Crying In H-Mart (5/5)

Crying in H-mart by Michelle Zauner describes her journey of learning to reconnect with her Asian roots as an Asian-American artist making music in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. This tear-jerking novel walks readers through the challenges that come with an ill and later deceased mother and the grief that is carried with her in her daily life. Zauner describes her relationship with her mother before growing up and attending college. Readers are provided with her young life as a child, where she tells her time in Korea where she never really felt like she belonged, however, she later learns the importance of how necessary it was to learn the valuable lessons that she learned to grow up to the person she is today eventually. As a half-Asian and half-white girl, she grew up in America thinking that she never looked the way that she was supposed to look. During summers and breaks, Zauner would often travel with her mother to her mom’s home country Korea. In Korea, she visits her aunties and uncles where she learns about her Asian culture and customs which she carries with her today. From learning how to hold chopsticks and how to eat her noodles to learning the importance of always supporting your family, she learns all of her traditions and cultural learnings while she is in Korea with her mother. Once she finally finds out that her mother is ill with cancer, her mother refrains from telling her to visit her as she believes that she will get better. Zauner's mother ends up dying from cancer, causing the author to succumb to the grief and depression that come with a dead mother. To cope with her grief, she visits a local grocery store chain called “H-mart.” H-Mart is a grocery store chain that specializes in Asian food, delicacies, and ingredients. In these stores, it is common to find a food court as you enter the market. The food courts like the store have many different options of Asian food spreading across the multiple countries of Asia. As she visits these locations, she eats at the food court, sobbing, as she identifies how the food she eats reminds her of going to Korea with her mother. I relate to this novel because I am Half Japanese and Half white, so this novel validates my feelings of alienation. I would recommend this book to a friend especially those who are half Asian and Half white, because this book makes one feel like their diary has turned into a novel.