfort through her adolescence, the activity that tore a deep fissure between Zauner and her mother. Eventually, her career in music pushed her to move from Oregon to Pennsylvania, where she lived as a starving artist and only drifted further from her family. Then, she receives the earth-shattering call that her mother only has a few months to live. Throughout this sequence of events, Zauner is unapologetically honest and creates a narrative that details raw grief. 

The focus of the book is on how Zauner comes to terms with being Asian American and mends her relationship with her mother. With vast descriptions and imagery, Crying in H Mart is a book tastefully laced with humor while still emotionally charged with regret and longing. I appreciate how the author does not hesitate to reveal the “ugly” sides of grief, such as Zauner’s feelings of jealousy towards caretakers who garnered her mother’s attention or the arguments she had with her father. 

Also, I enjoyed how the book was immersed in Asian culture, presenting how social norms can be wildly different among cultures. Zauner’s adventures through H Mart to find a tub filled with garlic or the perfectly ripened cabbage are enriched with Asian culture and reveal the unconventional ways her mother showed love. The memoir is tailored to Zauner’s experiences, and every page oozes with her emotions. 

Additionally, I love how the style of writing expresses her rebellious personality as it is extremely direct and gets to the point. Although her writing can be abrupt, it emphasizes the suddenness of her mother’s diagnosis and fits her memoir perfectly. 

However, the book could be confusing to read as the plot followed a nonlinear structure and would skip to different periods in her life. As a result, the chapters felt more like individual samples of writing rather than a complete book, and the plot felt disjointed at times. The time skips often disrupted built-up expectations from previous chapters, and the book would drag on since I had to adjust to a new time period in her life. Furthermore, the many members of Zauner’s family and her interconnected relationship with each of them were difficult to remember due to the nonlinear timeline of the book. 

Even so, I recommend this book for its rich culture, self-discovery, and its beautiful detailing of the unrestrained emotions of grief. Zauner’s memoir establishes how grief can tie a family closer.

Check out Crying in H Mart from NBPL!