Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner Book Review

 Crying in H Mart 

By Michelle Zauner 

Published Year : 2021 

Page Count : 237 pages

Medium Used: Paperback 

Genre: Memoir, Non fiction, Cancer, Nostalgia, Parent love. 

Rating : 3.5/5 ⭐⭐⭐

In her 25th year, Michelle loses her mother to Cancer. Her mother is a Korean and her father, American. She has lived most of her adult life in the States. As a child, she has always clung to her mother and was inseparable from her. Growing up, she could always feel the love emanating from her mother in the korean food she cooked and the immense care she took to feed her. Still their relationship is not without its rough patches as they differ over her career path, college education, her mother's over criticality and her own rebellious nature asserting itself. She walks away from her mother to pursue a career in a musical band. Little later, she learns of her mother's cancer diagnosis and comes back to her. She stays with her mother till her death nursing her and taking care of her. Cooking for her and feeding her whatever little she would ingest. After her death also, she is assailed with her mother's memories where ever she goes and whatever she does. Despite a successful career, she can't let go of the sadness and the sense of loss from her death.

My thoughts : 

I felt she focused a lot on the different and numerous items of Korean food than I could take. She has succeeded in immortalising her mother through this work. She made me care so much for her mother - reflecting her through every lens of her experiences - that I didn't care as much about Michelle herself after her mother's death. Yes, she is nostalgic with all the thoughts of her mother flooding through her but her endless references to food and cooking drove me away from feeling sad for her. Is food all she can talk about? 

This is the first instance of a person I came across who has refused to undergo treatment for cancer. I naturally wanted to know what would happen. I learnt a lot about how unbearable their lives get - cancer is a real devil! The numerous names of Korean food and their long recipes didn't lodge in my head. I tried to, at first, and then gave up, helpless. Its like i was letting go of a larger portion of the book because i couldn't follow it. I feel a Korean or someone with more knowledge on the cuisine would enjoy this book better. Being a vegetarian, I was also turned off that every single item of their recipes have some or the other  meat in it.