Crying in H Mart

Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner

Reviewed by Jess
📒📒📒📒📒

I always find it so hard to give a rating to a book that is a personal story, a part of someone’s life. People also worry about someone so young writing a true memoir before their time. With Crying in H Mart however I have no hesitation giving this book full marks, no complaints in any way, and I only wish I could give this even more.

Michelle Zauner writes what must be a universal story for third culture kids across the west, but as her Korean mother becomes sick beyond repair, the story turns into a powerful memoir of sacrifice, grief, loss and memory.

Do not read this at the wrong time of the month because you will SOB 😭 Her dad is a side character in their lives; this book is strictly about the mother-daughter bond. Despite their turbulent relationship, there’s clearly such a powerful link between them and you feel their guilt and remorse and pain through every sentence. Zauner’s mom is my mom, your mom, our mom, and with her writing she has fully and completely honoured her by showing her as a whole person, outside of motherhood and marriage, with feeling and skills and hobbies and so full of love in a unique way that only an immigrant mother knows how.

But that’s the positive to take from this, that even in death the person lives on through you, or as you. Through her grief, Zauner discovered passions she thought were dormant, a whole new career, and a relationship with her Korean family and culture that is so strong and fulfilling. Whilst so much of this memoir is so heavy and sad, the end is a positive crescendo and I finished her story feeling like I was right there with her in a place of peace. This was truly worth waiting to read.